Interior design & decoration using an artist's sensibility

"Visual Art and the sensibility developed through it guide my design vision and decision making." Last

photo by Vince Talotta,Toronto Star

"In her distinctive approach, every item in a room is considered a work of art, each object telling its own story. In Last's philosophy, art functions the way it did in the Renaissance, when pieces reflected the owner, often stimulating conversation about politics, religion and history. Last creates entire interior spaces and customizes them toreflect her clients' interests and personalities. She doesn't pay attention to the rules of displaying art, using colour freely and combining shades that aren't often perceived as complementary." EMILY HAMILTON, The Toronto Star

"...artist and designer Rebecca Last provides a unique service that envisions rooms as complete works of art, including custom wall paint colours, furnishings of her own design and commissions for original paintings.""

"Artist, designer and art instructor Rebecca Last approaches her decorating commissions with the eye of a painter and world traveller. The richly detailed interiors of Italy and France - Tuscany, Florence, Venice, Pompeii and Provence - inform her work, along with the many other cities in which she's lived and worked ..." Style at Home, by Martha Uniacke Breene, May 2002

Design, colour consultation, custom designed cabinetry for Antique Dealer Jill Kantelberg

Kitchen Cabinetry Design, custom finish & installation, The custom kitchen cabinetry and island was purposely designed and then meticulously aged and hand painted to look like it was hundreds of years old. The design concept for the cabinets involved carrying through the architectural elements of the French inspired country home and its collection of European antique furnishings.

Informed by art and architectural history as well as contemporary art and design I relate to the spaces I work on as three dimensional design projects instilled with a love of painting. I do this by working with my clients to create and place one of a kind, often painted, furnishings and objects in a harmonious and elegant manner to create culturally informed interiors.

Custom Colours by Rebecca Last , Custom colours are one feature Last uses in the custom design of rooms.

Although there are thousands of commerically available paint colours on the market these do still only address very specific ranges of colour. Defining an interior with a particular colour is critical to its success and I find it extremely worthwhile to work often with my own custom colours. To get the exact colour I want for a client's space often means designing the colour - which lends to a uniqueness and perfects combination of colours one strives for in a room or series of rooms.

For clients I often design custom wall colours. For Ontario Paint & Wallpaper, Toronto, I designed a line of custom colours for their clients.

8 custom coordinating colours for the home "the specialty at OP & W remains paint, and if you're looking for something a tad more Euro than what the big box stores have to offer, check out the Artist's Palette by Rebecca Last, a line of eight coordinating colours. Exclusive to Ontario Paint, the colours are reminiscent of European ancestral elegance, so don't be surprised to find names like canal blue, Rubens red and Tuscan ochre. Oversized swatches (8 1/2 x 11) can be taken home (leave a deposit) to get an idea how the colours will work in their environment." Toronto Life HOME GUIDE

"Studying and living in Italy convinced Last that there is a spiritual connection between our surroundings and our sense of well-being."

The most appropriate way to describe Last's approach to style is pragmatic eccentricity: "A space should be functional but not look it...Aesthetics first," she says. "There's so much pleasure to be had in the visual." Angela Pirisi, Toronto Life Magazine

Finessing the Deck, Angela Pirisi, Chatelaine, Special Decorative Editions, GARDENS!

Her work has been featured in publications including Southern Living, USA, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Canadian House and Home, Toronto Life, Style at Home Magazine and often appears on HGTV & LifeNetWork. Several of the works shown in a recent solo exhibition at the First Canadian Place Gallery entitled From Venice to Pompeii; journey to the red room were painted during an Artist Residency last year in Georgia, USA.

With a Masters Degree in Art History from University of Toronto, specializing in the art & architectural history of the Modern and Renaissance periods and an Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University, Last did undergraduate study and Graduate research in Tuscany. Last was sent by the Ministry of Culture to mainland China as Artist in Residence at Nanking Normal University. Last has taught studio and academic courses at Sheridan College School of Art and Design since the 1980s.

Artwork covers the walls of the entire dining room in Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Lipman's home. Forest Hill, Toronto

"The walls change with every difference in light," Sharon Lipman says."I asked Rebecca to do something amazing and that's exactly what she did. The room is very elegant and sophisticated, but very warm." Toronto Star, December, 1998