The making of a dream…
Auguste & Simone’s Garden in Bannalec France
Ever since I was a little girl I have loved beautiful things. I would watch my French grandmother brush her hair with an ornate silver brush or drink her tisane in a special floral cup with awe. She knew how to savour the good things in life.
Grandmere Simone grew up in quite a wealthy family who then fell on hard times. She married a local frenchman, Auguste my grandfather, who was a horticulturalist. They built their home on land that wasn’t strictly residential so some converted greenhouses became their house and they grew produce and plants which they sold along with their landscaping services. You’ll think I’m embellishing when I tell you they didn’t have proper sanitation or plumbing until I was about 12 years old - but I’m not. They lived with what they had and they made do.
The thing I learnt from Simone is that you could find beauty and ritual anywhere. When she made tea with fresh mint leaves or her 4 o’clock coffee it was always with ceremony. She’d pull out a beautiful but chipped china cup, sit & contemplate or converse with her family. She wasn’t a woman who rushed and she cherished her belongings.
I learned how to suck the marrow from life and savour the beauty being surrounded by this incredible garden they made. I spent my summers with them as a child, riding my bike through their fruit trees, eating special patisserie on Sundays, being served “chocolat chaud” in my very own special floral cup.
Last year I started a practice called the “Year Compass”. It’s a reflective journal where you contemplate the year you’ve had and then think about the year ahead. You choose a word for the year, it’s your guiding principle. The word I chose for 2023 was SAVOUR. Savour your capable body, savour the people you love, savour time. Find beauty in the everyday and stop to appreciate it.
At the start of Autumn I was at an art fair and finally put voice to this dream I’ve had for years to move Atelier & Stone towards a brick and mortar and to start a shop filled with beautiful things. Things that honour makers and the special but fleeting moments we have everyday. Whether it’s lighting a candle, sipping a tea, reading a thoughtfully bound book; I was drawn to this idea of finding the beauty. Adding ritual. Savouring. & thus Atelier & Home was finally born.
As the year has started to wind down I’ve felt this sense of rightness for where I am. That I am doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing at this moment. It’s frightening and exhilarating.
I hope you find some things to elevate your everyday in the selection of goods I’ve curated here. Or just the inspiration to savour the beautiful life you already have.
Thank you for being with me.
- Louise x
Left: Simone as a girl Right: Simone & family in Breton dresses
From my notebook, 15 years ago sketching out product display ideas
Excerpt from my notebook the day I bought the Atelier & Home domain
Branding soft touch paper and gold foiling to add luxury to an everyday item