Amanda Hamilton
Born into a family of educators, including a 78-year-old grandmother still working as a school principal, Amanda Hamilton jokes she and an uncle are the “black sheep entrepreneurs” of the family.
But in her own way, the 35-yearold, award-winning interior designer and owner of Amanda Hamilton Design has followed her family’s path with her dedication to mentoring and public education.
While running her successful commercial, hospitality and residential design company since 2009, last year Hamilton took over a loft space in The Guardian, hosting events and a lifestyle accessories store.
In February, her popular Design Nights (topics range from Workspace Evolution to New Feminism) go on the road, and she will launch an online design site in the spring.
Her success dates back to her somewhat non-traditional Edmonton childhood (teenage mom, grandparents and mom’s siblings) when she developed resiliency, tenacity and “hyper-independence.”
Despite family educators “all the way to third cousins, the last thing I wanted to be was a teacher.”
Instead, Hamilton loved drawing, writing, reading and playing music, while making grandfather “go to Home Depot a million times to buy paint to change the colour of my bedroom,” while helping him lay hardwood and build decks.
She graduated from Mount Royal’s interior design course, joined a top Calgary firm and three years later opened her own shop.
“I joke to some extent that I am not employable. I was raised to be independent, so my own company is about making my own decisions, controlling my own future.”
It has worked. With 250 company clients across Western Canada and 25 active projects at any one time, this year she was honoured with an international Stevie Women Entrepreneur of Canada award.
But the apple doesn’t fall far from the family tree: Hamilton has mentored young women her entire career, including Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta and MRU’s mentorship program.
“I tell them to chose their career, not on what their parents say, but on what inspires them.”