As a child, Nancy Ricard subscribed to removals. And to poverty. From one apartment to another, the same discomfort, the same sad walls.
“I discovered comfort with friends, then I had this taste for being well and making people happy around me. I saw the importance of the cocoon, which makes the difference in interior harmony,” says the founder of Un armchair pour deux.
Her high-end furniture and accessories store and the decors she designs with her team of interior designers are classified as luxury. At first glance, this may seem frivolous. But in Nancy’s career, it carries meaning.
She dreams of being a missionary one day, and that seems contradictory to her current world. But it’s all connected, her godfather and godmother told her: both are about helping people feel good.
Drop out and persevere
At 12, Nancy was already working. She was soliciting appointments for representatives who sold Filter Queen vacuum cleaners. Her boss thought she was four years older. She dropped out of school, then rented her first apartment before her majority. At this stage, she became a bartender at Dagobert on Grande-Allée in Quebec. And she went back to school to finish high school, then continued with a course in interior design.
After working on the fitting out of kitchens, she continued in a furniture store, where the boss was often absent. It was Nancy who managed everything, even oversights related to absences. An experience that allowed her to learn and understand that she had all the skills to open her own store.
An armchair for two opened in the spring of 1999 in the Old Port area of Quebec and gradually built a reputation. A few years later, the 950 square foot premises became too small.
In 2016, Nancy Ricard took the risk of opening a store ten times larger on boulevard Laurier.
Bad luck, the sale of her building in the Old Port failed and the entrepreneur had to support two places for a few years.
“I could have gone bankrupt. But I went to the bank. I told them we were in this together, but only one person could save the day: me. I negotiated a payment term. I paid my debts and today I can breathe”, she says.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Nancy Ricard savors the pleasure of evolving in the company with her daughter Charlie Gaudreau
Nancy is today co-owner of her company with her daughter Charlie, also a designer.
Together, they dream of doing more commercial projects in which creativity can have a blast, even with tighter budgets.
They also want more projects outside their city, as distance no longer matters.
Visiting the places to be created once is all it takes…
“I feel people, and it seems like I understand what they need. It never happened to me to be really wrong. Sometimes, we modify a project for the cost, but, basically, they like it.”
A LOT OF
- Entrepreneurship is…? “Believe in a project in line with our mission and our values, then go all out and surround yourself with the right team.”
- Who inspires you? “Josée Fiset, co-founder of Première Moisson. For its serenity, its simplicity and its great elegance. She has something very strong and delicate at the same time.
- If you could change one thing, what would it be? “Let people be kinder to each other.”