Anne-Marie Lemay lives and runs a day care from her home in Terrebonne, Quebec. Her husband, Étienne Lavoie, works in real estate and uses the home office most afternoons. For some time, she had hoped to transform her husband’s office space into an organized work environment. It would be her way of saying thank you for all that he had done for her.
This would be a gift she wished she could offer him, but one she simply couldn’t afford. “Because of him, I was able to stay home with my children for five years when they were small. I cherish that time. Those were memorable years. That was a beautiful gift he gave me. We lived on one salary, but he never denied me or the children anything. He always took care of us and fulfilled all of our needs and wants.”
When Anne-Marie won our transformation contest that we ran on Facebook last December she was ecstatic to say the least, “I couldn’t believe it. I was actually going to have the opportunity to make this happen for him.”
“I was hoping for a new desk, a chair and maybe a storage-type piece of furniture. But I never expected a whole room and the creation of a peaceful work environment that is an extension, a continuum of our dining room,” she explains.
Anne-Marie discovered Artemano by chance on a friend’s Facebook page. She says her love of Artemano happened then and there, online. The very next day she visited the Laval store and her adoration for Artemano solidified, “when I walked into the store, I felt like every single piece of furniture that I had envisioned and imagined in my head had come to life. I recognized myself in the pieces that surrounded me. I felt comfortable and at home. It was such a satisfying moment.” She walked out having purchased an entire dining room set.
“The nature-inspired furniture, the mixing of textures, the combinations of straight contemporary lines with freeform curves, as seen with suar wood, the colours, all of these elements give off an eclectic, modern look that also contains a vintage feel to it. Artemano just works with me, with my home. The furniture even goes well with the antique doors of my dining room,” Anne-Marie says.
For the transformation, Ariane Julien, one of our in-house designer envisioned the creation of a light, airy, orderly and harmonious atmosphere. She opted to use a natural coloured, live-edge suar table with black metal legs, as a desk. “The beauty of our suar tables is that they can be used in alternate ways. They allow for creativity and don’t always have to serve the purpose of a dining table. I chose a natural one to brighten up the room. Thanks to the table’s uneven, freeform shape it adds an organic stamp to the space, elevating it from a traditional office.”
To de-clutter and keep the room tidy, Ariane included a dark armoire made out of recycled railway wood. With four shelves, it provides plenty of storage space for files and documents and to place Étienne’s fax machine. Anne-Marie admits that she wouldn’t have chosen the piece had she gone to the store to purchase it, but thanks to Arianne she quickly realized that it brings out the desk’s black coloured legs and the darker parts of the wood grain.
Given the room’s dimensional constraints, Ariane had to get creative. To ensure that the desk fit properly she decided to cut a portion of it. She made a shelf out of the left over wood, “I placed various accessories on it, like our egg shaped candle holders and plant-filled black vases to bring life to the room.”
To complete the room, a cream coloured chair, which also adds to the room’s brightness, was selected as the seating of choice. Small black vases that can double up as pen and pencil holders, and a pierced metal lamp were placed on the desk. Ariane used metal accessories again to create a link between these and the desk’s metal legs. The light’s soft glow and the playful patterns that it projects on the wall add texture to the room.
Throughout the day of the transformation, Étienne kept texting Anne-Marie curious to know how things were going. Anne-Marie refrained from sharing too much with him. She wanted to witness his reaction when he saw the made-over office for himself. When he finally did come home late at the end of the day, Anne-Marie describes his wide grin that extended from ear to ear. “He was so happy and appreciative. He turned around, kissed me and thanked me. That moment will stay with me forever. Getting gifts is always fun, but there’s something particularly special about giving a gift to someone you love. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Not only are we, at Artemano, thrilled to have helped Anne-Marie make a dream come true for her husband, but with the advent of Valentine’s Day, the transformed office makes for a fun, unconventional gift.
Watch the process.