WHO: Daniella Caranci, 24, interior designer (pictured, inset); Evan Verberg, 25, solutions analyst and fiancé; Boots, two and a half, cat; Izzy, one and a half, cat.

WHAT: Main floor apartment of converted 800-square-foot home.

WHERE: The Annex.

HOW LONG: Two years.

FAVOURITE PIECE A stained country-­
style pine cheval mirror in the bedroom. “I got it at a garage sale in Nobleton,” she says. “It’s an absolute fact that the farther north you go, the better deals you get at garage sales.”

THE STORY The upstart designer — who graduated from Ryerson’s School of Interior Design and chaired their annual year-end show in 2006 — has spent the past year working for TNT Design on a Tudor-style estate home north of the city. Frequent work-related shopping trips to the Castlefield Caledonia Design and Décor District might have tempted her to strain her own budget, but woven tapestries and leather-strapped wooden chests aren’t really her thing. “For myself, I like things to be cozy,” she says. “People always tell me they love my living room — they’re like, ‘Oh I want my living room to be your living room, it’s so comfortable.’”

The room is earthy and calming, with soft green walls and brown sofas, which echo the colours of the foliage outside in the spring and summer. Caranci’s wicker papasan chair — a hand-me-down from her brother that has travelled with her from residence to co-op to shared apartment to its present home — sits beside the fireplace (which doesn’t work, but has lovely crackled, green-and-gold-flecked tile). A quilted pillow her mother made from leftover batik fabrics in a cathedral pattern adds an accent.

But Caranci’s home didn’t feel this comfy when she moved in — the foyer was painted in blood red pomegranate (“It felt like you walked into a dark cave”) and the kitchen, horror of horrors, was pumpkin orange. Several paint jobs changed the vibe considerably — the kitchen is now a muted brown, a far better match for the black-and-white cabinetry and tiles. A stack of Fine Cooking magazines near the window belies the couple’s appreciation for gastronomy, and many a dinner party has occurred on the old-fashioned oak farm table, complete with scratches and dents.

Living in the northern part of the Annex, Caranci has found her comfort zone smack-dab in the middle between Spadina and Dupont stations. “But it’s kind of strange because there’s so many rich families that pretend they’re really hippie-dippy, with their children barefoot and, you know, eating at Grapefruit Moon (968 Bathurst, 416-534-9056). You try to go for brunch and there are all these screaming children,” she says with a laugh.