Coming in at a whopping 355 square feet, I present to you our floorpan. It's tiny, but efficient and all we really needed for our short visits to Toronto. Our first priority was location and you can't beat the King West neighborhood. It is the dining and entertainment hub of Toronto and a short walk to the Island airport for a quick flight back to Chicago on Porter Air.
I was drawn to this unit because of it's unique layout. Most studio condos are long narrow boxes with a bathroom at the entry with a combined kitchen, living and sleeping area. Our floorpan was a hockey stick shape which allowed for three separate living areas, something you don't see very often and made the unit seem larger than it was. This would provide an area for a bed/sitting room, a dedicated kitchen area and a media/living room area.
I also thought I could get a little more usable living space in the unit by removing the long closet space across from the sleeping area. The builder determined that wall was not structural and for a small change fee was able to remove the closet altogether which gave me at least 25 more square feet of living space... which is huge!!! You can see in the photos below that the closet has been removed. It really opened up the space and was by far a really big and important design decision and changed the entire feel of the condo. Slide through photos below.
When picking my design selections, I knew that because of the size of the unit everything had to be white, white, white - the walls, cabinets and tile!!!
I love the unit and it lives bigger than I thought it would.
Some upcoming design decisions will include:
1. adding an easy to use and hide - Murphy bed
2. adding more storage cabinetry in the bathroom
3. adding a media center in living room area with upper cabinets for more storage
4. finding a comfy couch that won't overtake the room
5. creating a seating area with two chairs and a table for morning coffee and a spot for our laptops. They will need to be easy to move as they will sit in front of the Murphy bed when the bed is hidden.
6. changing out the ceiling lights - I will be blunt... I hate the standard builder ones that were installed. They are just awful!!! I've got some ideas for some new funky ones.
7. Area rugs - we need a couple to warm up the space.
8. making design changes to the kitchen. - Just an FYI - the hubby is not happy or sure about this one - but my biggest pet peeve in the condo is the GIANT microwave/oven in the kitchen. It consumes the room and I can't stand looking at it. It's massive. I want a cleaner aesthetic with a boutique hotel vibe. I've got some ideas for kitchen changes but will save those details for a future blog post.
Here is a visual of my initial plans.
Let the designing and decorating begin.