Talk Shop: Rebekah Zaveloff // Imparfait Design Studio
ABOUT REBEKAH
After studying the fine arts, Rebekah Zaveloff started her career in the hospitality business where she learned how important good service and environment are. She would look to the subtleties that make an experience memorable, like lighting, music, or the way a door opens to greet guests. She then worked in set design in the film industry before transitioning to the design industry. With her partner and husband, Rebekah co-founded KitchenLab the same year they married. Rebekah spent the last 20 years building KitchenLab before expanding the business to include Imparfait Design Studio, which offers interior architecture and design. She still refers to the fine art principles of scale, texture, pattern, composition, and contrast while creating environments where people want to stay and linger, just like a great restaurant. We learned so much from Rebekah, and hope you do too as you read this #talkshop!
Photo by: Michael Kaskel
Describe your style in three words or less:
Character-driven, vintage, modern.
What have been the three biggest influences on your aesthetic in your life:
Working in hospitality and the restaurant business gave me a deep appreciation for mood and ambiance – from romantic lighting and music to the energy of the people in a room. For me, how a space feels is more important than how it looks. I like to experience spaces, not just look at them in photos, and want to bring that feeling to our projects.
My fine art education has been something that I take for granted. I studied art from a very early age and my gut instincts and confidence probably come from that education. Scale, texture, form, contrast, hue, and juxtaposition are instinctual for me. I started in sculpture, moved to painting, dabbled in photography and film, and ended with collage. In every medium I worked in, I mixed materials but my true happy place was collage and assemblage with found images or objects. I like things that are asymmetrical and have visual tension – hence why I didn’t pursue architecture. I love obsessing over the details of why something speaks to me – a scene in a film, a painting, a room.
Traveling in France like a local for 10 years. For a decade, we stayed in the same area every year with my husband’s family but not always the same rental. Every day we would go to the market, cook, read, take long walks, and take some day trips to pretty villages. We would also drive from Cote d'Azur to southwestern France to visit old friends following Christmas and spend a week with them and their families. Just being around gravel patios, stone farmhouses, markets with gorgeous produce and endless amounts of patina and character was such an inspiration. I also love the French sense of style when it comes to mixing modern and vintage, old and new. They’re very irreverent but if you ask them about it, they’ll say they have no idea what you’re talking about. For a culture with rules about how you cut certain types of cheese, they can be very flip about other things. I love that contradiction.
Photo by James Furman
How did you start your company, and/or what is your favorite thing about what you do:
My husband, Nick, is the one who convinced me to go out on my own after working for a kitchen design firm. I always thought of myself as a valuable employee to the right employer who got me. I’m a ridiculously hard worker, so I figured I’d do well moving up someone else’s ladder. But the businesses I encountered were so dysfunctional—there was a lack of support, systems, and clarity of purpose, and mostly they looked at employees as transactional relationships. I started to realize I wanted to do something more, so I took the plunge in 2003. For the first 10 years, I resisted having employees. I wanted to be a designer, not a manager, and we all know running a business is managing people more than anything. Again, Nick was the one who convinced me that if I wanted more freedom, I needed to get everything out of my brain and into systems that were replicable and scalable. Our first whole-home remodel and interior design project was completed in 2006. We spent the next 8 years trying to convince people that KitchenLab Interiors did more than just kitchens. Finally, last year, in anticipation of our 20th anniversary, we almost made the mistake of rebranding entirely but decided to keep KitchenLab as a stand-alone company separate from our interior design studio, Imparfait Design.
As for my favorite thing about what I do, I LOVE space planning – it’s about problem-solving and really thinking about how a client and their family and friends will use a space. The collage artist in me likes to work with existing spaces, rearranging them and making them better.
Photo by Michael Kaskel
Do you have a mentor in your career, and if so, how have they helped to shape your trajectory:
I wish! It would have saved me a lot of heartache and money. I would credit my parents with two sayings I live by. My mom would quote Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” That sentiment is by far my north star in all things. And my dad would say: “There will always be someone better than you (fill in the blank – better, prettier, smarter, etc.). I’m sure this is partially responsible for my drive and (recovering) perfectionism.
What does your home say about you:
I would like to think it tells friends and family who come over: “Welcome, make yourself at home!” and “I want to show you how much I care about you by making your evening or visit memorable.” We love to entertain and bring people joy. My husband, Nick, is an amazing cook and has assembled an incredible wine collection. He was also in the hospitality business and we have this deep-rooted value in both of us. I love when I see a guest wander off into our garden or go lay in the hammock. That means I’ve done my job.
Where do you find inspiration:
Boutique hotels and vacation rentals, usually outside of the U.S. because I need something outside my everyday comfort zone to feel inspired. It’s about the experience of walking into a home through a courtyard, or the smell and sounds at a hotel.
Photo by Michael Kaskel
Who are your style icons:
Oy, this is a hard question for me! Here comes the barrage of answers from the collage artist in me. The first thing that came to mind were characters in movies I watched in junior high and high school: Isabel Adjani as Camille Claudel, Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon, Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story. Then my brain jumped to 70’s bohemian glam and anyone in a caftan, usually in a British murder mystery set in the south of France. Then I dug deeper and was thinking about the artist Eva Hesse – I read a biography on her when I was in art school at UCLA and it affected me deeply, as does her art. Sure, there are a few men in there, like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, but I clearly prefer strong women who hold their own.
What are your key ingredients for entertaining:
Good music, dim/moody lighting, good wine that never runs out, yummy bites, intoxicating smells, and entertaining alfresco if possible. No matter where someone sits, there should be a place to put down a drink. And of course, a good guest list is preferable.
Do you collect anything:
Vintage art; vintage chairs (seriously, I have a problem…I get why they called the company Chairish); vintage table lamps (I love a tiny crystal lamp with a black shade); cloth napkins and tea towels.
Favorite Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration:
Christiane Lemieux is killing it these days. Every image that pops up I hit save. The lighting and photography is gorgeous too. I also love Collector Walls (I’m not even sure how I found this account but their images of vintage spaces showcasing incredible art are drool-worthy), McAPLINE, and DreamyResorts.
Photo by Michael Kaskel
What design “rule” do you always follow, and which is made to be broken:
Real is always better than fake – real stone, real linen, real wood…materials with real character. Symmetry is NOT always the right choice.
What are you working on right now:
A 5,000 square-foot addition/guest house for a home we designed pre-COVID on the bay in Miami that includes a wellness spa renovation to the existing home. We’re also working on a new-build home for a retired couple and their extended family in New Buffalo, Michigan.
Wardrobe staples:
Linen caftans, linen tunics, comfy jeans, black cashmere cowl neck and v-neck sweaters, and Paul Green sandals and boots.
Favorite fabric/wallpaper:
I adore Peter Dunham fabrics and wallpapers. I’m also a big fan of Libeco linen, McLaurin & Piercy’s wallpaper, and Serena Dugan textiles and wallpaper.
Photo by Michael Kaskel
Best interior advice you ever received:
“Save it for the next project.” (In reference to a new direction or idea mid-project.)
Best career advice you ever received:
“Have a 3-legged stool for revenue sources.”
Types of home purchases you invest in, and save on:
Vintage rugs, art, and a high-quality sofa for the room you spend the most amount of time in (I’d spend it on the family room sofa instead of the living room sofa if you have to choose).
Your greatest extravagance:
Getting a massage once a week, and really good wine that my husband bought many years ago that we now get to enjoy.
Favorite places to shop for home:
Vintage stores, Etsy, 1stDibs, Chairish, and local boutiques in Harbor Country, Michigan.
Most prized possession and why:
A small black ceramic dish with abstract scratches in the glaze. I have no idea where I bought it – it was at least 20 years ago – and I haven’t been able to determine the artist but every time I look at it, it makes me happy. We also have a pair of Adrian Persall sofas I bought off a movie set 25 years ago and we’ve reupholstered 4 times.
Your interiors motto:
“Elegance is not about being noticed, it’s about being remembered.” – Giorgio Armani
Your life motto:
I’d rather be 10 lbs overweight than vain and no fun. And of course, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” – Oscar Wilde.
Advice for someone looking to define their own interior style:
Trust your gut and your point of view. Taste and style are as unique as fingerprints if you really drill down into what speaks to you and moves you. Don’t let the noise of social media and other people’s work or opinions influence you. Take cues from history and historical details – they did it better back then when everyone wasn’t so obsessed with profit. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
Take Ten: My Favorite…
Food: Uni and Oysters. And a good smashburger. I’m very high-low.
Drink: Wine
Film: This is impossible to answer (I studied film!) but a few favorites are Mulholland Drive, Gothic, Amelie, and The Maltese Falcon.
Hotel: SoHo House
City: London
Bedding: Matouk Percale sheets, John Robshaw Pick-stitch quilt, Libeco linen throws, and Euroshams
Tea or Coffee (and how do you take it): I don’t drink either anymore! But when I did, English Breakfast tea with sweetener, no milk, no lemon.
Playlist: The Strokes or Art Tatum, depending on my mood.
Weekend Activity: Paddleboarding on Lake Michigan and hanging out on our boat with friends.
Design Book: Billy Baldwin Decorates