This Stylish Montreal Apartment Comes Complete With a Celine Dion Shrine

The kitchen came with plenty of counter space, but you can never really have enough, so they brought in a bar cart. The charming light fixture is from Jacques & Anna, a local Montreal artisan. Unfortunately, Mick and Alex accidentally smashed the original shade when they were installing it, but they sourced a similar shade from L’Allumeur in Little Burgundy and pieced it back together. Voila.

The apartment came with plenty of stylish features, including this monochromatic backsplash. Mick and Alex pulled the kitchen’s stark design from this simple black-and-white detail.

To make the most of the space, Mick and Alex opted for a circular table. The marble-topped tulip table is from MUST, and the chairs are reclaimed vintage pieces they found on Kijiji and painted black. The previous tenant built the banquette, complete with storage below. The photo on the wall is a foggy beach scene that Mick shot near his parents’ place in Nova Scotia. From a practical standpoint, it also helps hide a clunky electric panel.

Every season, Mick and Alex switch up their table setting and donate their old set. These vibrant, Mediterranean-inspired placemats are for summer, and the gold cutlery is from IKEA.

In the wintertime, the nook is one of the warmest places in the apartment. To capitalize on the snuggly factor, Mick brought in these earth-tone pillows from IKEA and V de V.

This shelf above the kitchen sink is a bit of a catch-all space, with cookbooks, a mortar and pestle, a vintage tea set sometimes used for serving tea-infused cocktails, and an empty bottle of Veuve Clicquot that the couple popped at their housewarming party.

Celine Dion is arguably Quebec’s most valuable export, and in Mick and Alex’s apartment, she is rightfully honoured with a wall of her own. Mick describes Alex’s obsession with Celine as “funny slash serious,” and their record collection is mostly made up of her albums. A framed photo of Celine in a Prada swimsuit is framed on the wall. If you look closely, you can see a neon sign with the lyrics “That’s the way it is,” custom made by an artisan in New York City. For pops of green, Mick and Alex have brought in fresh, fragrant clippings of eucalyptus.

Mick made the bar himself by Frankensteining two IKEA cabinets together. To make them original, he pasted some striped wallpaper inside.

This modern white rocking chair is from Structube, and it creates the perfect spot to read a book, enjoy a cocktail or sit back and contemplate the life works of Celine Dion.

Mick is a voracious reader, and in the bedroom, his bedside table is a dedicated landing pad for all his books. The hand statuette used to hold a picture frame, but Mick has since replaced it with the box of a vintage hair clipper that his grandfather gave him before he passed away.

The vintage, 70s-inspired headboard is one of the most unique pieces of furniture in the apartment. Built in Quebec and sourced from Fulhaus, the piece has several original touches, including the chrome framing and acrylic plastic drawers. The duvet is from Simon’s and the light jersey sheets are from West Elm.

One of Mick and Alex’s most prized possessions is this white side board salvaged from a house that Alex’s aunt was flipping. The piece was originally a natural wood colour, but they updated it with a fresh coat of white. They now use it as a dresser. The circular rug is from IKEA, and their dog prefers it to her bed. To balance out the room’s clean edges, they added a macrame wall hanging.

The corner of the bedroom is a bit oddly shaped, so Mick and Alex brought in this three-legged side table from an IKEA capsule collection. The money tree flourishes in the sunny corner, and an old camera from Alex’s grandfather rests besides it.

Rather than a gallery wall, Mick and Alex profile some of their favourite artwork atop the dresser. The piece on the left was shot by Mick’s friend Olivia during architecture school, and the piece on the right is a Robert Mapplethorpe print from when his exhibit came through Montreal.

To make use of the space, Mick and Alex bought this couch from Mobilia in a natural, deep grey. The coffee table is an old military trunk that belonged to a Capt. M Biron, whose name is branded on the trunk. They found it at Mixx Authentik, a vintage boutique in Montreal. The white canvas above the couch was once a piece of artwork by Alex’s father, but he spray-painted it white to created a streamlined, textured canvas.

Several terrariums hang from the ceiling in the corner of the living room, including a piece by Mick’s friend Simone Ferkul, who designed a piece for Umbra. The mask above the television was brought back from Mick’s father on a military trip to Africa. The black-and-white print is a piece by Miss Me, a Montreal activist and feminist artist, and it depicts Nina Simone as a saint.

A patterned carpet draws the eye to the floor in the sunny front hallway.

The award for biggest plant goes to this thriving palm, which sits in a shiny metal bucket found at Walmart.

The living room is practically a greenhouse, and the indoor garden is made complete with this glass-and-gold plant stand purchased for $15 from the repo store.

The artwork here is by Johan Jansson, a Montreal-based photographer whose work often explores queer themes. The little dresser was found at a roadside market on a drive to the cottage, and Mick spruced it up with a bold coat of black paint and gold knobs. The hallway leads to the monochromatic kitchen, so the dresser acts as a smart transitional piece.

Mick and Alex liked the pool vibes of the all-white bathroom tile, and so they played off the idea with this loud, leaf-printed wallpaper. The wallpaper is a photograph that’s repeated over and over, and it helps bring the space to life.

To prevent the wallpaper from getting crinkled by moisture, Pierce Atkinson of Fulhaus painted the room in a coat of proper bathroom-friendly paint before applying the wallpaper. There’s a few crinkles from moisture here and there, but it’s otherwise worked out great.