How To Turn A Pre-Construction Condo Into A Custom Retreat

We're in Kitchener Waterloo, about an hour away from Toronto, and my client's actually my partner. This is his place, and I have my own in Toronto, and my weekend getaway, so I kind of thought, well, while we're working on the pre-construction condo, we can plan a whole lot of things of what we could do, and this is the end result of it. The condo is about a thousand square foot, so it's decent. Two bedrooms, two baths. I think that's important when you have two people in the space too, than, you know, fighting over the bathroom in the morning. We purchased the condo pre-construction, and that, I think, is just the greatest time to actually do something, because you have the opportunity to work with the builders for non-structural changes, but something cosmetics that you could do, like, you know, with the closet system, that you may want to do a little something differently, a little customization on kitchen, if that makes it more functional, and more to the aesthetic that you'd like. This way, at least you put your personal touch to it, and you're not wasting a lot of the materials that they would have otherwise put in, that you're just going to get it all new, and then take it out, and also save a fair bit of money on that as well. The kitchen is one of the biggest areas that I spend most of the time planning about. Well, I got some time to, you know, play with different versions, and eventually we landed on one where we say, well, let's just make this whole space with the living room open concept to not have an island, and have a dining table that is also functional as prep space if you need to. The original builder's plan is to have some chopped up counter spaces, which I find very difficult when you're going to try to, like Chris really loved to cook and bake, and that's one of the things that actually, the key requirements that he said for this kitchen, whatever you do, I know you're going to make it look beautiful, but I want that long run of counter. And so when we're doing kitchen preparing, cooking dinner, things could just be rolling around, and you can use both the table and the counter for it. And if you're entertaining, guests can just be mingling around, either in the living room, or just hanging out by the dining room area. It is the first thing you see when you walk through the front foyer, and coming through the hallway, and you see the kitchen right away. So one of my things that I really wanted to have was that display area. Just a nice moment to create something, and something decorative, artwork, or bowls and cups that you use every day. But of course, for the trade-off for the storage space, I have to tell Chris that I'm going to give you full high cabinet all the way to the top of the ceiling, so you will have maximum storage, so you can give me that wall that I want. One of the things with the builder layout was that the fridge is going to kind of stuck on the main wall. So instead, we just kind of flip the fridge to the adjacent wall. And by tucking it away, that actually gave me an opportunity to create a little microwave cabinet that I actually tucked it in. And it's great that you just, you know, open up when you need to use the microwave, and then you close it off when you're not. And also then the longest run of counter, because then now you don't have a microwave sitting there. And I hate putting those microwaves over the range in combination. No, not for that. So in the living room, the original layout actually have the sofa sitting on the other side of the room. All the TV, cable, everything is actually right behind me. That's where they originally proposed. But I just don't want the first thing you see coming in, just media units sitting around. So that's one thing that we did. And that ended up giving me this whole length of wall here that I can put a sofa. And then there's that lovely little window next to it that's just perfect for a sculpture and whatnot. It just create that moment. I fell in love with neutrals the last couple of years. I'm pretty sure everyone also did. But I'd like to layer in different textures. So on the wall, we have the grass cloth wallpaper. We have this cabinet that is in walnut that we've had for years. So we kind of know that that color would all work together. And then we started layering the different items with the rug that we put in with this chiffon pattern that we have on. We're also layering the two rugs as well. Just because I couldn't really find one that fit the right size and I wasn't about to go custom to make it to the exact size that I was gonna go for. Then we found two just kind of off the shelf options and layered them on top of each other. So kind of the whole layering that I like to play with. We also introduced a vintage iron desk that I've picked up from a vintage market for a song really. And it had a glass top on, but it was chipped. But I kind of always figured that by the time I finished with the kitchen, I would have all these stones left over anyway. So I just basically work with a fabricator to cut another piece and then just sit on it happily. It could be my home office. And some other times it's actually our gardening space where our plant would actually sit there for the indoor ones. The gallery wall was also another thing that I've always wanted. In his old condo, he has it. In my own condo, I have it. And partly it's also because we travel a fair bit and there were times that we would pick up things that we like while we were traveling. One of them is actually a coaster from a restaurant that we really enjoy when we were in France. And I just happened to have a coffee sitting on top and it left a little ring on and I just love it. And I've took it back and framed it up. Another one is also one of my favorite local artists that I visited her studio. And I actually tried to attempt to do a screen print on my own. She actually wrote it on that Tim's first screen print on it. So those are the two that I really just can't live without. And they're going everywhere, wherever we're going. The moment that Chris saw that there were two really big windows in the master, he was like, well, you know, if you have two big windows, you got all the lights that are coming in, then I really want to have that as my home office. And which literally gave me a heart attack. Like I really was just like, okay, well, who in their right mind would do that with the home office? And then you have a bathroom in there. But for resale, you know, the way how we ended up doing is to make sure that whatever that I put in there is easily convertible back into a bedroom. That was one thing that I find challenging at first, because when he first set home office, I knew I have to put a desk in. And how am I going to be able to do it? That is aesthetically pleasing without wasting money as well. Because if you just put something in there and then the next space, you may not need that desk. It may not fit. So I was trying really hard to try to do a custom solution to that that can be multi-purpose. Right now it's our desk, but in the future, anyone could actually use it easily as a vanity for the bedroom. We also have a sofa bed as well. So that actually was mine from many, many, many years ago when I was at my dad's basement that I did my first makeover. And that was the bed that I picked up for myself as a sofa bed. And it's very comfortable. And whenever we have guests over, so that would be the guest bedroom as well. And guests often are pretty happy that they got actually their own bathroom in that space. For the master en suite, I know that I wanted the vanity to be floating. I also wanted to make sure that there's a transition between the shower into the space that almost looks seamless by selecting the wall tiles that are the large size format scale, but in the almost same color as the wallpaper inside. And also pick a vinyl wallpaper that looks like grass cloth so that you can actually live happily in there without having to worry about it coming off or any mutual issues. But I did make sure that the feature wall for the vanity that I have a little bit of interest just do a little bit of a different for an accent. But the whole thing just feels so seamless in there, even though there are three different materials that go into just the wall covering. Our bedroom is actually now, I guess most people would use as a guest bedroom in this unit. We decided to flip the bed and the storage solution to the opposite wall, just because the wall where the closet used to be, or they plan to have it, that wall will fit a queen size bed and also two decent size side table. And I thought that's just a better use of the space to utilize that wall. And also what happened is then now give me the opportunity for a much bigger storage solution on the other side, where we can have full height, closed storage on two sides. And also in the middle, we have the lower part where we did the drawer system that also double as a vanity and also open display up above as well. So it really doesn't feel like it's just, you know, your cookie cutter storage solution. Whereas this one, you kind of just feel like, oh, this is nicely put together. The two-tone cabinet, I just think it makes it look more interesting and more custom that way as well, because it's not just one flat, same tone of color for the building. Also break it up a little bit because it goes all the way to the ceiling and it got two towers of it. We also use the same material that we used in the kitchen cabinet. So it just looked a lot more consistent that way and also lighten up the room too. For the second bathroom, we worked with the builder to finish the majority of the work in there, aside from, I guess, wallpaper we put in afterward and decorative items. But vanities, the tub and the wall tiles, everything were done by the builder. So we selected a wall tile that looks like marble. And I also make sure that it's not the glossy finish that they propose. And the vanity is actually just the same cabinet style that we have in the kitchen, but we opted not to have hardware on it. So then it's just a lot cleaner that way instead of having handles or even knobs. What we also customize a little bit though is how high the backsplash is. I know I was gonna go with a faucet that's a little bit taller and I wanted to make sure that the backsplash is not just your standard height of it because then it would just look not very good looking. For the balcony, what we really like is the view that you see with the park just right next to you. And also just the way how our condo's situated, we actually get to see the city on one side and the green space on the other. So that's one of the really good plus and one of the big reasons why we actually purchased this unit to begin with. Chris and I really just like to go lounge outside. And so we kind of thought doing lounges when you have people over for entertaining, people can all sit on it almost like a bench or couch. We also maximize the space that we could put planters. We love plants. Not that I'm very good with taking care of them for the most part, but we love having flowers around. And we also did something with the flooring as well. Instead of just having the concrete that most people would just have by having a little bit of that grass looking tile on, it almost doesn't feel like a balcony. So after all the dust has settled, we live in here for a while now. We're very happy with the space and the opportunity to be able to work with the builder to actually do the non-structural customization. I mean, I'm very grateful that they're willing to do that. Even though it's my partner's condo and I come here on the weekend, I still see it as sort of my space too. And when the client is actually your partner, that also makes it challenging when you kind of have to, you know, but why would you do that? And how would, why would you even think of that? Overall, I think it was just a very happy experience for the two of us that, for him to kind of see what happens, I guess also help him to understand sometimes what I do and have the appreciation as well. And I think he will help him to trust me better next time when we move.