In Geof Lilge’s world, everything always comes back to the kitchen.
In his new showroom at River City Tile Company in the industrial northwest of Edmonton, the award-winning designer displays projects in a model kitchen that looks straight out of an issue of Architectural Digest.
The abundant natural light from the south-facing windows dances across the many kitchen accessories designed by Lilge, including his iconic Hole Slab Long charcuterie board — a minimal oar-shaped plank with rounded edges and a distinctive circular hole at one end, inspired by German minimalist designer Dieter Rams — that mega retailer Williams Sonoma sold thousands of in the early 2010s. Adorning the wall behind some of these items are hexagonal cement tiles Lilge designed for Geon Tile.
The literal centrepiece — and Lilge’s primary focus these days — is the OnOurTable Cook Island, a fully bespoke, solid-wood kitchen island that launched last fall. A collaboration with Selenium Interiors — local cabinetmakers that, much like Lilge, concentrate on the culinary end of interior design — the Cook Island is described as a “totemic hub for daily living,” both a completely customizable kitchen solution and a piece of art in and of itself.
“When Selenium built the prototype, we had it in their showroom,” says Lilge. “But then they had to leave for the conversion of the Yellowhead Trail, so we needed a new space for it. I’ve known Aaron [Brown, of River City Tile and Geon Tile] for years, so he gave me this space, which does a nice job of highlighting the tiles we made together.”
Having a physical space dedicated to the Cook Island and his other kitchen-related products has been the last piece of the puzzle.
“Part of the whole OnOurTable vision is entertaining and sharing food and drinks with other people,” explains Lilge. “Simply sitting around and enjoying the same space as friends and family, that’s what it’s all about. Being able to have a space where people can come and get a sense of that is the best way for them to see how these products can help fit into their lives.”
Lilge has already had a long and successful career in design. In the ‘90s, he was one of the founders of Pure Design, an Edmonton-based design company that burned bright even if it didn’t burn for long. At its zenith, the firm had a staff of 35, shipping over $2 million annually of its products across the globe.
A few years after Pure Design won the Editors Award for Furniture at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in 2001, Lilge left the company, eventually returning to grad school and becoming a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta’s design faculty, where he taught until 2010.
In 2017, Lilge started Division 12, named after the Construction Specifications Institute’s category for interior furniture. Intended as a creative hub for Canadian design talent, the brand specializes in seating for the hospitality industry and features pieces fashioned largely through a combination of tube steel and wood. Division 12 was eventually acquired by Toronto furniture manufacturer Keilhauer in 2020, and Lilge remained its creative director until last year.
OnOurTable, the brand of which the Cook Island is part, was established in 2009 by Lilge and his wife Cindy Lazarenko, a renowned chef who operated the Culina Highlands/Highlands Kitchen restaurants for five years, which featured many of Lilge’s pieces. On Our Table was where his famous charcuterie board was first conceived and produced, among numerous other kitchen accessories that ended up in restaurants across North America. The brand, which Lilge has returned to the helm of after some time away, includes some of the stools and chairs that were launched as a part of Division 12, which continue to be ordered by restaurants near and far.
It’s this overlap between art and commerce that keeps Lilge, now in his 50s, inspired.
“I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” he laughs. “And I love working with other people. I love collaboration, that’s the best part of the whole process. That’s what keeps me going.”
An upcoming project combines Lilge’s love of design with his educator past: a YouTube channel that will offer a glimpse into his creative process and the design world at large.
“l just love talking about the design process and the entrepreneurial aspect of being a designer and starting a manufacturing company,” says Lilge. “There are a lot of mistakes and strategic decisions over the years that I’ve made that I feel people can learn from.”
While Lilge works on scripts and records videos for this channel, there are other kitchen products that’s he’s yet to tackle that have recently occupied his brain — lighting among them — perhaps to hang over the Cook Island.
He likes to joke that over his career he’s tried his hand at designing almost everything in the kitchen “but the sink itself — nobody makes kitchen sinks in Edmonton. But if I can find someone to work with, you never know.”
This article appears in the September 2024 issue of Edify
