Small Spaces
Apartment tour: Colourful rental makeover
A bright and beautiful living room.
Small Spaces
Apartment tour: Colourful rental makeover
A plain beige apartment gets a creative makeover that dodges the rental rules, pops with pattern and flaunts the perfect amount of pretty.
During the day, Tim Lam is a chartered accountant. By night, he transforms into the designer and blogger behind Design Maze. His mission? To save people from dull bedrooms and boring living rooms. But long before Tim began this dual career, homeowner Christine Dang knew all about his talent. “We went to high school together,” she says. “In art class, everyone was always crowding around Tim’s work.” So when Christine moved into her yawningly generic rental unit in Markham, Ont., the first thing she did was call on him.
Christine presented Tim with a real challenge: a 650-square-foot studio with zero character. And since it was a rental, the makeover couldn’t include fresh paint, wallpaper or any major renovations. On top of all that, she had a tight decorating budget.
“She wanted a home that would reflect her personality,” says Tim. “To me, that meant pretty, but not too girly.” So Tim selected streamlined furnishings and a chic grey, gold and lavender colour scheme while dodging rental rules and restrictions with real ingenuity.
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