Today we have the much anticipated (by me!!) but absolutely worth the wait… Small Home Tour of Amy of Modern Nest Photography. These photos are magazine-spread worthy and I am thrilled to share them here! Amy and her husband Jordan lovingly restored and renovated this small home in the city of Calgary, AB. I always find it particularly inspiring when people choose to live small in a more affordable city or town where larger square-footage homes are widely available and more the norm (I realize this is shifting as more Canadian cities and towns become less affordable).

Amy has captured our family through her photography over the past 5 years and I could spend an entire blog post gushing about how she makes my kids feel comfortable and their best selves, me less awkward and manages to capture our home in the best light. Our family photos from her are some of my most treasured items. BUT this is not about Amy’s incredible photography and it is most certainly not about me. So let me leave you with Amy and her 2 bedroom 900 square foot home shared by her family of 4.

Intro

Hi! I’m Amy and I’m a photographer (@modern_nest_photography and www.modernnestphotography.com), mama to two busy boys (9 and 11) and a wife to my handy husband Jordan. We live in Calgary, Alberta in our absolute favourite neighbourhood just outside of downtown near the river.

How big is your home and what is the layout ?

Our home is 922 sq ft. It has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, kitchen and a dining room. There is a basement but it’s not useable aside from storage and our washer and dryer! We did a complete renovation on our home, and it originally had 3 bedrooms. We made the hard decision to remove one of the bedrooms to make a more open kitchen/dining room and to add more living room space. Originally the dining table was in the living room and it just wouldn’t have worked for our family. Our boys have always shared a room, and while it won’t work forever, for now they truly love it.

Who lives there?

Myself, my husband Jordan, and our two boys Sullivan and Flynn. We have also squeezed in a crazy Labradoodle named June and a shy cat named Wilder.

Tell me about your choice to live small. Was it a conscious decision or did it just evolve?

I went through a divorce 6 years ago and at that time, in a long journey to find myself, moved to a condo in the same community we’re in now with the boys. I left a big house behind and that condo became my solace. It is there that I absolutely fell in love with small space living. When I met Jordan a few years later, he happened to live 5 minutes away from us, also in a tiny house (700 sq ft). We ended up renting out the condo and moving me and the boys in with him into his tiny home! While most people thought we were crazy, we truly fell in love with living small in that home. After that we renovated and lived in a much larger home to flip, and truly missed the small spaces we had gotten used to. We bought and renovated this house and are so so much happier being back to under 1000 square feet and in the neighbourhood we love.

How would you describe your home style? ex) modern, minimal, bohemian, vintage?

Our home was built in 1908 and has such a beautiful history. We wanted to keep as much of the bones and history as we could. My inspiration for this home was Australian interior design. So much of it feels modern but not cold, a little quirky, warm and inviting, and like you could come in straight from a day of surfing and feel right at home. We both grew up on the west coast and the ocean is in our blood- we wanted our home to feel like a little beach house. Just less starfish paintings and more natural woods and light walls and as much light as we could get in.

Is there a piece of furniture or accessory that you couldn't live without that makes living in your space easier?

When we first moved in there was a lime green entrance area with random hooks all over the wall instead of a front closet. We knew we wouldn’t have room to do closed storage, so we used maple plywood to do a custom pegboard system covering all the walls in that space. We added a few shelves and now it’s the perfect place to hold jackets, shoes, skateboards and backpacks while still being visually interesting since it opens to the living room. It was my first building project I did by myself and love knowing that I built it every time I walk in the front door!

What is something you love about living small?

Always being able to see and hear everyone in the family. I love that we can be cooking in the kitchen and the boys are always close enough to chat to.

What is something you hate?

There’s nothing I really hate, but sharing a bathroom has definitely been a challenge sometimes! We’ve learned the door always needs to stay unlocked while you’re showering and the boys have definitely ran outside to pee every now and then (sorry, neighbours!)

I think Small Space-ers need to stick together and share all their best tricks. Do you have any storage or organizational tips you want to share?

Our biggest trick is that we added as much built in storage as we could while we were doing our kitchen reno. Where the closet used to be in the now dining room we added the tall ikea kitchen pantry units. We’ve embraced that storage is not specific to a room. We keep our toiletries in our bedroom closet and stationary in the kitchen and extra bedding under the boys’ bunkbed and while everything has a place, it just might not be where you expect it!

Would love to hear a bit about your reno... especially the kitchen and that plywood shelving entrywall (loooooove!!!)

We gutted our kitchen and started from scratch as the previous layout just didn’t work for us. We really love Ikea kitchen cabinets and have used them in our 2 other renos. They hold up so well and are such a breeze to install (and are so cost effective!). We knew we didn’t want upper cabinets as we wanted to keep the line from the front to the back of the house open and clean. Our one non-negotiable was that we really wanted an island as we love the boys being able to sit there while we cook. Once we started laying it out we realized it was going to be really tight. Our solution was to round the corners of the island to make enough space to walk through the kitchen. It’s definitely not conventional, but it ended up being our favourite part of the kitchen! We custom made a plywood hood fan to match the other plywood touches that we built and did a full wall of cheap 5x5 tile with black grout for a bit of feature wall. We love to source things second hand and ended up finding a great deal on a Miele built in oven on Facebook Marketplace that felt like a “start the car” moment! Our counters are a brushed granite and so far they’ve held up great!

The house originally had these super dark wood planks as a feature wall in the living room. We originally tried to paint over them but it was not looking good and we tossed around just drywalling over them and starting fresh. But as we lived in the house we realized we were really missing storage for books, magazines, etc and decided to take it as an opportunity to build something custom. I found some inspiration in Pinterest and showed Jordan and we measured it out and drew some sketches and he was able to build the incredible shelving unit out of maple plywood and are so happy with how it turned out!

We also took a tiny window at the back of the house out and added in a floor to ceiling window in its place. Being able to see straight out into the backyard makes our space feel so much bigger than it actually is and is one of our favourite investments!

Sources…

Some of our favourite sources are Etsy, especially for lighting, Wayfair, Facebook marketplace, our handles in the kitchen and living room credenza are from an Australian company called SoWatt.

Thank you so much Amy (and Michelle !) for these beautiful photos and your generosity in sharing your renovation process. I’m constantly inspired by your beautiful photography and home design. Seriously what can’t you do!?

All photos by the incredible Michelle Johnson of @mjay.photography at mjay.ca