A Montreal photo studio built to feel like vintage homes
In our first studio tour, siblings Romain, Ariane and Axel show the thrifted living rooms and green-oven kitchen they built for shoots.
This is our first tour of a creative studio. Onova Studio in Montreal looks like a row of lived-in vintage apartments, but nobody lives here. Siblings Romain, Ariane and Axel built the sets for photographers and videographers. Many can't afford to rent a whole house for a shoot. Romain and Ariane are photographers, and Ariane is also a stylist. They started planning it during the pandemic, when they couldn't find a space like this in the city.
Each room imagines who might live there. A moody mid-century living room centres on a brown sectional. They added a family chessboard and covered a plain white wall in wood. A small lounge nods to Quebec, with vintage Bombardier photos. The largest room, the curiosity living room, has a burnt-orange sofa set made in Quebec. They rescued its yellow rug from the garbage during a home renovation.
The kitchen took the most work. They painted the cabinets green, wrapped the counters in wood-look film and laid yellow tile themselves. They drove three hours to Quebec City for a green vintage oven.
Everything works, from the bathroom to an old wooden TV they repaired. They redesign the rooms every year, and the curiosity room has since become a space-age living room.
