Jessica Helgerson’s aesthetic sensibility is rooted in two distinct cultures. Born to an American father and a French mother, the Portland, Oregon–based interior designer grew up spending the school year in Santa Barbara and summering in Lyon, equally immersed in California surf culture and French savoir faire. Helgerson’s dual citizenship is unambiguously reflected in the two lighting collections she has created for Roll & Hill: One, Del Playa, is named for her SoCal street, while the other, Rue Sala, refers to her mother’s childhood address in the French countryside. Now, both sides of the creative coin find eloquent expression in the apartment that Helgerson has designed for herself and her family in Paris.
Helgerson’s European homecoming kicked off three years ago, when she lived with her daughter in the City of Light during her semester abroad. Paris’s siren call could not be denied. “I was becoming an empty nester looking for a legitimate second act that wasn’t just about heartache,” Helgerson recalls. So she set out to find a cozy pied-à-terre, ultimately alighting on a 550-square-foot apartment in the 14th arrondissement, an area largely unfamiliar to her. “I fell in love with the neighborhood—the community gardens, friendly people, art studios and galleries, antiques shops, all of it,” she confesses. It didn’t hurt that the area’s amiable vibe reminded Helgerson of Portland.
One of the home’s most enticing assets was natural light streaming in from the front and the back, a rarity in local spaces of this size. But the mood wasn’t all Parisian charm and warm baguettes. “There was a plastic kitchen with a refrigerator blocking the entry, and a plastic bathroom,” she remembers of the 1980s details. Helgerson gutted both spaces during her yearlong renovation, additionally removing a wall that separated the living and dining rooms to create a more gracious sweep. Green is a recurring theme, appearing in fabrics, furniture, tile, paint, and artworks—a conscious nod to the neighborhood’s many trees and parks. A bedroom mural of lyrical vines and fluttering butterflies, hand-painted by Helgerson, is a further tip of the hat to the verdant landscape.
The furnishings scheme represents a mix of unpretentious treasures procured from the Saint-Ouen flea market, local shops, Etsy, and the European resale website Selency. In the living room, four vintage French chairs surround a Guillerme et Chambron cocktail table that Helgerson updated with a mosaic of nasturtiums. An antique lace-making apparatus with a pivoting candle arm makes an intriguing side table, while curtains of hand-embroidered Indian crewelwork expand the aesthetic lexicon. The dining room continues the transatlantic mash-up with a set of vintage French dining chairs around a classic Saarinen Tulip table. In the petite bath, Helgerson’s architect husband and sometime collaborator, Yianni Doulis, applied vintage botanical prints to the walls, underscoring the pastoral mood.