A partnership of equals

This award-winning renovation by Lagois included a kitchen designed by Lagois and created by Louis L'artisan.

They’re both sticklers for perfection. Quality. Happy customers.

It’s no wonder that Lagois Design∙Build∙Renovate and Louis L’artisan are friends and partners in their journey together to create magnificent spaces.

Here’s how it works: Lagois designs a concept for your kitchen, for example – usually as part of a larger renovation.

Your kitchen needs cabinets, but not just any cabinets. They have to be custom. They have to be perfect. They have to be highly functional. They have to last for decades.

And you have to love them.

Once your concept is designed, Lagois meets with Louis L'artisan to explain the project and to discuss all the possibilities for your kitchen. You go to the Louis L’artisan showroom to meet designer Marissa Brisebois. Marissa listens so she can understand exactly what you want, down to the finest details. She offers advice, options, possibilities for cabinetry, finishes, and hardware.

Perhaps you’ll go on a shop tour in the same location (because everything is made on site) to see how your cabinets are manufactured. You’ll talk to the people who make them.

“It’s very personal,” says co-owner and designer Marie-France Castonguay. “Clients are involved in the whole process.” Sometimes they’ll watch the cabinets being made and ask for a specific detail or a small tweak.

Louis L'artisan kitchens are custom built to be functional, beautiful, and to last for decades.

Marie-France and her two partners, Denis Gadouas and Benoit Lortie, are involved in everything, too. It’s a small shop, and it allows this design team to have control over all the details. Since the shop is attached to the showroom, they frequently go in to check on progress.

Marie-France’s father, Louis Gauthier, founded Atelier Louis L’artisan Inc in 1976. He was a talented and creative man who was taught by his father and grandfather from a young age to build custom wood furniture.

In any Lagois renovation, Louis L'artisan's custom cabinets and shelving are fine works of art.

Now Louis L’artisan has some of the most reputable and renowned cabinet makers of Eastern Ontario.

Eventually Louis and Sylvie Gauthier’s business was taken on by the three current owners: their daughter, Marie-France, as well as Denis Gadouas and Benoit Lortie.

The company usually completes two to three kitchens or a bathroom each week. The full manufacturing of cabinets for a room takes about 10 days from beginning to end.

The beautiful unit at left, custom-made by Louis L'artisan, is part of a large renovation by Lagois Design Build Renovate that helped earn Lagois the award of Renovator of the Year.

Installation is precise and an art unto itself.

“We never sub-contract the installation,” Marie-France says. “It’s our final signature on a project and absolutely cannot be neglected. It must be perfect. It must be flawless. You can have a superb product, but if it’s not installed properly, it won’t be right.”

The main installer for Louis L’artisan, Luc Maisonneuve, has more than 35 years of experience and is still passionate about his work. Marie-France says he always strives to achieve the highest quality standard.

She adds the installers and “the guys in the shop” are tremendously talented. “They have many years of experience,” she says. “We can ask pretty much anything of them.” She explains the team always enjoys a challenge.

Every homeowner is unique, of course. Some have children; some don’t. Some are older, some are younger. Some are living in place. Some are short, so deep drawers are sometimes better than upper cabinets. Some want the newest trends and products.

“And sometimes people can’t find the words to describe what they want,” she says. “Our job is to listen to understand their needs and to observe their environment. That way we can not only make it right but take it to the next level by proposing the design they didn’t even know they needed.”

Custom kitchens and cabinets by Louis L'artisan "take it to the next level", says Marie-France Castonguay.

The Louis L’artisan showroom is in the pretty village of Bourget, about 45 minutes from downtown Ottawa. People seem to enjoy the drive and tend to make a day of it ‒ a nice little journey, especially pleasant in nice weather.

Marie-France studied Marketing, but it was a tossup between that and Interior Design. She is a designer nevertheless who learned everything from her Uncle Denis and her father. She was part of the business from the time she was 14, working in the workshop every summer. She did everything: sanding, staining, installation and even accounting. Design was and is natural for her.

This summer her own daughter, who is 15, will be working in the shop. Marie-France says she sees a lot of potential in her because she’s so artistic, but she’s not pushing her. Time will tell if she will be the next generation of Louis L’artisan. In the meantime, she will be working with the team.

Louis L’artisan enjoys working with Lagois. “It’s always a pleasure,” Marie-France says. “I find we really align with each other because of our personalization, the way we treat our clients, our sense of quality.

“The Lagois team doesn’t cut corners anywhere. They go the extra mile to do that little something that sets them apart.”

She adds: “And of course, we do that, too.”