Kelly K's Profile

Truthiness-- the website is www.nouveaucinema.ca-- our poster was from the October 13-23 2005 festival

Megashad-- after just hosting Thanksgiving, I think the lounge area worked very well with the bank of couches and the lounging chair. I think that the openness of the living room encourages guests to settle in and be comfortable instead of having to weave in and out of a bunch of furniture or feel stuck staring at each other. It was really useful to have somewhere comfortable for my guests to sit while I could still talk to them and get the dinner ready. Also-- if there are more than a couple of guests over, they tend to also sit at the stools in front of the breakfast bar and to bring some of the dining room chairs into the living room so that everyone can congregate together.

Hi everyone,

As the other person who lives in the apartment, I thought I would add my two cents in addition to Stuart's comments.

We both wanted a calm, clean and, yes, "cool" environment with soothing colors. For me, I find cool blues, grays and white very soothing. I dislike beige neutrals, tweeds, or other traditionally warm colors and textiles. We also tried to get rid of as much clutter as possible with all of the built in storage to maintain a peaceful and clean aesthetic. This is also why there is not much furniture.

I agree with Stuart that really bold colors would have taken away from the interesting details throughout the apartment. I'm not sure that all of these details come through in the photographs. Our architects hand-distressed the blackened steel in the entryway!

What you also can't see is the amount of sunlight this apartment gets, which warms it up considerably. The large windows on both ends, as well as the window in the bedroom allows for sunlight to stream in and flood the apartment.

To BlackInk-- there are more "before" pictures on the architect's website (www.porterfanna.com). You will see that Stuart's and the architect's vision was amazing. The apartment felt much more cramped and dark. And that was even after a minor "redo" after the apartment was purchased. It was previously owned by an elderly single woman, and it showed-- the apartment had dingy beige walls, an overbearing huge vanity in the bathroom, block-like cabinetry in the kitchen, and horrible flap window treatments.

Removing the bathroom door and replacing it with a sliding door created a feeling of openness that could not be achieved any other way. Same for the built in shelving in the bathroom. I highly encourage everyone to create this kind of shelving-- it was a matter of carving out space in between the stud beams in the wall.

The curtain was quite a luxury. As Stuart said, the floor to ceiling silver curtain makes the bed into a cozy nesting environment, which is my most favorite part of the apartment. It was Stuart's idea, and I hadn't expected how much I would love it. It is heaven to pull the curtain shut and put a movie on or read in bed.

The large open space in the living room allows for lots of projects. Although you can't see any of the detritus from arts and crafts, it is where I sit to sew my ballet shoes, and Stuart works on his projects.

The comment about only drinking white wine is funny. There is a general "no eating on the couch" rule. However, when guests are over we don't think twice about it-- guests are free to eat and drink on the couches. We even had a party where red wine and hot chocolate was served and it wasn't a problem. The bench behind the dining room table is stain resistant.

The fact that the dining room table is all glass means that it leaves a minimal footprint while still allowing a table which seats 8 people in a 1 bedroom apartment.

I think that the genius of the apartment is the mix of high and low. Yes, there are high end touches such as Boffi fixtures. However, there is also a mix of very affordable fixtures which allowed us to splurge on other things. We kept the same floors but just sanded and stained them. The kitchen cabinetry is Ikea. We were able to get a friends and family discount on the kitchen appliances. And, the controversial couches? The door store!