A Couple Made Their 430-Square-Foot Toronto Rental Work for Two with Clever DIYs

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Home Type

Apartment

Location

The Annex, Toronto, Canada

Style

Colorful

Eclectic

Bedrooms

Square feet

430

Sq ft

430

“The natural light and balcony were two of the biggest things that initially drew me to the apartment,” begins Katie Nielsen, who moved to Toronto in 2021 to study speech pathology at the University of Toronto. She found this 430-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in the Annex neighborhood when she was looking for an affordable place to rent close to campus.

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Credit: Justice Darragh

She considers herself lucky to have found this place to rent. “I wanted a home where I could fill the space with plants, and the balcony has become one of our favourite parts of the apartment during the summer,” she writes. “I also loved that the apartment had more character than many newer builds, even though it was fairly plain when I moved in.”

Credit: Justice Darragh

Katie explains that a lot of their furniture is "custom-built or repurposed because standard pieces don’t always fit the apartment properly. We’ve built our TV shelf, room-divider shelf, desk, and coffee table, and we’ve added shelving wherever we can to make use of our vertical space."

Katie also described the rental before she moved in as very “white” and lacking in “color and personality,” but that also meant it came with a lot of potential. Katie’s fiancé, Liam Grubb, moved into the small space in 2024, and the challenge became not just bringing in personality but also fitting two people into 430 square feet.

Credit: Justice Darragh

“I’ve slowly made it our own through lots of decorating projects and renter-friendly DIYs,” Katie describes. “I never had one big renovation plan — instead, I’ve worked on projects as I went, usually to solve a specific problem, add storage, or make something feel more personal.”

Credit: Justice Darragh

Just some of the projects they’ve completed in the apartment are as follows: painting the entryway door for around $200; installing kitchen countertop contact paper for $40; transforming the bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet for around $100; applying faux stained glass-style window vinyl on the balcony door for $15, and film on the bedroom window for $40; installing an IKEA plate-rack floating bookshelf for $20; and crafting by hand a very cool living room TV shelf for $100, and a room divider shelf for $150.

Credit: Justice Darragh

Katie says their rental apartment is located in an older building, “likely from around the 1970s or ’80s, with parquet flooring, larger rooms than many newer Toronto condos, large south-facing windows, and a spacious private balcony.” And many of their DIYs in the apartment have also added some modern style to the old space.

Credit: Justice Darragh

“The apartment is now full of colour, thrifted and upcycled finds, handmade furniture, plants, artwork, and little details that reflect our personalities,” Katie writes. “I also love how much colour and personality we’ve been able to bring into such a small space.”

Credit: Justice Darragh

“The apartment doesn’t feel like it was decorated all at once. It feels personal and collected, and like a reflection of us.” You can find more of Katie’s renter-friendly decor ideas and small-space organizing wisdom on her popular Instagram account, @annex.apartment (TikTok, too: annex.apartment).