Project Boho Chic

Open-concept condo · Full Service Interior Design · Toronto

The moment of change:

Project Boho Chic began in a narrow, long open-concept condo that had slowly become difficult to live in. The client worked from home, loved books and plants, and had collected furniture over time that she genuinely liked, but the space started to feel tight, visually busy, and hard to organize. She reached out because she had tried multiple arrangements and still could not find a layout that felt spacious, calm, and functional.

The room had strong constraints from the start. The TV was fixed on the wall, several key pieces needed to stay, and the long footprint amplified every extra item on the floor. A low shelf unit placed horizontally was being used as a divider between the kitchen and the living area. It provided book storage and created zones, but it also broke the continuity of the space, interrupted sight lines, and made the condo feel smaller than it was.

Design psychology approach:

We started by identifying what was creating the feeling of clutter. Two things stood out immediately: overuse of floor space and poor visual flow. In a long, open room, the eye needs a clear path to travel. When too much furniture sits low and breaks the line of sight, the room feels segmented and compressed. The condo also had an opportunity most small spaces do not: height. The ceilings were high, and the vertical volume was largely unused.

The brief became clear. We needed to keep the client’s personality and love of colour, especially sage and pink, while reducing visual noise. The solution was not to remove character, but to redistribute it. We aimed to open sight lines, move storage up the wall, and create a layout that feels continuous from kitchen through living, with each zone doing its job without competing for attention.

Key moves:

• Removed the low floor divider to restore continuity between kitchen and living, allowing the room to read as one open volume rather than separated zones.

• Shifted book and display storage to a tall wall-mounted shelving moment, using vertical space to clear the floor and give the space more breathing room.

• Introduced an open-shelf kitchen island to add much-needed prep surface for two people cooking together, while also creating storage for appliances that were used infrequently but occupied valuable countertop space.

• Planned the furniture layout around existing constraints, including the fixed TV wall, while improving circulation so movement through the room felt natural and unblocked.

• Improved sight lines by reducing visual interruptions at mid-height and floor level, allowing the eye to travel toward the window and making the long footprint feel calmer and more expansive.

• Used a round rug in the living area to soften the strong linear geometry of the space and create a more relaxed, inviting zone without adding more visual clutter.

• Carried a consistent palette of sage, pink, and black through both kitchen and living so the room felt cohesive, with colour used as controlled accents rather than scattered statements.

• Used vertical lighting over the kitchen island to draw the eye upward, taking advantage of the high ceilings and helping the space feel taller and more intentional, rather than concentrated around furniture at floor level.

Outcome:

The condo now feels open, functional, and visually calmer without losing the client’s personality. Circulation through the space is clearer, the kitchen supports day-to-day cooking more comfortably, and storage works vertically so the floor feels lighter and less crowded. The living zone reads as intentional and grounded, the palette feels cohesive throughout, and the room finally supports the way the client lives, works, and hosts in a long open-plan layout.