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An Afternoon With Designer Jamie Banfield

When I meet Jamie Banfield on a rainy Tuesday at The Parkside Brewery in Port Moody, he greets me with a warm smile—and proceeds to buy us craft beer and snacks (pepperoni sticks, a cheese croissant) which we share as he tells me about his interior d

When I meet Jamie Banfield on a rainy Tuesday at The Parkside Brewery in Port Moody, he greets me with a warm smile—and proceeds to buy us craft beer and snacks (pepperoni sticks, a cheese croissant) which we share as he tells me about his interior design ventures.

The 32-year-old owner of his self-named design firm chose this as our meeting place for a reason. Not only is the hip, dog-friendly brewery adjacent to his new studio space where he and five employees develop ideas for their home redesign projects, it’s also a symbol of the design ethos the move to burgeoning Port Moody (from Richmond) has inspired: “I do have a common thread that runs through a lot of our work and that’s contrast and texture. Being out here, the inlet, the rust, the sawmill, and all these different tactiles, as well as the (strong sense of community) and natural surroundings, (influence our design).”

Jamie Banfield

Originally from the U.K., Jamie showed interest in design and architecture from an early age (“In grade nine I sketched up a house which eventually ended up being built in Mission,” he tells me), but it took a marketing stint in Australia and a gig at the Home Depot in Vancouver to lead him back to interiors. In 2013, he established Jamie Banfield Design—and hasn’t looked back since.

With a portfolio that includes residential projects in West Vancouver, Anmore and Belcarra (including Love It or List It star Todd Talbot’s Lion’s Bay home), a cabinetry line called The Banfield in partnership with Kohler, and 13,000-plus Instagram followers, Jamie is quickly establishing himself as one of the Lower Mainland’s most sought-after designers.

The Kohler partnership, which is going to be expanding with more product lines in the future is a natural fit for Jamie, and not only because one of his favourite spaces to redesign is the bathroom. “Kohler’s values align with (my company’s) four principles to live, laugh, learn and lead,” he explains. While Kohler has made an ambitious goal to reduce their global environmental footprint to Net Zero by 2035, Jamie Banfield Design is also committed to sustainability in the materials they chose to work with.

Jamie Banfield
Jamie designed Love It Or List Is star Todd Talbot's bathroom in his Lions Bay home.

Over the years, Jamie has learned his share of renovation lessons, especially as they relate to bathrooms. Along with disconnecting from emotion to ensure you meet your budget and time targets, he advises clients not to be scared about injecting some personality into the bathroom: “You can put a big piece of art in there,” he says.