By pulling out shelves, sliding a door and tucking a bed into a wall, Grant and Angela Martens’ bedroom can morph into a TV room or library at any given moment.
A room once dedicated to sewing and ironing has become a small, vertical wall unit also contained in the bedroom/TV room/library, comprised of a few shelves and a fold-out ironing board.
Up until seven months ago, the Martens and their two daughters lived in a 2,700 square foot home in Rosetown. Now, they use movable wall units and transforming furniture to pack around 1,200 square feet into their 800 square foot condo in downtown Saskatoon.
Martens peeks out from behind one of his two movable wall units.
Grant Martens says “micro-living” was the next step in his family’s quest for simplification — a lifestyle philosophy inspired by a book he picked up 23 years ago.
The opportunity arose when his family needed to move to the city; their desire to be in a central, walkable area meant downsizing. The research and planning to create different ways to utilize space soon followed.
The condo’s kitchen/living room becomes a dining room when Martens’ wife, Angela, pulls out a collapsible table long enough to seat 10 people. In the girl’s bedroom, Martens moves a wall to reveal a hidden office area. There’s even a bed for guests behind the modest living room couch.
After just completing the project this month, the family is already considering listing the property and doing it all over again on another floor of the The Banks, a commercial and residential complex at River Landing.
“The process is fun,” Martens said with a laugh. “I’m an ideas guy so I love this stuff.”
The couple agrees the hardest part was having to shed some of their belongings, like their books and piano. But with the purge also came the need to buy new, specialized furniture to transform the space.
Martens pulls down his bed from a wall behind a couch in a room that triples as a television room and library.
The family’s decision to downsize wasn’t based on saving money. Grant says their cost per square foot is high: creating the morphing condo cost roughly half as much as the condo itself.
“You can buy more space to fill it, but you can also just think consciously about how you’re going to use your space and work with it,” he said.
The design influence came from the family’s travels in Europe and Martens says he’s not aware of any other morphing condo in Saskatoon.
He admits it took a lot of work to research and find the right partners for the project. He believes it could be an affordable option for families if this type of build was more common.
“Because it’s not done yet at this point, if you choose to do it expect to have a bit of a learning curve.”
Angela said one of the biggest adjustments has been having to schedule when people come over, depending on which family members are occupying which room. But Martens says the process has made them realize they could easily live in a smaller space.
“We completely overbuilt because we didn’t think that we would ever get to the point where we could live with so little. I think the big thing is learning how to live with less.”
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