Antoinette Poisson

Antoinette Poisson is a company composed of three young paper artists and conservators, inspired by the wallpapers of 17th and 18th century France

Julie Stordiau, Vincent Farelly and Jean-Baptiste Martin keep a vibrant atelier in a beautiful courtyard near Place de Bastille, creating hand-painted wallpaper inspired by domino patterns, found in chateaux across France. They met while working for preservation studios and renovating an 18th-century house in Auvergne, and stumbled upon domino papers, which are poster-sized swatches of hand painted paper that are meant to be tiled together on a wall.

Setting out to bring back this ancient and disappeared process, the three young artisans opened their business in 2012. Each paper is made in layers. First the outline of the design is printed in black. The blocks for this printing process are hand-carved in the studio as well. Next, the colors are hand-stenciled or hand-painted on top. As you can imagine, each one is different. “You can really see the hand of the painter,” said Jean-Baptiste in an interview. “And we welcome the imperfections. They give the papers their charm.”

Beginning in wallpaper, they eventually expanded into notebooks, boxes, and other specialty items. They are collaborators with Dior, Diptyqe, Cire Trudon and Le Bon Marche.