Write on at these Montréal stationery stores ✍️
Shopping
Whether you’re looking for that perfect card to send back home, a unique journal to keep track of your adventures or some fine paper to write or sketch your personal masterpieces, here are some of Montréal’s finest stationary stores worth taking note of!
Address: 6572 Saint-Hubert Street
Neighbourhood: Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
Specialities: It’s a challenge to leave Arloca without a great locally-designed and made gift in hand, and their stationary section offers everything you need (including the card) to go along with it. There’s always a great selection of Montréal-themed paper goods including prints and posters here too, ideal for framing.
Address: 3416 Parc Avenue
Neighbourhood: McGill University District
Specialities: The crown jewel of Montréal stationary stores, Note Bene offers a wide and highly curated range of specialty paper, calendars, agendas and writing utensils that you can’t find anywhere else. Their range of Japanese and European imports is second to none, and you’re sure to find your new favourite notebook on their racks.
Address: 5183 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
Neighbourhood: Mile End
Specialities: The brightly-coloured shelves at Boucle & Papier are sure to catch the eye of all ages, from agendas for grown-up planning to colouring books for the kids. There’s a fine selection of pens and pencils to boot, and a wide range of unique wrapping paper that’s almost too pretty to rip open.
Address: 1593 Laurier Avenue East
Neighbourhood: Plateau-Mont-Royal
Specialities: Buk & Nola’s display tables feature writing goods from some of the world’s hippest independent brands, alongside Québec-made items sure to brighten any office. There’s also their line of bags and backpacks to carry everything in, and interior decoration services if you really want to take the shop’s charming setting home.
Address: 470 Duluth Avenue East
Neighbourhood: Plateau-Mont-Royal
Specialities: Paperole is the go-to spot for Montréal-themed stationary, postcards, art prints and posters, all created with local designers and artists. There’s few better ways to commemorate a visit to the city than with one of their playful renditions of the city’s biggest icons from the métro system to the Montréal bagel.
Address: 24 Fairmount Avenue West
Neighbourhood: Mile End
Specialities: Traditional handmade Japanese paper washi is like catnip to stationary connosieurs, and Au Papier Japonais has brought this unique artform to Montréal for over 30 years from its location in the Mile End. Pick up some of the nicest paper you’ve ever seen along with all the necessary writing implements and inks, or take them up on their bookbinding services to create a notebook of your very own. And did someone say origami?
Address: 3572 Notre-Dame Street West
Neighbourhood: Saint-Henri
Specialities: Papetrie V.J. Taylor is a neighbourhood stationary stop in the Saint-Henri quartier, focusing on eye-catching graphic design, greeting cards galore and writing pens in all colours of the rainbow. The vintage shopfront is also particularly photogenic, decorated with hanging origami cranes and the latest wares on offer.
L’Empreinte coopérative, boutique métiers d’art
Address: 88 Saint-Paul Street East
Neighbourhood: Old Montréal
Specialities: The L’Empreinte cooperative gallery-boutique spotlights the work of area creators, and their stationary offerings include pens, letter-openers and notebooks that have each been touched by the hands of skilled artisans working in a variety of mediums. It’s the ultimate way to buy local!
Address: 4887 Sherbrooke Street West
Neighbourhood: Westmount
Specialities: Home to trusted brands from Sharpie pens to Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks and calendars, Papeterie Westmount’s shelves are also well-stocked with greeting cards for every event. There’s also on-site engraving available if you want to give your new agenda that personal touch.
Address: 300 Villeray Street
Neighbourhood: Villeray
Specialities: Located in the heart of the Villeray neighbourhood, Boutique Articho features the work of over 100 Québec artisans, including a range of handmade greeting cards and notebooks that are genuinely one-of-a-kind. And while you’re at it, it’s worth taking a look through the shop’s other artisanal sections for that special something.
Montréal’s museum gift boutiques
Address: City-wide!
Neighbourhood: All over town!
Specialities: Montréal’s world-class museums including the Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archaeology and History Complex, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the McCord Stewart Museum all house their own top-tier gift boutiques, featuring stationary products like notebooks emblazoned with artworks and motifs from their most recent exhibitions.
Address: Online
Neighbourhood: Mile End
Specialities: While Baltic Club no longer has a brick and mortar store of its own, their graphic notebooks and paper products are easy to find at Montréal’s most design-savvy boutiques and their online shop. Everything from their art prints to planners are created and designed in-house from their Mile End headquarters, and the brand has expanded from stationary to perfumes, incense and diffusers, a great way to create a calming atmosphere for putting thoughts to paper.
Address: Online
Neighbourhood: City-wide!
Specialities: Lili Graffiti’s online boutique features the extensive I love Montréal line of posters, postcards and writing pads featuring artwork inspired by the city’s unforgettable skyline. We’re particularly fond of the series of prints and notebooks inspired by individual neighbourhoods including Westmount, Verdun and Saint-Henri.
Mark Hamilton
Mark Hamilton is the community director for QueerMTL, a musician in the projects Woodpigeon, Frontperson and Brittle Dreams and a curator and historian specializing in LGBTQ+ activism and zinemaking. He’s lived in Montréal since 2015, during which time he’s most often spotted atop a BIXI bike usally running a few minutes late.