00:00The previous owners actually had like a story tall hookah sitting here, so I
00:06thought that this olive tree was a perfect way to kind of fill the space.
00:12Hey my name is Brett, welcome to my sweet digs. Come on in.
00:16I live in Toronto in a newly renovated loft with my boyfriend. We bought our
00:21space for $551,000. We probably put about $40,000 into renovating. Our
00:28mortgage payments are roughly $2,900 a month. I think it's a pretty good amount
00:33considering how much space we have and the location. We live on the west tip of
00:38the city in a little neighborhood called Mimico. We love this neighborhood because
00:43it's so close to the water. We just really love the sort of quieter atmosphere of it
00:48all. We're coming up on about two years now of living in this home and loving
00:53every minute of it. We had to do a lot of renovations to it. Everything from the
01:00floors to paint. It was a complete gut job so we gutted everything and redid
01:06everything which was a super fun process. I mean I love that sort of stuff whereas my
01:11boyfriend is kind of like I want to move into a move-in ready home. I was like let
01:16me just customize everything. It's definitely modern but I really tried to
01:21warm it up with some sort of like Scandinavian, Nordic tones like in the
01:27hardwood and just different uses of texture and materials.
01:36We went with tile in the front entryway. I mean fellow Canadians know that salt can be
01:42pretty aggressive so we just wanted to protect the hardwood at all costs. This
01:47is sort of like a little entryway bench area. Here there's like a little place
01:52for storage just for hats and gloves. It was super important to maximize on
01:58storage and just sort of integrate it wherever I could in the space so I really
02:03tried to utilize every nook and cranny. Coming into the kitchen here I love that
02:08it's so open concept that was really important because we love to cook and we
02:15also love to lounge so the fact that they're so close to each other it's just
02:19really easy access and just kind of makes entertaining that much easier. I was
02:24very thrilled with the open shelving we were able to do and just all the little
02:30kind of bits and bobs and details as well. This little thing here is probably my
02:34favorite appliance and I love it so much. A cool little function is that it's
02:40touch. I know a lot of over-the-range microwave that also doubles as a fan. They
02:47can get quite bulky so that's one thing that I just really didn't want so I love
02:52how sleek and minimal and just pretty it is. So one of my favorite parts about
02:58this kitchen is this light right up here. For my 9 to 5 I work as a product
03:04designer for a local home decor company here in Toronto and for my 5 to 9 I have
03:10a made-to-order light shop called Huey. Because I own a light shop naturally I had
03:16to put one of my fixtures in the space. Lighting is the jewelry of the home I think
03:22it's a great way to sort of just accentuate it and really make it unique.
03:27Here is our dining room. This table it's very beautiful and I love it. I wouldn't
03:33trade it but it stains very easily so we don't really eat here a lot. I actually
03:38DM'd an interior designer named Sarah Sherman Samuel and she suggested to put car
03:44wax on it which I have yet to do because that just sounds very sticky but we're
03:49just gonna eat in the living room like we usually do I think for now.
03:56If you want to take a walk into our living room this is where we spend the
03:59most time. It's got some great features we have a fireplace which is super nice
04:04and cozy in those winter months. It's just really inviting I think. We laid out
04:09this space kind of going along with the bones of the existing structure so there
04:14was a lot of modern elements like the column behind me so we just worked around
04:18that. It was really important to sort of make it cozy. When we were creating this
04:24place and designing this place it was really important that we had as much
04:28seating as possible like I just had this idea of my friends coming over and
04:32you'd be able to just kind of have a seat wherever you wanted. I would have to say
04:36my favorite part of the home is definitely the windows. As soon as you walk in
04:40it sort of just hits you on impact it's like bam here's my space welcome. I love how
04:47much natural light that it brings especially because we don't have a
04:51balcony it's super important just to get as much natural light in here as
04:54possible. Over here is probably one of my favorite spots in the house it's sort of
05:00like a little reading nook it's very cozy I like to lounge and read books or do
05:07some lighting designing on here. It also doubles as a storage which again is very
05:12cool so if you just open these here there's lots of space for just sort of
05:16like knickknacks and other junk that you don't want displayed around the house.
05:21These stairs and this railing came with the place so we were very lucky with that.
05:27One of the things we did the first things we did actually when we got into the
05:30space well first was remove the popcorn on the ceiling second of all was paint
05:35this black this was kind of a really mucky green color before. Now if you want to
05:40follow me up to the second floor. I love this space because it's so bright so airy
05:49the den upstairs is definitely the most functional and practical space in the
05:54house it was super important just to create a space where I could practice some
05:59self-care and wellness. My most sentimental piece in the home would
06:04definitely be my grandfather's painting I just love it so much it's definitely the
06:08highlight of my entire house and I treasure it a lot. My grandfather's
06:14painting sort of it inspired the vibe of this room as well so with the open
06:19shelving here and that sort of Mediterranean natural textured look. This is our
06:25desk area my boyfriend and I work from home so this has been really useful for
06:31the space it's also really bright and airy so it lets a lot of natural light in
06:35which I think is super important just to kind of create a peaceful and calm
06:39atmosphere when we're both working so close to each other. These chairs yeah
06:44they're pretty close but it makes for good quality time I suppose I definitely
06:50spent the most money on the hardware like bath finishes in the master bathroom but
06:56I'm not mad about it because it's quality I know it's gonna last it's like a
07:00trusted brand and it looks really nice. I really wanted it to be sort of
07:07traditional I was thinking like European countryside with the Zeelag tiles and the
07:15warm tones of the wood and the complements of the brass. When we first got that
07:20space it was really dark and and dingy so I had the idea of putting the round
07:27window in so I actually love it it's probably one of my favorite features of
07:31the home it just really acts as a sort of passageway to let natural light in. My
07:37best find I would say in the entire house is my vanity in the master bathroom. When
07:42I was looking for a vanity I just kept finding the exact same things over and
07:46over again so I kind of had this thought of using something that wasn't
07:51conventionally a vanity like a sideboard or buffet or console whatever you want
07:56to call it and using that as a vanity and I just cut a hole on top and put the
08:01sink in and it turned out great.
08:05Here's my bedroom it's a super quiet sort of serene space this sort of like warm
08:11minimalist vibe that I was trying to attain is sort of consistent throughout the
08:15home but you'll notice here I really wanted it to be a bit more traditional
08:20and a bit more homey and a bit more comforting and just sort of that farmhouse I
08:27guess you could say look and I just I love it a lot. We originally had blinds
08:32here but I think the previous owner was a heavy smoker so they were actually like
08:37just discolored I'll just leave it at that. So we tore those down I think we'll be
08:43putting blinds back up it does get pretty bright since the highway is right here
08:48but right now we're just kind of enjoying all the natural light especially with
08:52summertime coming. Here's another little storage moment that I picked up from Ikea
08:57so this really I mean I won't open this too wide but it just really houses sort of
09:02all of our linens some of my makeup and it's just another opportunity for some
09:08great storage which I really appreciate. Something that I definitely would love
09:13to have in my next home is an outdoor space specifically a garden. You know for
09:20first-time home buyers the process can be really daunting and I'm not gonna
09:24minimize it because it probably was like one of the most stressful things I've
09:28ever had to go through but again it was so just rewarding I mean when you know
09:34you know and that was definitely the case for this space as soon as we walked in we
09:38knew its potential and that we wanted it. Thanks for checking out my sweet digs if
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