City Circus | Renting in Vancouver Without Losing Your Mind

I don’t dream about buying a house in Vancouver. When Ben and I moved into the city as idealistic newly weds we knew we would be renting for the foreseeable future (Okay, at one point I thought we might be able to get into the market, but that’s because I was naive). Our lifestyle is very la bohemia and we make a living off the arts, music and writing respectively. We put aside money for retirement (Although we never plan to retire per-say) leaving us on a shoe string budget. ‘Down’ and ‘payment’ are not really words in our vocabulary.

As I have come to accept that we will likely be renters for life, I’ve had to reprogram the way I think about family housing, small spaces, wants versus needs, and the western style of living in general. When we bought our furniture the trend was oversized = comfort. Hence our couch that requires removing doors to get through the frame. I suspect this trend was meant for families living in your standard, suburban, cookie cutter home. We live in an anything but (up to) standard house. Similar to many families in Vancouver we rent a suite in a character home that is full of odd corners, sloped floors, and strange sized bedrooms. As we’ve shifted and shoved our furniture around to make the space work I’ve realized that maybe our western style of furniture is not functional for small-space living. I do like to kick up my feet at the end of the day but maybe comfort can come in a variety of sizes. For any piece of furniture that isn’t soft for your behind there’s always pillows.

Here are some innovations in furniture design that I’m still wrapping my head around. I’m not sure I love them aesthetically, but I don’t hate them either and they certainly would make sense for small space living in Vancouver.

1. The Angura sofa 2. A chair that’s also a step ladder 3. Puzzle seating 4. Store your books under your seat 5. Rethinking living room seating 6. Use a pouf instead of a puffy chair