Condos
October 7, 2019
This Pied-À-Terre Will Make You Want To Move To Paris
Almost every day Jackie Kai Ellis is at home in Paris, she slips into her clawfoot tub for a quiet afternoon soak. This is the sort of unhurried act of self-care that she really started to enjoy after she bought her two-bedroom apartment in the 10th arrondissement. During the preceding fast-paced years, Jackie had ended her marriage and her career as a graphic designer, battled through depression and learned the secrets of French pastry at Paris’s École Gastronomique Bellouet Conseil. In 2012, she returned to her hometown of Vancouver and opened Beaucoup Bakery & Café, which quickly became known for making one of the best croissants in the city. Not long after, she wrote a memoir about those experiences, The Measure of My Powers, which received glowing reviews when it was published in 2018.
Along the way, Jackie decided she needed a rejuvenating getaway. “Originally, I was thinking this would be a small pied-à-terre; I wasn’t thinking of making it my home,” says the founder of APT La Fayette, an online platform which promotes simple, everyday beauty. “But I started investing a lot of my soul, for lack of a better word, into it. The more attention you pay something, the more precious it becomes to you.”
Scroll down to tour Jackie’s charming, 800-square-foot escape in the City of Lights.
The living room’s ornate marble fireplace and gilt-framed mirror are original to the apartment. “I wanted to hold on to some of the quirky personality that shows what the space used to be,” says Jackie.
Jackie wanted a sofa “big enough to spend whole days lying down on.” It also pulls out into a bed, so the apartment can sleep six people comfortably.
Durable quartzite with grey-green veining covers the kitchen countertops, peninsula and backsplash. Jackie truly savors her morning coffee. “Sometimes I really milk it for 30 minutes or an hour,” she says.
Copper pots and bowls found at Paris flea markets are displayed alongside dishes from Ikea and Vancouver ceramicists Janaki Larsen and Michelle Nguyen.
The dining table is Jackie’s one concession to her rule against buying stopgap furniture. Still searching for her perfect table, she made the base of this one using wood from the hardware store and a glass top found online. The antique plate-warming unit in the corner stopped working long ago but adds charm.
Double doors open onto the principal bedroom. Jackie found the vintage coiffeuse table (background) online through Leboncoin.
Jackie spotted her vintage bed frame online. “I saw the rose and daisy details carved into the wood and fell in love,” she says.
Perfumes from Buly 1803, one of Jackie’s favorite shops in Paris.
The bathroom’s lace curtains and small sink are original to the apartment. The walls are painted Studio Green by Farrow & Ball.
In the guest room, custom cabinets create a niche for the bed, which can be flipped up against the wall and hidden behind the lace drapery if Jackie needs extra space.
The apartment is near a canal that runs through the 10th arrondissement. “There’s something special about being in Paris,” she says. “You can be renewed here passively. You don’t have to go looking for inspiration; it’s spoon-fed to you.”
Joann Pai
House & Home September 2019
Jackie Kai Ellis