You’ve finally moved out into an apartment all your own. Students in Montreal are lucky to have access to a huge supply of affordable rentals, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come with their own problems. They can be old, drafty, and sometimes you wind up with floor plans that simply don’t make sense for modern renters. There’s no apartment design problem you can’t ease over with the right furniture.

A common feature of many Montreal apartments is the open concept bedroom-living room. It’s a great until you want to invite people over and cram them all into your kitchen. One thing you can do is buy Japanese folding screens, also known as byobu, to separate your sleeping space from an area where you can study or relax.

Custom Bookshelves

If you’re a student, you’ve got no shortage of books. Add some personality to your book collection with custom bookshelves. DIY bookshelves are a fun summer project when you’re out of class and you’re bound to find something you can salvage and repurpose leftover from Moving Day.

Under-the-Bed Storage

Is your closet missing something? Is that something enough space for all of your stuff? Under-the-bed storage is the solution you need. If there’s any space in your apartment that’s underused, it’s where the monsters hang out. And even if monsters stopped lurking under your bed long ago, at least you won’t give the dust bunnies anywhere to accumulate.

Sofa Bed

When you have out-of-town friends coming to visit, you will wish you’d bought a sofa bed for your living room. A sofa bed easily pulls out to give you extra space when you’ve got friends staying over, but you’d never be able to tell when you fold them back up. Sofa beds are versatile and you can arrange them to fit around your desk or any other workspace you need in your new living room.

Stovetop Espresso Makers

If your kitchen counter is tight on space, it’s time to embrace moka pots and their European simplicity. If you haven’t seen one of these already, they’re stovetop coffee makers that are hugely popular in Europe and have made their way into plenty of Montreal homes. They work by packing espresso-grind coffee into a basket that goes into the middle and filling the bottom chamber with water. Turn on the burner and as the water heats up, it pushes through the coffee and fills up the top chamber with coffee. Just set a timer and your morning coffee fix is solved.

As a student, you’re busy with your courses and if you live in Montreal, you probably don’t have a car. Instead of coaxing your friends into helping you haul your new furniture on the metro, shopping online for furniture can make it really simple. Look for free delivery deals so that you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to get your furniture to your new apartment. You’re living on your own for the first time. Make your apartment a place where you can study, relax, and have friends over. You will definitely appreciate saving money when you can invite everyone to your place instead of having to go to the bar.