A bachelor discovered that buying and renovating an old condo is a smart investment!
The homeowner of this two-bedroom condo is a young bachelor. We have known him since he was only in elementary. We were pleasantly surprised when I got a call from him to say that he had just purchased a 30-year-old condo and needed help to completely renovate it. With the money that he saved by not purchasing a new condo, he was able to renovate this old place exactly the way he liked. Turns out this was a very smart investment!
top takeaways:
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buying and renovating an older condo is a lot of work, but it's also a very good investment
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your space will feel bigger when you unify different spaces with a similar colour
THE IMPORTANCE OF LAYOUT
This condo was quite spacious because it was an older apartment. However, the layout was quite awkward because the window was push to one corner and the fireplace was centred between a patio door and a walkway. The client couldn't figure out an optimal way to place the TV. We asked him if it was important to make the fireplace the focal point (normally this is the case), but it wouldn't work as well in the case. We wanted to take advantage of the length of this space, so we advised against placing the TV about the fireplace and placed it along the widest wall instead.
One problem with that is that the window is now only on the right side and there was no symmetry. To solve this problem, we did a picture gallery on the left side to add visual balance to "mirror" the window. The result is that the living room feels much more spacious rather than long and narrow.
HAVING CLEARLY DEFINED ZONES
Those of us living in a small condo may not have the luxury of having a different room as a home office. In this case, the client wanted to rent out his second bedroom for extra income (and company). In addition, he didn't like coping up in a room to work all day and not be able to enjoy more of his living space. So we decided to put his office in the living room.
We utilized the wall on the left to put a wall mounted shelves and desk combo. It gives some open display shelves as well as practical storage. What this did was to clearly define the space along the wall as a different zone.
