Coming to you today with a Small Home Tour a couple years in the making! It was well worth the wait! I spent the morning a few weeks ago at Jo’s 2 bedroom apartment in East Vancouver. Somehow I think I managed to get the shots of her cozy colourful art-filled apartment, despite us talking way too much the whole time. I was particularly interested in how she sews all her amazing clothes in an apartment with 2 small kids and was happy to learn how she does it! I’ll leave you with this inspiring woman and her lovely home!

Intro :

Joann works in public education as a high school counsellor and also has a private practice one evening a week. She shares about her love of slow/ethical fashion and sewing over on @lemonwearsclothes

How big is your home and what is the layout ?

We live in a 800-ish sq ft apartment that has two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a small deck. It is the first place we have ever owned! Buying in Vancouver felt like the most grown up thing we've ever done -- more adult than getting married and having children for sure.

Who lives there?

There are 4 of us here - my husband and I, along with our two kids - ages 7 & 4.

Rubeena Ratcliffe Painting in the dining room

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

In a way, the most honest answer is that living in 800 sq feet is the right economic decision for us at this time in our lives. We have lived separately/together in other places like London, England and Haines Junction, Yukon, and every place we have lived we have rented, until now. Taking on a mortgage and home ownership has felt like a serious and conscious task, and one that we don't take lightly. I know that both you and I listen to Ramit's podcast on money, and I feel immense satisfaction in keeping our home related expenses at 20% of our take home pay. It means that we can save for a gap year of travel, that we have a pretty robust emergency fund, donate without hesitation - it feels like living in a small place means that I am privileged enough not to constantly stress about money.

I can tell you that 3/4 of my family would like to live in a bigger place though - haha.

Certainly, there will come a time when we move on from this sweet little place, but for now when our kids are so young, all they want to do is to be in the exact room we're in anyway. Sometimes when we're on a Home Exchange that has a huge house, it's sort of eerie for me when we can't immediately spot each other! Like where are you??

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

I think I am a maximalist minimalist - I don't want a lot of stuff in my home, and I like the base to be white/blonde wood (thanks Instagram), but if it could closely resemble an art gallery, I would be happy. There are paintings and art everywhere, and it's heavy on color and textiles.

bedroom corners with Meghan Bustard Painting

I really love doing these home tours!! and spied Jazmine McCrimmon-Cook

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

I am obsessed with my Ikea bed. This model is now discontinued - and it was when we bought it too. So we hunted it down on FB marketplace and bought it used. There are like, 3 closets in this apartment and so for our bed to have pull out drawers is a LIFE SAVER. They hold the bulk of my every day clothes, and the rest I hang or fold in our closet.

Also - this is the first home we have ever lived in as a couple that has a washer/dryer in the unit itself, a dishwasher and two bathrooms. I am 40 years old, for context.

So one of the things I think about when people ask how we can live in such a small place, is - you have no idea, I feel like a queen! This is luxurious living to not have to haul my laundry somewhere else or to not have to wash dishes by hand or to have to wait to use a toilet. I think growing up in Hong Kong has shaped me to understand that most people in this world live in small spaces.

What is something you love about living small?

I can clean my whole apartment in 2 hours.

I like knowing my neighbours. I love the gym in my building!

Less financial noise.

More freedom to invest in art, furniture, high quality objects.

We renovated our place from Tiffany blue walls/mahogany floors to what we have now, and it was affordable to do so. (ed note. OMG our place had tiffany blue walls too!!)

(Can you tell I think about money a lot?)

What is something you hate?

Ummm... summer time. Haha. It just gets so hot and everyone (me) is grumpy and sticky. I guess a bigger home would also get hot and feel hot, but there's something about the smallness of the space and lack of backyard in the summer that feels particularly oppressive. We get great light in our apartment and have huge windows, but my husband is a stickler for closing all the blinds in the first half of the day to cool the apartment and I get extreme cabin fever.

I also hate my pocket kitchen. I don't like sharing space in there when I am cooking, and there is really not much storage. We had considered doing a kitchen reno but those are $$$ and in the next few years the plan may be to move in to a property with my parents and do some multigenerational living, so we are saving our pennies for now.

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?

-Okay, this has been a game changer for us in the past 4 years. We have a bunk bed in the kids room, but since our littlest was in a crib for the first year of her life in our room, we knew we didn't need both beds in the bunk for several years. We went to Home Depot and cut some plywood in the exact measurement of the top bunk and converted it into a space for our oldest to have alone time away from his baby sister. We put all his legos up there, and it's been a great use of vertical space. He named it Playland.

She is now 4, and they sleep in the same bottom bunk and Playland probably will last one more year. :*)

- I am a big believer in investing in the things you love and use a lot and I think it is a non-obvious organizational tip!

All of our dishware is from East Fork pottery, and because they are such beloved pieces, I truly enjoy putting away the dishes and taking good care of the pieces. The same thing goes for the kids clothes, towels, etc. I get to support small businesses and also have a lot of pride in my things, and it makes doing chores feel more pretty.

Gorgeous East Fork Pottery Collection and I spy the Wonder Oven that we have too.

I know you are an avid sewer. Can you tell us how you fit that hobby into your life? And how manage to sew with little kids ?

I started sewing in May 2020, two months into the pandemic. It has been my lifeline to reclaiming a bit of my identity as a mom of two. The key is to just do it in little spurts and starts. I'll spend 30 minutes with a podcast cutting the pieces I need on my dining room table. Then another night I'll carve out an hour during nap time or after they've gone to bed. One time I made a dress over 2 months; 15 minutes at a time when she was a newborn. If I had my own crafting room that would probably feel like heaven, but like so many sewists in small spaces, the table is multipurpose and works a treat.

Can you share some of your favourite spots that support living small? For me it's nearby parks, community gardens, coffee shops, the beach... love to hear from others.

We live on top of our local public library and a grocery store! Ha! We call going down to the grocery store "going to the pantry". We are at our library all the time and it has been so amazing for us at cultivating little readers.

A very familiar route for us is to scoot or bike to Flourist for a treat, and then continue onwards to Trout Lake. Our e-bike has really changed the game for us in terms of transporting kids around as a one car family.

We are also avid home exchangers and I do find that swapping homes with other families has been so handy for travelling; there's always going to be toys and gear for the kids to get into, and we have lots of conversations about how to treat objects with respect.

Absolutely loved this home tour, hope you did too! So many thoughtful and beautiful touches, I couldn’t even fit them all in here. Thanks so much to Jo and family for opening their home!

Sources shared from Jo:

Living room:

Couch - is 10 years old but is from EQ3. I need a new one!

The wall hanging in the living room is Maryane Moodie

Credenza/Drawers - FB Marketplace

Rug - West Elm

Painting - Rubeena Ratcliffe

Bedroom:

Bedding - Dazed But Amazed

Bed- Ikea via FB Marketplace (Similar) *aff

Painting - Meghan Bustard

Bunk Beds - Similar *aff

Small Home Tour x Jo of Lemonwearsclothes and family of 4 in 800 square feet