On summer weekends, John and Juli Baker (the owners of Mjolk in Toronto) escape to their cabin on the shores of Lake Huron, on Georgian Bay. “My parents bought the property in the 1970s,” Juli says. “It’s been an ongoing renovation project since I inherited it a few years ago. When we started working on the house, it was cramped and musty and full of accumulated clutter. We stripped it back to its original state and painted the walls and floors white. We did a lot of the work ourselves, with the help of a local guy to do the things we didn’t have the confidence to do.” To see more photos (including before shots), go to Kitka.
Above: Juli and John painted the interior in Cloud White from Benjamin Moore; the floors are painted in Benjamin Moore porch paint. The sofa, by Børge Mogensen, is available through Mjolk.
Above: The couple are masters at sleuthing bargains; they picked up the Moooi Two Tops Table, designed by Marcel Wanders, at a consignment shop (it had been damaged in a movie shoot) for CA$700. The dining chairs by Folke Palsson are vintage.
Above: “We used Ikea kitchen cabinets which we assembled ourselves,” Juli says. “The kitchen wall and ceiling are finished with fir ply boards; we saved money on the countertop by using birch plywood, which we sealed using a clear coat finish.”
Above: Juli’s father found the shell-framed painting in a vintage shop: “It adds an element of kitsch and keeps the room from looking too serious,” she says.
Above: John and Juli found the vintage photo of a motor yacht at Upside Dive in Toronto.
Above: The framed Dala horse watercolor is by Melinda Josie.
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