Condos
January 22, 2021
This Curated Apartment Is Bursting With European Treasures
Impossibly juicy green tomatoes still on the vine tumble out of a wooden bowl on the kitchen island in Nathan Williams’ apartment. “The last harvest before the cold,” he says. When he moved into the west end Toronto rental with his partner, Nick Nemechek, the backyard was a pile of weeds. Now it’s an urban gardener’s paradise, producing plump produce, fragrant herbs and field flowers. Like most things these two creatives get their hands on, they took something many people would have overlooked and turned it into something many people would pay (handsomely) to have.
Nathan is currently the chief creative officer at Indigo, where he directs everything from window displays and marketing campaigns to product design; last fall, he launched Oui, his first collection of homewares for the book retailer. But he’s best known as a co-founder of Kinfolk, the indie magazine he launched with a group of friends in 2011. An early champion of slow living, Kinfolk quickly established an obsessive following. Today, it’s an influential lifestyle brand that authors bestselling books and curates a namesake gallery in Copenhagen.
The duo’s move to Canada is something of a homecoming for Nathan, who grew up in Magrath, Alberta. But he had never visited Toronto. They found their apartment on Kijiji, and chose it because it shared some of the old charm they had appreciated in their previous homes, such as high ceilings, original floors and wood-burning fireplaces. Nathan and Nick slapped a fresh coat of paint on the walls and waited for the beautiful furniture they’d shipped across the ocean to arrive. “We attach a lot of emotional value to our objects,” says Nick.
The apartment is a testament to how perfectly their tastes are aligned. Yet Nick laughs at the idea that they’ve decorated. “What’s decorating? It’s all about organizing,” he says. Nathan admits he has a higher tolerance for stuff, which required some compromises. “It’s not a mess; it’s controlled chaos,” he says as Nick eyes the stacks of magazines by the window. “I feel happy and inspired and calm with lots of stuff. Stylistically, it might not be the best, but it’s how we live. It’s functional for us.”
Scroll down to tour their artfully curated apartment!
“In Copenhagen, our flats were about hosting and entertaining,” says Nathan (right). “They weren’t big, but we had dinner parties and friends over multiple times a week.” They quickly realized they needed to rethink their space for their new lifestyle. “Our home has shifted to be more a place for study, reading and work,” he says.
Nick purchased this Hans J. Wegner cabinet in Denmark. “It has the most beautiful brass hinge closure,” he says. Nathan painted the canvas above it.
The apartment’s original floors and wood-burning fireplaces give it authentic charm. A Pierre Chapo S31A stool adds a modern note.
The couple bought this antique ceramic vase on a trip to Puglia, Italy. It broke in transit, so they spent a weekend carefully gluing it back together. “We think it only adds to the charm,” says Nick.
A velvet room divider covers a door in the living room and creates a textured backdrop. The sofa is draped in a cotton sheet. “The reality of a white sofa is that it gets dirty,” says Nick. “We like this vintage sheet for a little added safety.”
A tall plinth gives a sandstone sculpture extra impact. The two vintage travertine tables were scored at an auction in Denmark.
Nathan recreates a version of this mood board whenever he moves. Some of his favorite elements are the 1929 photograph of Jean Cocteau by Germaine Krull (top right), a photograph of his grandmother (middle, woman at fence), and a shadowed self-portrait of his last day in Copenhagen with Nick.
Nathan turned the dining room into his office when the couple began working from home in the spring. The Tommaso dining table by Zeus made the trip from Denmark. An Akari 95EN light sculpture by Isamu Noguchi hangs above it.
“This box holds old photographs, letters and notes,” says Nathan. “I go through it often. It’s a lot of our travel photos; I didn’t realize how much a part of our life that was. Travelling really challenges the way you think about and approach your creative work. It’s important to be somewhere else sometimes.”
“I gave The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson to Nathan for his birthday,” says Nick. “It was originally published in 1952 and, like Cartier-Bresson’s photography, was rather scandalous. The cover design is a collage by Henri Matisse.”
Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
House & Home January/February 2021