A Cochrane home designer’s nomination for an international award was at least 20 years in the making, though Rochelle Zemlak, the owner of Rochelle Lynne Design and Renovation, might tell you she’d never considered it before. Back in the 1990s, a 20-something-year-old design school graduate found herself helping builders in the construction industry in Red Deer, assisting with design and decor of new home interiors, but mostly it was as a favour to her colleagues. It wasn’t until someone recommended she start her own business in home design that she considered forming her own firm. It would be several years before she would finally make that leap “By the time we had our second child, I was ready. I had done my research, I had educated myself,” Zemlak said, adding that she would buy books from Mount Royal University (college at the time) in place of attending another design program. By 1998 she was up and running, working from her home, and very busy. “Then we had a surprise third baby,” Zemlak said. She took exactly four weeks off, two weeks before the birth and two weeks after. The family moved from Red Deer to Cochrane by 2002 and the business expanded. By 2005, her husband became her business partner. The firm moved away from new home construction and now focuses primarily on renovations, additions, and exteriors. Zemlak has had the opportunity to work on several estate homes, providing the owners with unique luxury interior designing, which partially was influenced from her childhood, growing up on the west coast of Canada within a family partial to the outdoors. "Sunday afternoons with the family was traipsing through the woods looking for interesting trails or chopping firewood for our wood burning furnace or going water skiing on the lake in the summer or fishing in the ocean," she said "I grew up where nature was my backyard and nature was also lifestyle, it was a part of life, not just something to surround yourself with – it was surrounding me already. " Her taste, she said, is influenced by Western Canada’s natural landscape in some aspects. “We don't have hundreds and hundreds of years of history," Zemlak explained, whereas European designers have centuries of architecture to draw on. "It's a combination of Alberta, but also my background, my history." A few years ago, a homeowner couple looking to renovate an estate home enlisted Rochelle Lynne Designs. “That project was a big one for us,” Zemlak said. “The clients were amazing in that they very quickly tested us ... our ability to go beyond the average thought to help them achieve their goals in their project. The home was the largest scope project Zemlak had ever worked on and in the end, became one of the projects they were shortlisted for on The International Design & Architecture Awards, hosted by design et al, a leading UK interior design magazine. Donna and Murray Korth, the homeowners, said Zemlak followed through on their vision for the project, which spanned about two years while infusing her own creativity. “We’re extremely proud of the job she did throughout the house. You really have to see the complete home to understand just what an incredible job she did. She really did put her heart and soul into it,” Murray said. “I think it’s awesome that a part of it is up for an award.” Zemlak and her husband will be attending The International Design & Architecture Awards Ceremony 2018, a black-tie event, at the end of September in London, England.
