When you walk onto Saint-Joseph street in Quebec City’s Saint-Roch neighbourhood, the look is clean, spacious and chic. The feel is diverse and pedestrian-friendly, complete with the modern equivalent of concrete cobblestone and shops with large, welcoming windows. Artemano is at the very end of the street. When you walk in, there’s an immediate draw to the varied organic textures and the wood pieces displayed, making for a warm atmosphere. In this, the second instalment of Artemano love stories, Jacky and Dominique share how their love of Artemano made them completely recreate the inner world of their home.
Jacky and his girlfriend Dominique came across Artemano synchronistically in 2013 when they decided, over a coffee, to walk all the way down Saint-Joseph Street as an adventure. At the time, Saint-Roch had yet to become the fashionable shopping hub it is today. According to Jacky Simard, Artemano’s current store manager in Quebec City, it simply wasn’t the best place to walk or linger. Indeed, the neighbourhood had mostly been devoted to industry, despite its prominent Saint-Roch church and history as a bustling street for commerce. It had yet to experience its renewal through investments from the city. But, as Jacky says, their walks were never by chance back then.
When they arrived at the end of the street, Artemano was having a warehouse sale and they were drawn in: “It was madness.” They fell in love, a coup de coeur, with the richness of the wood, the calm, and the sounds of flowing water. The whole ambiance gave them the experience of being in a sanctuary. They both speak about how their senses were awakened that day in the shop. They stayed for three hours, leaving late, under a cover of stars. They were inspired to bring their experience at Artemano back home so that sense of peace could come with them: “It isn’t just about furniture. It’s about quality of life, an ambiance. I had to recreate that at home.” They redecorated their whole condo, acquiring a new bed, night tables, chests of drawers and even mirrors: “The coffee was expensive that day!” Little did they know at the time that their relationship with Artemano was far from over.
Jacky and Dominique, a coordinator for the Laval University, both share a passion for the outdoors, which is why they have chosen to live in Saint-Augustin, a few minutes from Quebec City’s city centre. Dominique can walk a short three minutes over to the lake and train for dragonboat racing, which is how the couple first met. They agree the beauty of Quebec City and its proximity to nature were the biggest draw for them from their native homes of Lac Saint-Jean and Trois-Rivières, respectively. It helps them share a love for sports like snowboarding, jogging, and hockey. It was important to them to frame their home with pieces that would reflect their relationship to the natural world and the deep sense of calm they experienced that night at Artemano matched them perfectly: “We swore by Artemano.”
A year or so later, as Saint-Roch steadily developed into the diversified hub it is today, Jacky and Dominique returned to Artemano to look for a table. But Jacky had more on his mind. He had recently left a position and was looking for work. As an Artemano “convert,” he wanted nothing more than to take up their offer for a store manager position: “I could only do retail with Artemano. As a client of theirs, I already understood everything they did.”
Sharing that quality of enchantment is now part of his role as Artemano’s store manager. He works with his team to ensure that clients can bring that sense of magic home with them, so they can create their own escape, their own sanctuary. He also participates in the growth of the neighbourhood beyond the Artemano store through his involvement as a treasurer for the Société de développement commercial downtown, which helps urban environments within Quebec City blossom.
What is most important to Jacky and Dominique is to bring the feeling of wellbeing at Artemano into their day-to-day lives. They say they “feel joy in their bedroom.” In creating that sense of tranquility and serenity within their home, their lives drew them along an unexpected path in which now, more than ever, they are immersed in what they felt during that first visit: “You never know where life will take you.”
