Canadian furniture & more at Modern Komfort

When we wanted to overhaul our entire living room — from paint to furniture and furniture placement — it was mid-pandemic and there was no way I was having an interior designer into our home, nor was I doing any non-essential in-person shopping at the time either. I searched and searched for online furniture stores in Canada and stumbled on a few before finding Canadian furniture store Modern Komfort.

Originally a side hustle between two sisters and their sister-in-law, Modern Komfort has evolved and now includes not only an online shopping portal but also two brick and mortar stores — one in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a newly opened one in Ottawa, Ontario. (This GTA gal didn’t need furniture stores in Toronto when she could simply shop online!)

What drew me to Modern Komfort in the first place was the Cloud Sofa. But what convinced me to spend ALLS my money there was the convenience of shopping online with the assistance of its in-house design consultant, affordable white-glove delivery service and that I was supporting some fellow Canadian ladies in the process.

And when I wrote that we were overhauling our living room, I meant it. After 12 years of living with toddler-friendly decor (think darker colours to mask Play-Doh, juice and granola bar stains), I wanted a brighter, more grown-up space that flowed better with our kitchen makeover from a few years back. Our transitional kitchen design introduced a more Nordic, mid-century modern aesthetic to our home that we fell in love with — and we are very open-concept here, so flow is important.

Giving up the safety net of a microfibre couch — one that had so much stain-resistance that when The K Man, then aged 2.5 years old, took an address stamp and stamped the entire couch dozens of times in black ink, that it looked brand new after a good wipe — is what led me to the Cloud Sofa. Made with a slipcover that’s Crypton fabric, the Cloud Sofa would be moisture-, stain- and odour-resistant and, if things got really bad, we could always just take the cover right off to have it professionally cleaned.

This sofa became the anchor piece of our entire living room transformation, and once we saw what else was available at Modern Komfort, there were no other online furniture stores in Canada that could come close in terms of style, price, delivery and service. We ultimately purchased about 97 per cent of what you’ll see in the “after” photos below directly from Modern Komfort — and, months later, we are still 150 per cent happy with that decision!

Before our Modern Komfort living room makeover

Furniture placement in our space was always, well, awkward. We have a bulkhead that creates a strange corner on the window side of our living room and it’s very open to both our kitchen and dining room, save for a double-sided fireplace that offers some separation.

When Jo Alcorn redesigned our kitchen, she sat in our living room — pensively — before finally asking if we were married to this furniture arrangement — featured in the best “before” shot I have:

Any good living room before and after story starts with a dated before pic!

With no TV in our living room (very much on purpose), she suggested we move our couch to the back wall — where you see that beautiful painting my friend made us as a wedding gift — so it availed any visitors a better sightline into the kitchen where we would inevitably be milling about while hosting. From that day on, we switched things around. And while it did create some improvement, it still never really felt “right.”

Alas, it’s no small investment to revamp an entire room and we had littler kids still making bigger messes then, so we mostly ignored how much we disliked everything about our living room. Until the pandemic — when our living room became one of the only spaces in our home that wasn’t for work or school. We needed a better retreat and our hunt for Canadian furniture — or at least a Canadian furniture store — began.

Our Canadian furniture store design process with Modern Komfort

With our anchor piece — the Crypton-covered Cloud Sofa — already decided, I played around with a few different looks, adding various side and coffee tables to a makeshift design board I created on my own in Google Slides. I added in some rugs here and there, swapped out mirrors and even thought through lighting.

But I’m certainly no design expert and while I’m reasonably good at the big stuff, the finer details and general placement of things trip me up.

That’s why I was thrilled to find out that Modern Komfort offers an optional design service with its in-house interior stylist. I’ll include Jessika’s very reasonable price list here — just note that this is accurate as of June 2022 and subject to change.

Whether you’re looking for help incorporating some new pieces with your existing pieces or you want to strip everything bare and start from scratch, Jessika can help. Through a few online convos, I shared the general look and feel I wanted (bright and modern with a Nordic vibe) and Jessika was instrumental in bringing the final look together. In the end, I think she sent me four design boards to narrow everything down! Here’s one of them:

I believe this was the third of four design boards. For those who need a visual to make design decisions, this element is critical.

As you’ll see below, I still nudged a few things around once they arrived. I also added my own coffee table books, curtains and some sheepskin throws to our chairs (not only to protect them but also to tie in the rest of our main floor, which is heavily sheepskinned), as well as some coasters and a plant and planter I picked up locally. But we wouldn’t have ended up with the space we now have and love without Jessika’s expertise.

Finally, a fresh coat of paint (Sherwin Williams Pearl White) really helped lighten the overall canvas. Oh, and I created my own artwork to go above the sofa — in part because it’s illegal to share photos of other people’s art without consent, in part because it’s so much cheaper than buying “real” art, and in part because I got exactly what I wanted this way.

The Canadian furniture store pieces we chose from Modern Komfort

I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves here! I’ll include the product names below, but to avoid any future dead links, your best bet will be to head to Modern Komfort’s site and use the search bar to find them. Or, better still, if you live near Ottawa or Fredericton, pop in to one of the stores.

This is where we landed — with that gorgeous Cloud Sofa front and centre. I was really (really, really, really) nervous about buying a sofa online, without even sitting in it, but the women at Modern Komfort assured me it was super comfortable. And they were right. In fact, we call it The Black Hole. It’s amazing.

Quite a lot of our new Modern Komfort living room is from Renwil, a Canadian furniture and decor brand from Montreal. That artwork is all mine, though! It’s called The Fracture. Not that you can see all of its glorious texture and colour variants here!

This pic shows off all of the big pieces really well, like the ORB Oval Coffee Table, Cable Lounge Chairs, Penelin Floor Lamp, Faye Side Table (yes, that is one massive hunk of tumbled marble and it took two grown men and a rolling cart to get it into our house!), Jules Rug (No. 4 in Tangerine/Mist) and Archie Ladder — and, of course, the hero piece: our Cloud Sofa.

Now that we’re several months into our Cloud Sofa ownership, I can confidently tell you that liquids bead up on the Crypton fabric and have yet to leave a mark. We haven’t even had to spot clean yet, because we’ve just soaked up any spills with a paper towel. And although I did purposely pour water on our new sofa to test out its moisture resistance early on, I’m sorry to say that I refuse to take one for the team and pour red wine on it “just to see.” Y’all know I take my testing seriously, but that’s a line I’m not crossing. However, as the months and years wear on, we will surely have more spills and I’ll come back to share updates here.

While I was nervous about replacing a glass coffee table with a wooden one, the ORB is lacquered well enough that it has stain-resistance but not so much that it looks shellacked. We simply keep coasters nearby and, so far, it’s clean as a whistle.

Now let’s get into some of the other pieces and styling details. First up — the Dora Ceramic Bowl filled with a set of Wooden Links from Modern Komfort’s decor section, and the Warsaw and Dylan Pillows in the backdrop:

When you’re getting everything brand spanking new for a room transformation, you definitely want an affordable furniture store like Modern Komfort.

We initially had these links going on my mantel but they were such a great fit for this bowl that I left them there. I added two books that I never plan to read and only selected because of their colour. Yes, I not only judged the books by their covers, but I bought them entirely because of them!

Next, a closeup of the stunning Faye Side Table styled with a Copper Series Soy Wax Candle and Decor Beads:

When you’re buying furniture in Canada online, you want to make sure that it’s with a reputable company who stand behind the products they sell. We had an issue with one of our pieces and Modern Komfort’s after-care service was impeccable.

I loooooove the organic, Earthy texture that this side table adds to the room. It’s a real SOB to move, but the good news is that it would take a LOT to knock it over so the drinks we perch there are in good hands.

Now for the ultra-modern Bassett Mirror, flanked by the Stephen Decorative Object and Wellington Candle Sticks (complete with Taper Candles in the colour Parchment), along with the Claude and Terris P1140 Pillows resting on the other side of the Cloud Sofa:

Looking for modern Canadian furniture and hand-selected imports? Make Modern Komfort your first stop.

Between our dark hardwood floors and lighter wood chairs in our kitchen, we needed to incorporate some different wood stains for it all to make sense together, and both the built-in ledge on the mirror and this interesting objet helped do that.

We love our paper cord Cable Lounge Chairs (they are ridiculously comfortable!) and we used the Penelin Lamp back there to tie in the black legs on the coffee table:

Modern Komfort is a Canadian Furniture Company that offers some reproduction pieces, like this MCM Cable Chair made out of paper cord. Other reproductions we’ve found are listed at nearly twice the price. I have no idea what an original Hans Wegner chair costs but it sure isn’t what we paid.

We love how low-profile these chairs are because they don’t impede the openness between our living room and kitchen.

To fill the void created by having a double-sided fireplace, we added the Archie Ladder draped in Modern Komfort’s Pure Linen Throw:

The best furniture store is the one that shares your aesthetic and fits your budget. For us, that was Modern Komfort.

The linen is so luxurious and drapes so beautifully on the ladder. In fact, if they made a bigger version, I’d buy one to cover my dining room table.

If I haven’t already been abundantly clear, we are SO IN LOVE with our living room now. The transformation to “hey, look! We’re adults who don’t have babies anymore!” couldn’t have gone better, IMO. I will be a Modern Komfort customer for life because it’s the best furniture store around — hands down.

Here’s the final before-and-after money shot:

Our living room transformation blew us away. The space feels bigger and even the ceiling seems higher! The furniture configuration is — finally — perfect.

Why Modern Komfort?

So, to recap, here are the top 6 reasons I think Modern Komfort is the best of the best when it comes to online furniture stores in Canada:

1. Selection. It’s huge. You’ll find page after page of modern Canadian furniture and furniture that’s been hand-selected and imported by decor experts. Plus, it’s all online so it doesn’t matter if you don’t live near their stores in Ottawa and Fredericton.
2. Curation. One of the things I loved most about shopping online with Modern Komfort is that their curation game is strong. Everything goes with everything! Even if you don’t go the route of hiring the in-house designer, you’ll be able to choose pieces that have already been carefully curated.
3. Price. If you compare Modern Komfort’s prices to those found at other Canadian furniture companies, it’s a very affordable furniture store for a mid-range budget. Will it be like shopping at your neighbourhood Swedish import store? No. But it’s also a far cry from the Roche Bobois, Montauk, Hollace Cluny types while still getting a high-end result.
4. Service. Even before I partnered with Modern Komfort to bring you all of this information (and hopefully inspiration!), I found their service timely and attentive. Working 1:1 with Jessika was also a total breeze.
5. White-glove delivery options. Do you have to have everything delivered directly to its final resting place in your home by masked, gloved delivery folks? No. But for $185, if you’ve ordered pieces like sofas, chairs and tumbled marble side tables that weigh more than the average adult, it’s worth it.
6. It’s Canadian! It may not all be Canadian furniture, but by shopping at Modern Komfort, you’re supporting a Canadian small business. As Canadian furniture stores go, this one just feels extra-special to me because of its backstory.

One final piece of advice… If you’re purchasing larger, more expensive pieces, snap them up as soon as you’ve decided to move ahead. We held off on ordering until we had the entire look together and it ended up costing us an extra $600 because the chairs we chose went up $300 apiece between our initial selection and final purchase about a month later. If we’d just gotten the big pieces — like chairs, sofa and coffee table — squared away once we knew we wanted them, we would have saved a nice chunk of change.

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If you liked this post about Canadian furniture from Modern Komfort, why not check out more of my content? Read more about Le Boat Canada, budget for a master ensuite remodel, or learn how to make pour-over coffee at home. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: While I did partner with Modern Komfort on this transformation and received a discount on our overall purchase, my opinions and recommendations remain what they would have been even without a discount.