Person in Toronto creates maps you can customize with the location of your home

Toronto graphic designer Natalie Lake combines her love for geography and design to make customizable maps of Toronto neighbourhoods. 

The simplistic black and white prints are each available in three different sizes and include detailed street names and even a heart to mark the location of your home. 

"To give the maps a special touch, I sometimes add a red heart where the customer's home location is and people seem to love that," Lake told blogTO. 

"I've also added markers or icons to favourite coffee shops, parks and bars - all the places that make a neighbourhood special."

The neighbourhood maps can be customized with a heart marking the location of your home and icons of your favourite spots in the area. 

This all started from a personal art project she worked on back in 2016 for her and her husband's first home in Leslieville. 

"I thought a map pinpointing our new home would be a cool piece to display," Lake says. 

"When I completed that map, I thought I would design other neighbourhoods to give to friends as housewarming gifts. I was inspired to keep designing more neighbourhoods, so I would spend the day at the coffee shop and create a new neighbourhood each day."

Lake currently does over 30 different neighbourhoods around the city, as well as neighbourhood maps for five other cities besides Toronto including Ottawa, Vancouver and New York. 

Natalie Lake with her husband and child at the Leslieville Flea Market a few years ago. 

"I've designed over 100 neighbourhood maps from all over the world." 

Over the past four years, Lake has sold her prints at local flea markets, art shows and shops including Queenie's Cards and Old's Cool General Store, as well as online. And people have been purchasing maps of their present, but also past neighbourhoods. 

"I think it's neat to see all the streets and street names in your neighbourhood. However, I've also had customers who request custom maps of the neighbourhoods they grew up in or moved away from to have them as a memento," she says.

"Seeing maps of those neighbourhoods tells a story about a certain time in your life."

Whether you'd like to reminisce on the old neighbourhood you grew up in or to mark all of your favourite spots near your current home, you can customize any map the way you'd like on the website.