In Conversation with Patricia Gray

Patricia Gray

Patricia Gray is an award winning, highly recognized interior designer from Vancouver, Canada, who finds time in her busy schedule to update her interior design blog almost daily! and I know how hard this is. Her blog features her inspiration, including other designers and architects that she admires not to mention sneak peeks of her stunning work. She has been published in Architectural Digest, House and Home, Style at Home, Western Living along with other notable magazines.

Iván Meade - What was your first experience with design?

Patricia Gray - When I was 5 years old I remember rearranging the furniture in the Living Room.

Laurel Residence

Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – A client of mine sent me a link of your blog a couple of days after I launched my own blog last November – I have to say that I still have a lot to learn . What does it mean for you to blog your ideas in design, your travel experiences and basically open your personal life to the web?

Patricia – I started Blogging basically as a personal journal to record and catalog my inspirations. I thought it would be a good forum to express myself outside of my professional practice as an Interior Designer. It has now taken on a life of its own.

Iván - What has been the best experience of being a design blogger?

Patricia – The other bloggers I have met all over the world. It is quite a network. I have made friends in Morocco, Houston, New York. My readers are from all over the world and are very sophisticated and savvy. They keep me on my toes.

Sketch by Patricia Gray

Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – Your interiors definitely celebrate restraint and order. To what/whom do you owe this influence?

Patricia – My Professor, when I was a student in Design School, Terry Kutcher inspired in me a love for design. He was meticulous in criticizing all my designs and floor plans. I learn to edit, to be selective, and to create rooms that had a focal point and were unique.

I was also very influenced in my formative years of study by the fabulous Michael Taylor, who was at the time creating designs that were new and innovative and were totally suited to the times.

Gastown Project
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – There is an European influence in your timeless interiors, they are not just beautiful and contemporary, but they are also very livable. How do you archive that?

Patricia – Part of the European influence I think comes from the time I spent studying Interior Design in Paris. It is very important for me to create spaces that are comfortable, functional, and beautiful. I make sure that when you enter a room you feel comfortable, when you sit down you have an experience with the space you are in and that you have beautiful things to feast your eyes on.

Editing is an important part of the process for me, because if you have too many things in a room, you don’t appreciate any one thing in particular. Also important in editing is the details. They have to be executed to perfection.

Gastown Project
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván - It’s the big installation day. What could have gone wrong did go wrong. How does Patricia Gray deal with that?

Patricia - You deal with one thing at a time. It is also important to work with a good team that are each experts in their field.

Gastown Project
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – The popularity of the design shows on TV has brought interior design into homes all across our country. If you had a show, how would you educate the viewers about interior design?

Patricia - That’s a big question. Design is a process and involves many steps to get to the end. I think that a lot of the detail of this process is left out in the current shows. In a 30 minute show a home is completely finished. I think it would be educational to follow a project week by week to completion.

Laurel Residence
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – A decor fad you hope never to see again?

Patricia – Well, I hoped that I would not see a revival of the 80’s, but it is upon us now. I am now really starting to appreciate it again in a fresh new way. For example the resurgence we are seeing in the use of wallpaper. I still have clients that cringe when I say the word wallpaper because they lived through it and the horrors of having to remove it from walls that were not properly prepared for it.

We go through phases in design and I think we become saturated, so we change and move on, then a new generation comes along and loves the things of the past and breathes a new life into it.

South Granville Project
Project Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván – You recently returned from a design course in Italy, what was that experience like and what is next on your design journey ?

Patricia – I spent a month in Italy studying Contemporary Italian Architecture. It was an amazing experience. I lived in a dorm and rode a bicycle to classes in the most Beautiful Medieval walled city. The Italians have an appreciation for Design that is in their blood. It permeates everything in their lives. For my next experience I want to spend some time in Belgium. Some of the top design in the world right now is coming from this country.

Laurel Residence
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván - Any words of wisdom?

Patricia – Take your time to make purchase decisions for your home. Buy fewer thing of better quality. Have only things around you that you love!!

Yaletown Project
Photograph courtesy of Patricia Gray

Iván - Lastly, you have already created a stunning body of work with many mediums and styles, what would you like your legacy to be?

Patricia – That I created spaces that were memorable, stimulating to be in, and stand the test of time.

To see more work of Patricia Gray please visit:

www.patriciagrayinc.com
www.patriciagrayinc.blogspot.com

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