Furniture for Life: Habitus Furniture

Meet Rob Hanson, one of the co-owners of Habitus Furniture, Lighting and Home Decor! Located in the heart of Old East Village at 762 Dundas, this is a boutique furniture store where you buy for life. “It's not like you're just buying it because you need to furnish a space,” Hanson says. “These are time capsule pieces that perhaps you would give to your kids one day, or take with you when you move.” They specialize in new and vintage Scandinavian furniture, including Danish Modern & Mid-Century Modern. In addition, Habitus offers full scale space planning for clients, creating full scale 3D drawings of living spaces to find what shapes, sizes, and colours work best for your home.

Habitus began out of Hanson’s home around three years ago with his partner, Jenna Hertz. The two started out by selling vintage furniture out of their dining room. “We’ve been in [OEV] for two years this August,” Hanson says. “We were importing vintage furniture, unpacking it in my dining room, selling it on marketplace, and then we got a temporary space downtown, and that’s how this all evolved.” He adds that they started strictly with vintage, but slowly shifted to selling new products, with vintage now only making up around 5-10% of their sales. 

Taking a look at Habitus’ extensive collection on their website, each piece is presented in a curated and intentional way. The products are set in clean interiors with natural light that show off the piece’s form and craftsmanship, something Hanson takes great pride in. “That's what started it for us, was the creative aspect and taking our own photographs,” he says. “As you get bogged down in the day to day stuff, you have less time for that, but it’s still my favourite, whether it's putting together a vignette, doing a photo or video shoot, or designing something for clients.” 

Habitus’ is unique among furniture stores, opting to take a “people first” approach. Hanson and Hertz handle everything from their marketing to shipping orders. “There’s a lot of the time when you buy something online and it’s just transactional,” Hanson says. “We try to personalize every detail of the journey, because in a digital world where everything is online now, we want to keep it personal and build strong relationships.” This approach has allowed Habitus to build a strong client base not just in London and the surrounding area, but as far out as Vancouver. “A lot of our customers have relocated from these bigger metropolitan areas, so they’re happy that there’s a local place here that can provide for them.”

If you’re looking for furniture that does more than fill a space, stop in at Habitus Furniture, Lighting and Home Decor! “Furnishing a home is just as important as designing a home because that’s your wellness space. We want people to love what they’re buying so that you have somewhere that you feel comfortable after a long day.” 

Habitus is open by appointment on Monday and Tuesday, 12 - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. 

📍 762 Dundas Street

☎️ 519-601-9931

🌐 https://habitus.ca/