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What makes a purchase “worth it”? The answer is different for everybody, so we’re asking some of the coolest, most shopping-savvy people we know—from small-business owners to designers, artists, and actors—to tell us the story behind one of their most prized possessions.
Who?
When certified sexologist Michaela d’Artois established her LA-based practice earlier this year, she decided to set up shop out of the Miracle Mile home that she shares with her partner, Rajiv Lahens, and their pomeranian, Frida. A former writer, the Canadian-born intimacy expert moved to California in 2008 to study journalism at the Academy of Art University. After spending over a decade covering intimacy for a variety of magazines, Michaela recalls how “something that kept coming up was this deep need for further sexual education.” She was mostly working in female-centric content and saw the need for something more—the more in this case was “further education and destigmatization surrounding female pleasure and how it affects our relationships romantically but also platonically.”
Michaela then went on to pursue a certificate in sexology in 2020. Earlier this year, she launched Inner Eros, a virtual and in-person practice to offer clients “validation and more tangible tools to connect with themselves and others [in order] to immerse themselves in the human experience of connection” from Los Angeles to New York City.
What?
As someone who has moved frequently over the years, Michaela has gotten pretty good at parting with her belongings. Even though she has cycled through couches, tables, and everything else in between, she can never seem to let go of her books. “Over my entire adult life I have many times purged all of my belongings, but I’ve always kept my books,” she admits. Michaela took this most recent move from within Los Angeles as an opportunity to showcase a small part of her collection and decided to invest in a series of Nathan James bookshelves that she mounted in her dining room.
Michaela and Rajiv love the process of searching for vintage and secondhand pieces together but decided to splurge on a new bookshelf due to the simplicity of easily finding multiple. The couple found their shelves on Amazon and describe them as a perfect fit for their versatility and ability to stack next to each other. “We’re really lucky because we have access to such incredible vintage pieces in Los Angeles,” she says. “There’s endless scrolls on Pinterest, Instagram, or TikTok of beautiful spaces. Instead of just copying and pasting, I decided to take my time with finding pieces that I really loved and hoped that they would go together well.”
Where & When?
The shelves, which have now found a home in the dining room, were initially meant for Micahela’s office. “We couldn’t get [them] into the walls,” she says. “I’m the handyman in this household and I couldn’t do it, so then I rethought where I’d put the bookshelves, and I intentionally put them in the dining space.”
Michaela decided to purchase the bookshelves without ever seeing them in person, but points to their minimalist design and price point as the motivating factors for pulling the trigger. She purchased them shortly after moving in because she “wanted something that felt really special to showcase my books and the art that was made by our friends and our peers.”
Some of Michaela’s most cherished items on the shelves include seashells from her favorite beaches, a candle from the couple’s favorite hotel in Paris, and a conglomeration of books that deeply influenced Michaela and gave her the “permission to be the woman that I am today.” Another honorable mention on the shelf is Rajiv’s photography book, While We Were Away.
Why?
When Michaela and Rajiv moved in together last year, it was pretty seamless. “We got really lucky because our stuff meshed easily, and we didn’t have to get a lot of new stuff. Almost everything in our apartment is either secondhand or vintage,” she says. Even though their belongings were already statement pieces, Michaela decided to keep the shelves to serve as the main point of interest in their space. “I love entertaining, which we do pretty often,” she explains. “[With the shelves] it’s like you’re sitting at the dining table and you’re looking up and you are browsing over these book titles and there’s a conversation starter surrounding the origins of one of the ceramic pieces.”
As Michaela continues to grow her practice and occasionally updates items on the shelves, she utilizes them to create a strong sense of connection. “When we talk about families or relationships, we have to talk about how can we create spaces that can be shared and yet still have some kind of sacredness to them,” she adds.
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