Vancouver: The Beautiful Mind of Heather Ross

Last week in Vancouver, I discovered a beautiful shop, called "Heather Ross [in house]". I think it is the loveliest, most serene, and inspiring shop I have visited in a very long time. Entering the shop was like waking up inside in a lovely, watery dream...

Heather is an artist in every sense of the word. Not only is she a trained textile artist, but she is also an accomplished photographer and painter. Every painting in her shop is her own exquisite creation.

Heather has a stylist's eye for composition (and has worked as a stylist and photographer-writer for magazines). The vignettes in her shop, created with her mostly-antique finds, are works of art on their own. I coveted everything I saw, but each object on its own seemed lost without the beautiful others (it almost seemed a shame to break up the compositions...)

The shop itself is a crisp white canvas, flooded with natural light, making the most of her rare and elegant finds, neatly composed in a restrained palette of whites and pastels, or rich earthen hues.

This little swan came home with me

The shop truly has the feeling of an underwater garden, inspired no doubt by Heather's upbringing on the coast and her love for all things natural, all things organic.

Heather's photography, displayed amongst her many interesting finds

This is the thinking decorator's dream shop. I could not extricate myself from its intelligent, captivating spell, and spent well over an hour talking to Heather about her art, her refined taste, and her serious accomplishment as a self-sustaining artist and business woman.

She also quietly mentioned an impending book project, which sent my heart aflutter...a book capturing all this beauty? I cannot wait! I will tell you about it as soon as I know more.

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Heather's shop is both historical and fresh, rich with the patina of well-loved things, but also delightfully new in its juxtaposition of different eras and styles...pottery with silver, rustic with refined.

I noted her wonderful stylist's trick of grouping like objects with like, and using colour groupings, which gives her arrangements such gravity and presence.

I imagine she spends hours curating her shop, quietly moving things around to suit her exacting eye.

Everything seems to have a story to tell...

And if the things themselves aren't lovely enough, her paintings created a quiet perfect backdrop. I think her paintings could become an addiction all of their own...

I wish you could all visit Heather, who is such a beautiful person to match her beautiful mind!

She seems like a very old soul to me, someone who has cultivated beauty a long, long time...

(maybe even in lifetimes before the rest of us).

Next time you are in Vancouver, please visit Heather and say hello for me!

She is as captivating as her creations, so hopefully she will be "in house", perhaps painting in her atelier out back, when you pop in.

Heather Ross [in house]

1525 W. 6th Avenue

Vancouver

(just off Granville)

www.heatherrossinhouse.com