A warm Toronto loft in a former piano factory
Artist Mary warmed a grey loft in a late-1800s Toronto factory with a green ceiling, vintage finds and a Marketplace EQ3 sofa set.
Mary's downtown Toronto loft sits in a late-1800s building that has housed a newspaper printer, a piano factory and offices. When she bought it, everything was grey, black and white. She wanted it to feel like a warm museum, so she painted the ceiling forest green and the walls cream.
Mary is an artist and a former packaging designer. A collage she made from Coffee Crisp wrappers nods to that job. She paints a self-portrait every year, and her art and finds from antique markets cover the walls. A lamp from a Wild West saloon lights the hall.
She's proud of her deals. A seller of designer floor models sold her an EQ3 conversation sofa set, worth about $32,000, for $2,000. A silk Persian rug came from a seller who didn't know its value. A café in Rome let her buy one of its lamps for her kitchen. A Chinese room divider serves as her headboard, and it set the look for the rest of the loft.
Mary grew up in the Philippines and has lived in Toronto for 26 years. When we filmed, she was about to move to Paris.
