MONTREAL — This city’s edgier Laurier Avenue East is like the fun-loving niece to Laurier West’s more elegant, and better-known, matriarch. These shops along three blocks reveal the French-flavored Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood’s more adventurous and artisanal side.

Buk & N ola  College pals Laurence Marinacci and Caroline Jodoin combined their expertise in fashion and marketing to create an intimate home decor and gift shop that is parts buoyant bohemian and spare Scandinavian. Several items are locally made, including Anita Designs linens ($18-$48) and fabric-covered lampshades created for the shop ($140). Pillows ($34-$138), big on colors and bold graphics, line a shelf along a brick wall, including ones from Montreal’s Les Triplettes and London’s Roddy & Ginger.  1593 Laurier Ave. East, 514-357-2680, www.buknola.com