Let's Meet Laura Brookover

Hello friends this month I am thrilled to pieces to share Laura Brookover of Atelier Juno Shop.

Hi Laura welcome welcome please introduce yourself to the readers. I’m Laura, I’m 36 years old and live in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. with my husband Gunnar, our daughter Lilia, and our family dog Juno.

Please tell us about your family and growing up. I’m from New Orleans, which is a very interesting place to grow up. My love for old houses and buildings with history was sparked in New Orleans. As a kid, I loved when we took school field trips to historic houses, like the Pitot House, which was built in the Creole style with large sleeping porches and was once owned by Edgar Degas’s great grandmother. I love seeing old houses the way they would have looked in times past, with period furniture and objects and technology.

Now when I travel I always scope out historic house museums. I visited an Icelandic merchant’s home from the 1700s this past summer, and last time I was in London I visited Charles Dickens’s house. Just last month my husband and I visited Bath, England, where the television series for Netflix Bridgerton is filmed, and went to historic public places like the Pump Room that featured in Jane Austen’s novels. Visiting these places feels magical to me; you’re transported back to another time.

Now, I understand you are not an interior designer but, you are creative – so tell us – were you artistic when you were young? Did you decorate your bedroom while growing up? I’ve always loved decorating and design, and funny enough I had an early venture selling decor in elementary school. My mom Cecile would let me pick out fabric from the scrap bin at craft stores, and using my very crude skills I sewed pillows and comforters for my Barbie dolls. They were easy to sew since they’re just rectangles. I had so much fun making them that I developed a surplus… so I started selling to other kids at school during recess. I would pack my inventory in a caboodle (so very 90s) and bring it to school, where it also doubled as the cash register. A couple other classmates joined and started sewing bedding sets at home too, and a lot of kids bought them! Eventually we exhausted the Barbie bedding set market and that was that. But it was so cool creating something that other people enjoyed and brought home to use, and I have that feeling today with Atelier Juno. It’s very rewarding.

Where and What you went to school for. What’s your 9 to 5 gig? I went to college in Philadelphia and majored in English and Classics. At one point I wanted to be a book or magazine editor (I interned for Oprah Magazine in college), but by the time I graduated I had pivoted to attending law school. I’ve been a lawyer for about 10 years, and I’ve worked at a law firm and in the government as a litigator. Now I’m in-house counsel at a fintech startup, which was a huge career shift in the best way.

Working at a startup involves entirely different legal skills and I love the energy and fast pace. But lawyering is not very artistic, and I think that’s why I look for creative outlets outside work.

You mentioned the genus of Atelier Juno was personal - it evolved out of a want for artwork for your home that you were unable to find what you were seeking. That’s exactly right. My husband and I were living in a small downtown DC apartment, and right before the pandemic we up-sized to a house in the suburbs. (Talk about perfect timing… we were so lucky to have more room during lockdown). Suddenly, we had a lot more space to furnish. I turned to Etsy for vintage art, but I mostly found shops that sold prints with muted colors, mostly pastoral scenes, and that’s not really my vibe. I was looking for more color and more varied subject matter – like vintage portraits, which I love. At some point I realized I could source my own artwork from the public domain. Sourcing is only part of the process though.

When I first had prints made, they were all wrong. The colors, resolution, print material, and sizing were off. So I dived in and researched all the technical aspects of Photoshop and art printing. Even if you have a high-resolution digital image, you have to make sure it will still look sharp at the size you’re printing. And I had to experiment with printing papers and inks and suppliers to achieve a really high quality print result. That was fun, but it was a lot of work. I realized that if I were looking for these different options, other people must be too. And I decided to take everything I learned and start my own vintage print shop, first on Etsy and then on my website, Atelier Juno. I run Atelier Juno as a side business.

How did you decide on the name. Coming up with a name is so, so hard. I didn’t want something too generic, and I also wanted something where I could get a .com web domain. I’ve always loved the concept of the artist’s atelier, and atelier is also just a fun word to say. Our beloved family dog’s name is Juno. So after thinking through dozens of different options, I came up with Atelier Juno, and stuck with it. Probably because I was tired of thinking of names by that point, as much as anything. But I like that the name has some significance to me; it’s not random.

Running an Etsy shop, and even more so an independent web shop, is challenging, particularly in a saturated market like art prints. “If you build it, they will come” has not been my experience. You have to work at being visible. That’s been the biggest challenge. I love the part where I’m sourcing art and reading about the artists and enhancing the digital files and thinking about which prints pair well with each other. But the marketing part, that feels like work. I’m fortunate in that this isn’t my full time job, so there’s no pressure to reach a certain number of sales or website visitors.

In the end I’m happy if customers enjoy browsing my shop and are happy with the prints they purchase. I’ve had a lot of repeat customers, and that’s really gratifying. But it’s good to have goals, and I would like to build enough business that I can pay someone else to handle the marketing aspects while I focus on product development.

Since product development and sourcing is your passion what do you look for when adding pieces to the shop. My art interests are extremely varied, and my shop reflects that. I want Atelier Juno to be a one-stop shop where someone can find art to fill their entire home. That’s why I have landscapes, florals, still lifes, portraits, as well as a mix of mediums like oil painting, watercolor, sketches, and lithographs. I have over 100 prints listed and I’m continually adding more.

I like layered, eclectic design schemes, and I want customers to be able to achieve that look from my shop. So I try to maintain balance and fill gaps. For instance, I think architectural drawings look wonderful in gallery walls, so I sourced the beautiful Mughal Tomb print. Drawings and simple illustrations provide visual breaks, so I have plenty of those, like the White Geranium print. I also have lots of show-stoppers, like Flower Festival, Meeting Place, Tahitian River Fishing, and Palace Courtyard. You couldn’t fill a room with prints like these, though, because they’d all be competing for attention. Balance is important.

Please share what precipitated you adding the magical brushstroke option. This was another instance where I was trying to find something for my own home, couldn’t, and worked out my own solution. I love painting as a medium, but paintings are expensive. Reprints like I sell in my shop are far more affordable. But a print of an oil painting will never look like an original painting, no matter how great the resolution and print quality, because they’re different mediums. One is ink printed on paper, and the other is oil paint on canvas. I tried to find a printing option that was closer to the look of a painting, but couldn’t. So I started to experiment with treatments. That’s how the Archival Brushstroke option was born, and I’m really happy with the result. It imitates the sheen and texture of an oil painting and should be displayed without glass. I work in a small studio nook I created next to our kitchen that also doubles as my sewing area.

Laura the piece I have Flowers in Vase has the technique and it’s magical!

Flowers in Vase by George C. Lambdin Mounted with Archival Brushstroke technique

I found you through Instagram - how has IG assisted with your business. I heard some advice early on that a small shop owner should focus on just one social media platform, otherwise you’re spread too thin. I took that to heart and focus on my Instagram account, @atelierjunoshop. Instagram has been great for introducing Atelier Juno to new customers and connecting with existing customers. I love seeing how customers display their prints. That said, Instagram is challenging. There’s an algorithm that rewards a regular, high volume of content, and I don’t have the bandwidth to post regularly. Fulfilling orders and maintaining my listings comes first, and there’s not much time left over.

Plans for the rest of 2022. I would love to offer framed prints, and I’ve been working on sourcing, logistics, and price points as I find time. I’d also like to develop a wholesale business line, getting my prints into brick-and-mortar retail shops. And it would be really cool to partner with an independent hotel to provide art for hotel rooms. Too often, hotel room art is generic and uninspired. Otherwise, I just want to get the word out about Atelier Juno. The shop occupies a unique niche in the art reprint market, and I also think our prints offer great value for the money, which is so important these days.

I am huge admirer of Laura and the business she’s created! I can’t wait to see more from Atelier Juno!

Laura thanks so very much for saying YES when I asked if we could chat! I love my print and I’m excited to add more of your pieces to the Chalet. You’ve been kind enough to offer my readers 15% through September 30, 2022 with the Code CHALET15.

You can find Laura on Instagram & Website.

Til next time friends be well!