Knowing how to use power tools and doing renovations from an early age was the catalyst to starting Atelier Bastien, a furniture restoration business.
Born and raised in Shawville, William Bastien went off to study theatre, costume and set design in Montreal, but graduating during . . .
covid there wasn’t a lot of theatre work. Four months into the pandemic he decided to move back home and had to put what he studied on the backburner.
With not much to do, he caught up on many unfinished restoration projects he didn’t have time or room to finish while living in Montreal. Combining the knack for restoration, love for antiques and preserving the life and history of a piece of furniture, easily carried over to what became his business.
After seeing some of his projects, his mother suggested he reach out to the SADC to seeif they could help him turn his love for restoration into a business. It didn’t take much convincing for Bastien to jump on the idea, he said.
“I have a love for antiques, but there was no one else doing it, there was no one else restoring and so I kind of saw that hole and decided to fill it. And it was something I’ve done for a long time,” Bastien said.
His philosophy is about restoring and preserving the integrity of furniture and rather than hiding a piece of wood under a coat of paint, he suggests staining it as it modernizes the piece while respecting what it was. For Bastien, it was about maintaining the original craftsmanship instead of over sanding it and losing that.
Working on furniture, oftentimes one can see how a piece was passed down and all the stories it carries. The reason furniture finds its way to him is to hopefully be able to prolong its life and allow the piece to live on for many more years, explained Bastien.
“It’s gonna end up with still being a little imperfect. But all the imperfections come from having been lived, it’s been loved,” he said.
When he first moved back home he renovated an attic space owned by his family to create his workshop, which used to be a hayloft, for him to live and work out of. “Being a set designer was really kind of second nature to be able to just draw the floor plan out and so everything was designed by me it was pretty easy,” he said.
Everything in his shop currently is second-hand, his sinks, his doors and windows. It was important to do that because he felt he can find everything in town, and it was parallel with what he was trying to do with his own business.
He recognized that people often want to buy second-hand furniture but sometimes it’s not in good enough shape. With the area not being economically rich, he wanted to be able to provide quality second-hand furniture at an affordable price.
A piece such as a dining room table takes about two to three weeks to restore, and goes for about $100. If it was made in the past 30 years, it takes a lot longer as they were not made to be repaired, pointed out Bastien. Because furniture was seen as an investment, the older the furniture gets the more thought was put into the notion of “can this be fixed again,” he said.
“Our furniture kind of does tell a story of us and dining tables especially they go through a lot of abuse,” laughed Bastien.
The pivitol moment for him was when he restored his first piece to test it out. It was a forest green armour from the 1920s that he fully sanded down. It used to have mirrors in it but he replaced them with fabric panels and shelves on the inside. After handing it over to its new owner, he knew this is what he wanted to do.
“It was so satisfying to like pick something up from the side of the road and put all this work into it and then like give it to someone else and see it kind of continue on life. I just found that was really cool. And seeing how excited she got about it was just awesome,” he said.
Through his own personal work, he has experience working on pieces from 1860 to 1880 and the 1920s, which are time periods he is drawn to. The oldest piece he worked on was a dining table that was rescued from a dump and dropped off to him. After examining it and looking at the woodgrain he noticed it was made with wide planks, which he felt was odd. It had carvings along the edge and almost no nails to hold it together.
“As I started working on it, I have a few books that I reference online, and it was from roughly the 1840s, but it was an Irish style table, so it actually made a journey here,” said Bastien.
Restoring furniture allows Bastien to combine his artistic background and his love for history. Growing up he volunteered for the Pontiac Historical Society, which he hopes to get back into now that hes back in town.
One of the most daunting aspects of the job is not the business side of things, as hes been around his fathers tire business, but rather it is the moment right before giving the piece to the client and the anticipation of what they might think, added Bastien. “Its always as stressful as the first time.”
Coming from a multigenerational family who has lived in Shawville and being at his father’s tire shop most of his clientele was built through word of mouth. Once he started selling some pieces on Facebook, it allowed him to get the gears running on the business. As word travelled around town that he was doing this, he started building a clientele.
On the side Bastien repairs sewing machines, makes wooden toys to sell in markets and makes halloween costumes for himself and friends, which are hobbies outside of his work, he explained.
With no plans to go back to the city, Bastien sees himself growing his business in Shawville because after living in the city for almost five years he realized how much he has missed being in his home town. He especially doesn’t feel alone as most of his friends have also made their way back since finishing college or university, he pointed out.
“I wanted to do something that benefited people, and I have the skills for this and that’s my way of doing that. There isn’t a reason to stay for a lot of people. I think one more business adds one more reason for people to stay.”
In the future he hopes to have a brick and mortar where he can have a workshop on the main floor, and also invite local artisans to display their art or products in his store, which would be a great draw to the store, he explained. He is actively looking for a building in Shawville.
William Bastien’s work can be found on his Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/AtelierBastien and he also sells his work on Facebook Marketplace.
