Mim Concept has opened its first downtown Toronto showroom at 493 Queen Street West, marking a significant milestone for the six-year-old furniture brand that specializes in minimalist, mid-century modern designs tailored specifically for Toronto’s condo market.
For founder Anh Ly, the location represents a full-circle moment. Queen West was the first neighborhood she visited after immigrating to Canada a decade ago. “In my head I was like, one day maybe I have a store here,” Ly said. “And actually I made it happen.”
Finding the Perfect Space
Ly had been searching for a Queen Street West location since last year but couldn’t find anything suitable. When she finally found 493 Queen Street West, she moved quickly—securing the unit before it officially hit the market after initially inquiring about a neighboring property.
Unlike traditional furniture showrooms that prioritize square footage, Ly deliberately sought something smaller with a boutique feel. “We try to stay away from a traditional furniture showroom, very big and very diluted,” she explained. “I want something small and have a boutique feel.”
The showroom sits just steps from the Queen and Spadina intersection. Inside, the layout is conversational and open—customers can see everything from the entrance, then settle into a lounge area for coffee while browsing. “I wanted it to be really open space and conversational,” Ly said. “You start a story and you can see everything and then you have a lounge area, have a coffee together.”
From Thesis to Business Model
Ly’s journey to furniture entrepreneurship is rooted in her architectural training. She earned her Master of Architecture from Curtin University in Australia, then worked as a graduate architect in Ho Chi Minh City from 2014 to 2016 before moving to Ontario for interior design roles.
Her 2020 thesis criticized how “the current architectural environment appears to lack any real focus on the development of homes” and instead favored “the object and its cosmetic experience.” Six years into running Mim Concept, she’s found that furniture shapes how people live just as much as architecture does.
“If you have a lift-up coffee table, you can work there, you can play games, you have dinner there—it’s actually changed our way of living,” Ly said. “That’s why when I designed the Joey bed, the first piece I ever designed, and moving along, I find myself curating to younger people with smaller living spaces like condos in Toronto.”
The frustration that sparked Mim Concept came from personal experience. When furnishing her own downtown condo, Ly struggled to find quality modern furniture that fit Toronto’s spatial constraints. “I find that most furniture is very bulky. It’s really hard to get into a standard door frame or a standard elevator, and especially a bedroom—they’re cut smaller and smaller now.”
Her solution: design furniture specifically for Toronto’s condo market, with pieces compact enough to fit standard elevators and door frames without requiring freight elevator bookings.
Cutting Out the Middlemen
After working for a furniture company in Vaughan to learn industry operations, Ly realized that “manufacturing furniture in Toronto is not cost effective. You had to sacrifice—you cannot get quality furniture with a price that’s suitable for most young adults.”
She spent six months in Vietnam establishing direct relationships with small factories. “I’m the designer and I’m also the one who sources the suppliers and I’m dealing directly with factories and bringing the furniture directly from factory to consumers,” Ly explained. “So we’re able to cut down quite a bit of the cost.”
The company maintains low overhead with one warehouse location in Mississauga and now the compact Queen Street showroom. Ly has also made deliberate choices about marketing spend—declining numerous requests from influencers for free furniture. “I know there are a lot of influencers who reach out to us and ask for free furniture. We just cannot give it up because it will add cost to our consumers, our customers. And I don’t want that.”
Instead, she focuses on customer education, teaching buyers why mixing solid wood with engineered wood produces more durable furniture for Canadian climates than solid wood alone. “In order for solid wood to work in Canada, we have to dry it down really, really low to a certain percentage of moisture. And that process may be more expensive and it’s easy to split—the Canadian climate is very cold and dry. Meanwhile Vietnam is very humid and hot. So we have to treat the wood right. We have to choose which part we use solid wood and which part we use engineered wood.”
The Unconventional Launch Path
Mim Concept took an unusual route to market when it launched in January 2019. “Usually for furniture brands, they start with a showroom,” Ly said. “But I started with a website, one single website, and then a warehouse location. And then from there, I see where the trend is at, and people actually want to come by and see it. Not everybody wants to just buy online.”
The company now offers both in-person browsing and virtual viewing appointments—which Ly notes many customers prefer to navigating downtown traffic. About 30% of sales come from outside Toronto, with another 20% historically from the United States, though recent trade policy uncertainty has impacted cross-border business.
Ly credits her success partly to staff retention—most of her team has been with her for all six years. “When I introduce new part-time or new sales associates, I spend quite a bit of time with them to actually let them know what the brand is about,” she said. “Each piece, we don’t have any excuse. They actually have to learn each item—where it’s made, the composition, everything. And if they’re not passionate about it, they’re not the right candidate for the job.”
Looking West and Beyond
With the Queen Street showroom now open, Ly’s expansion plans include Vancouver and eventually a cautious move into the U.S. market. “I’m not a really political person, but it actually affects my business,” she said of current trade conditions. “So I’m just going to wait it out. We’re still a very small company, so there’s definitely room to expand and take in investors when we’re ready to expand faster.”
She’s also planning a documentary film about the Vietnamese factory workers who manufacture Mim’s furniture. “They deserve to be seen,” Ly said. “We have a few photos of them back in the day, but now I want to actually make a video to introduce to Toronto people—this is how furniture is made.”
For now, Ly is focused on establishing the Queen Street flagship as what she calls a discovery destination in “the heart of what’s happening in Toronto.” The showroom is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 8 PM at 493 Queen Street West.
Dustin Fuhs is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail, Toronto’s premier source for retail and hospitality industry news. As the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication, Dustin brings over two decades of expertise spanning retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality sectors. His experience includes leadership roles with industry giants such as The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, Starbucks and Blockbuster.
Recognized as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024 and 2025, Dustin delivers insider perspectives on Toronto’s evolving retail landscape, from emerging brands to established players reshaping the city’s commercial districts.