Personal Space: Meg and Steve Hübert Hand-Painted the Tiles in Their Kitchen

“Maybe it would be easiest if you just showed me what you didn’t make?” I suggest to prolific ceramicist Meg Hübert. I’m standing in the Champlain Heights kitchen she and husband Steve Hübert renovated three years ago, and at every turn we encounter another quirky handmade piece: chunky, whimsical mugs; a checker-patterned egg holder; a playfully wobbly ceramic lampshade.

But upon further inspection and discussion, treasures with other origin stories reveal themselves. We’re sipping coffee, for instance, from mugs made by other B.C. ceramics artists (Julie Mackinnon, Kristie Forwick and Daisy Brown). On the wall hangs a retro plastic milk bag, sent to the couple by Steve’s parents. A few inches beside that, a painting from friend Hue Nguyen is displayed above a table Steve crafted, combining the top of their old dining room table with a DIY reeded base.

The couple describes the space as a mix of “Memphis design, Palm Springs, a bit of Deco and just lots and lots of colour.” This creative aesthetic is appropriate, given that Meg and Steve are both working artists and instructors. (Their two kids, Fred, 16, and Bernice, 12, are both creative types too—they even contributed a few of the ceramic critters that sit on shelves Steve installed in an awkward corner.) Anything they haven’t made themselves has been acquired through barters with friends or through scavenging Facebook Marketplace. Even the Ikea cabinets have been customized, given a coat of Benjamin Moore Springvalley green. (“We tried probably 35 different shades,” says Steve. “And then we realized we’d accidentally picked the same colour as our toaster.”)

To be totally honest: it’s hard for me to pay attention, no matter how charming and interesting the Hüberts are, because the 180 custom tiles the family has installed as a backsplash and border in the room are so compelling. Is that a banana? Whose face is that? “We knew we wanted to do a tiled backsplash, and we mapped it out with cardboard, and then we bought a bunch of tiles and just… got to work,” says Meg. “We started and just saw what happened.” The result is the perfect personal finishing touch for a perfectly personal space—built piece by piece.

READ MORE: At Home with Alex Rhek Usow, Hana Pesut and Their Bootleg Bart Simpson Ceramic Figurines

Inside the Home of Artists Meg and Steve Hübert

DIY Drama

The couple did the kitchen renovation themselves, including pouring the concrete countertop. “It was a super stressful experience because we started mixing the concrete and had two drills burn out, so Steve had to run to Home Depot to get a new one as the concrete we’d already half-poured was drying,” Meg recalls.

Hood Life

Steve cut up a regular hood vent and bent plywood around it to create a unique shape. “It’s my favourite detail of the room,” he says. Original Memphis Group mugs sit on a shelf above it.

READ MORE: Inside the Kitsilano Home of Pyrrha Founders Danielle and Wade Papin

Make a Splash

They bought blank tiles at the pottery supply store and just started painting. “We ended up with 180,” says Meg. The designs are a mix of “weird faces” and checker patterns, vignettes and experimental glaze treatments. “Our kids did a few too,” she says, pointing to one that says “NO” and another that looks suspiciously like some Nintendo copyright infringement. A black-and-white border of smaller tiles from Startile on Hastings contains the chaos.

Go On, Get Happy

Meg found the first happy face trivet at a thrift store, and asked her aunt to crochet her two more for Christmas. They hang on the wall alongside ceramic faces she designed for an art show, and a clock that she also made herself.

READ MORE: Inside the Playful West End Apartment of Dilly Dally’s Owners

Home Gallery

Meg designed most of the mugs on display, as well as the fruit bowl, the cat dishes, the soap dish and much more. “I have a bad habit, when I’m shopping for things for the house, of always thinking, ‘I could probably make that myself,’” laughs Meg.

Signing Bonus

The dining room table has become a guest book: visitors leave a little doodle on its surface. On the wall hangs more art from friends like Ben Reeves, Sean Christensen, Patrick Cruz and Johan Björck.

Work It

Steve learned the basics of woodworking in art school: life skills that came in handy for the renovation. “They want you to figure out how to get and make the things you want without having to spend money,” he says. He built the bench for their kitchen table out of leftover cedar siding from a friend’s house, and put together a kitchen island from their old dining tabletop, an Ikea cabinet and semi-round dowels.