VANMAG.COM MAY 2017 95IN A TIME of open-concept everything, local
PR maven Shannon Heth is thankful for the
cozy corners found throughout her family’s
updated heritage house in East Vancouver.
“There are all these little areas of refuge,”
says the Milk Creative Communications
founder, who shares this suburban-like slice
of Hastings–Sunrise with her husband, artist
George Vergette, and their two boys, Mauritz
and Xavier.
From the second-storey balcony off their
bedroom (“I have my morning coffee up here on
weekends”) to the T V room they t uck into behind
sliding doors, to the kitchen’s cushioned reading
nook (decorated with hand-embroidered pillows
procured on a recent trip to Sardinia), there’s
ample opportunity for private(ish) moments
within the bright and open reno. “I think when
you live in a smaller space, it’s important to have
those site-specific areas where you can kind of
get away, even if there’s not a lot of space to be
totally hidden,” she says with a smile, as the little
ones are never too far away.
An eclectic art collection covers all free walls,
comprising Vergette’s own work and pieces from
a network of local artists (Evan Lee’s Lighted
Bush hangs over the fireplace, a Peter Schuyff
painting punches up the living room), but there
are touches of the family’s creative pedigree
every where. An inherited coffee table lives
on, re-topped in white marble; a black metal
Michael Steiner sculpture near the entryway
was a childhood gift from Heth’s parents; a great
horned owl represents Grandpa Vergette’s early
experiments in taxidermy at age 13. “He was
playing around with teaching himself taxidermy
and so he stuffed the owl and put in the eyes and
the whole thing and it’s been in the family ever
since,” she laughs. “Boys, right? This is what I
have to look forward to.”ALL IN THE FAMILY
In Shannon Heth’s East Van heritage home, every piece tells a story.
BY Julia Dilworth
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Ema Peter