February 11, 2024Jessica Helgerson grew up in Santa Barbara, where her father taught Renaissance literature at the University of California. But she spent summers in Lyon, France, where her mother, children’s book author Marie-Christine Helgerson, was raised. “To my tiny self,” she has said, her grandparents’ apartment in Lyon seemed “incredibly fancy and elegant. Lots of thin Louis XVI legs on pretty furniture, beautiful silky fabrics, ornate bronze statuettes and candlesticks. It was all very much in contrast to our laid-back Southern California lives.”
Not surprisingly, Helgerson, now 54, considers herself part American, part French. That made her the perfect interior designer for a 1924 house in Los Angeles built in a style identified by the local historical society as “French eclectic.” The property, which suggests a Norman castle taken down a notch, was bought by a singer-songwriter and his wife, who found Helgerson online. Their choice was inspired, but not because she espouses that, or any other, particular style.
“I think a lot of designers have a very strong point of view, and I admire them for it. But we don’t,” Helgerson says of herself and the dozen or so employees of her eponymous Portland, Oregon–based firm. Instead, she says, she strives to “do the right thing for the house.” That means designing rooms that will last. As an environmentalist, “the last thing I want is for my work to feel dated and get tossed out in a few years.”
With the Los Angeles home, Helgerson says, “We wanted to give it a really comfortable, lived-in feeling. Our goal was for it to feel fairly undesigned, just kind of peaceful and settled.”
Redoing the kitchen, she stayed close to the style of the century-old building, defined by exaggerated Gothic arches and black lines — including railings and window mullions — set against white surfaces. “I wanted to keep it graphic, with a black-and-white palette and not a lot of ornament,” Helgerson says. She designed a walnut-and-marble island that, unlike most such features, has no storage underneath, giving the room an open feel. She also designed the sconces flanking the big new window, gray doodles that complement the room’s dark cabinetry, dark window frames and dark wood beams.
The living room embodies the same themes: muted tones, comfy, nothing very trendy. The key pieces, all bought on 1stDibs, are a set of 1960s lounge chairs, an antique Mahal rug and a low, curved coffee table. “Though compact, it manages to serve all the seating in the small living room,” Helgerson explains.
The dining room is equally informal. The walnut and handwoven-cane dining chairs are from ITZ Workshop & Studio. Helgerson considers their blocky appearance a plus. “Let’s put it this way: I am not opposed to simplicity and honesty in design. I mean, these chairs show how they were made.” They rest on a Persian Heriz carpet, another 1stDibs find.
The primary bedroom is more than just a place to sleep. There’s a spacious seating area comprising a pair of Little Petra lounge chairs in sheepskin and walnut from &Tradition flanking a table with a walnut top and limestone base. The curtains are a deep teal. “And then,” says Helgerson, “we just got really lucky with an oil painting that we fell in love with, a nude by Veikko Marttinen that includes the exact color of the curtains.”
A small terrace off the bedroom that had contained an outdoor toilet (no kidding) is now a place of relaxation. Helgerson designed the herringbone-pattern brick floor and arranged a pair of wicker chairs around a teak side table. Also outside the bedroom (but inside the house) is a small balcony where a painting by the client’s mother hangs over a guitar left to him by his father.
The guest suite is dominated by a spectacular late-19th-century French oak armoire purchased on 1stDibs. The vintage Moroccan rug is from the Nazmiyal Collection. The guest bathroom contains several items that hark back to the original architecture, including a custom medicine chest with an arched mirror and a fan-shaped, white leaded-glass pendant.
A 100-year-old house in Portland also inspired a desire to respect the original architecture — in this case, Federal style. Helgerson had worked with the clients on plans for an enormous modern house that they ultimately decided not to build.
Instead, they bought the century-old 5,000-square-foot hilltop manse and asked Helgerson for a little help. “Their initial goal was to remodel a powder room,” the designer recalls. “Then they said, ‘Well, maybe the kitchen would be better on the sunnier side of the house.’ ” The end result: “Many dollars and many years later, the house has been entirely redone.” And yet nothing screams 2024.
The living room chandelier, by Lindsey Adelman, is a contemporary classic, as is the bronze and walnut bench by Dutch designer Valentin Loellman. Helgerson chose a fireplace surround that is modest and timeless; everything around it displays a calm and calming palette.
The focus of the kitchen is an island that resembles a dining table. Overhead, a Florian Schulz Double Posa pendant lamp with side counterweights, from 1stDibs, establishes a sense of place. Whenever possible, Helgerson supports local artisans: The fixture over the sink was commissioned from Oregon glassblower Andy Paiko, and the wall tiles are a custom three-color mix from Portland’s Pratt + Larson.
Helgerson studied English at UCLA but didn’t have a clear career direction. She saw a poster about a night-school program in interior design [at the UCSB Extension], signed up and “really, really liked it,” she recalls. She went to work for an architecture firm, then opened her own interior design firm in Santa Barbara. She married, moved her business to Portland (her husband’s hometown) in 2005 and raised two children there while continuing to spend as much time as she could in France. Now, with her children out on their own, she has opened an office in Paris.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be back in Paris in some real way — not just on vacation or visiting family,” she says. So, she leased a small place in the Marais near the incomparable Place de Vosges and turned it into an outpost of her firm. The first things visitors see are chairs by Guillerme et Chambron, whose quirky aesthetic makes them Helgerson’s favorite French 20th-century designers. There’s also a turned metal light fixture that is part of her new collection for Roll & Hill. “It’s really just a line that plays with getting very thin and then flaring back out,” she explains. “It’s a shape I’ve long admired in furniture legs but that I hadn’t ever seen in lighting.” In addition, Helgerson has designed flat-weave rugs adorned with flora and fauna that she describes as gleefully childlike. And she’s working with a glassblower on a collection of table lamps that she also describes as playful. “I’m at a time of my life when I’m excited to try new things,” she says.
The firm already has several projects in Paris, including a large apartment in a historic building that, ironically, has been stripped of its period detail. Helgerson wishes the building had been better preserved, although she does enjoy the challenge of designing on a blank slate. “Honestly, both are fun. If there’s a clear direction based on existing architecture, that’s fine,” she says. “And if there isn’t, then it’s kind of a gift, too, because we can invent it.”
