The Day Telapapel Finally Found a Home at Common Room
Chelsea Anne De Leon
Some dreams don't arrive with confetti.
Sometimes they quietly sit in your heart for years until one ordinary day, you find yourself standing inside them.
That's exactly how it felt when I became one of Common Room PH's newest roomies.
Back in the day, I remember walking into their store for the first time. It felt almost magical. Every shelf held something made by someone's hands. Every little corner had a story to tell. I spent so much time looking around, wondering what it must feel like to have your own creations sitting there among all these wonderful artists.
I never imagined that one day...
...Telapapel would have a little corner of its own.
Our very first home with Common Room was inside their branch at Spatio in Opus Mall.
Walking through the newly built mall with a box full of journals felt surreal. This wasn't a pop-up where we'd pack everything away after two days.
This little shelf would stay.
People could stumble upon Telapapel on a random Tuesday afternoon.
That thought alone made me smile.
One of the things I admire most about Common Room is how intentional they are with the artists they welcome.
For this branch, they wanted to highlight makers who value recycled and upcycled materials.
It felt like Telapapel naturally belonged.
Long before I started binding journals, I was already making handmade paper from discarded papers from corporate offices that would've otherwise gone to waste.
Even my packaging for Telapapel has always aimed to recycle every scrap from production and to stay away from plastic as much as I can.
And in mid-2025, I finally started using commercial-grade recycled paper and chipboards for all the journals I make.
Reducing unnecessary plastic has always been part of how I build Telapapel, not because it's trendy, but because it simply feels like the right thing to do.
Knowing that Common Room shared those values made this partnership feel even more meaningful.
As part of the opening, every artist was asked to create an origami bird using scrap materials.
I knew exactly what mine would be made of.
Not paper.
Fabric.
Specifically, a little piece of light blue linen left over from one of our Whimsy Journals.
I loved the thought that something which would've become fabric scraps could instead become a tiny bird flying alongside everyone else's creations.
When all of the birds were finally suspended from the ceiling, it was beautiful.
Hundreds of little stories hanging together.
Mine just happened to be wearing linen.
They also gave each artist a little circle on a giant board where we could draw something that represented our brand.
Some people created beautiful illustrations.
Me?
I drew a curly-haired girl.
Guess who that was.
Hehe.
Of course, no Telapapel shelf would be complete without journals.
I brought along some of our recent favorites.
Journal d'Amour.
The Daisy Lock Journals.
Our Regal Journals.
And something completely new at the time...
Our tiny little A7 experiment called the Itty Bitty Journal.
Designing a shelf inside an actual store turned out to be much harder than I expected.
Have you ever realized how wonderfully chunky handmade journals are when you're trying to fit them into a very limited shelf?
Every inch suddenly matters.
After plenty of rearranging, rotating, stacking, and staring at the shelf from every possible angle...
I somehow managed to fit around thirty journals.
And a tiny vase.
With a little stalk of palay.
I'd call that a successful game of shelf Tetris.
The nook was small.
But it was ours.
Seeing Telapapel inside a mall felt completely different from seeing it at pop-ups.
Pop-ups are exciting.
They're loud.
They're temporary.
This was quieter.
It felt permanent.
Like Telapapel had finally been given an address where people could discover it, even when I wasn't there.
I don't know why, but that made me unexpectedly emotional.
Being part of Common Room also means becoming part of a community of artists.
One of my favorite things is walking around the store and recognizing familiar work.
Friends I've met through art markets.
Artists I've admired online.
People I've bumped into at countless pop-ups.
Even an artist who previously bought a journal from Telapapel who's also a roomie! It was so nice to finally meet you, Sam from @pieces&clips.
It's a comforting feeling knowing that everyone's little creations now share the same space.
Different styles.
Different mediums.
Different stories.
One beautiful home.
For the opening, Common Room also asked every artist to prepare a small gift for the first one hundred customers.
I packed mine into a tiny little box and sent it off without knowing who would eventually receive it.
To whoever ended up bringing that little gift home...
I hope it made you smile.
Even just a little.
This little adventure wouldn't have been complete without bringing my own little family.
Otep came with me and so did Chowpan.
My husband's support has quietly carried me through this journey more times than I can count.
Although...
If we're being completely honest...
I think Chowpan was the real celebrity that day.
People couldn't resist stopping to say hello.
He collected compliments.
He collected belly rubs.
Even one of the mall guards couldn't help but give him a few pats.
Meanwhile, I was over here arranging journals.
I guess we all know who the real attraction was.
Sometimes I still think about that younger version of myself wandering around Common Room.
She was simply admiring beautiful things.
She wasn't thinking about business plans.
Or inventory.
Or shelf displays.
She just thought it would be wonderful to be there someday.
If only she knew.
Thank you, @CommonRoomPh, for opening your doors to Telapapel.
And thank you for giving our journals a little place to call home.
We'll treasure this little nook for a very long time. 🤍
