Maura Grierson, co-host of 99.9 Virgin Radio’s morning show, has a few tips for weary real estate hunters.
First, even in a red hot area such as High Park or Leslieville, try and find a property that’s been impractically renovated: “We didn’t even go into a bidding war,” she says of the handsome one-bedroom, century-old Leslieville semi she purchased in March, 2013, a trace of disbelief still in her voice. The top floor, which had once contained three small bedrooms, had been renovated into a grand “couple’s suite” by the home’s previous owners: a large bathroom with skylights, a secondary living room/office with a wood-burning fireplace, and a bedroom with a soaring ceiling borrowed from the attic.
The second tip, though perhaps not for everyone, is to furnish with pieces from Craigslist, thrift stores, vintage furniture shops, and the Leslieville Flea. “That’s pretty much our theme,” she says, standing in the small family room adjoining the kitchen.
“Besides this couch, I don’t think there’s anything that’s brand new in this house; everything else is 100 per cent used, right down to what we’re drinking out of – we are second-hand people,” she laughs.
To understand Ms. Grierson’s vibe (Architourist’s note: I already do, as I’ve know her for a decade), one need go no further than her compact foyer. Here, doorknobs are repurposed as coat hooks, an army-green card catalogue floats against the wall – ready for car keys or loose change – and is partnered with a mirror that’s been in her family for decades; overhead is a light fixture fashioned from an industrial paint funnel purchased at the Flea.
And speaking of that eclectic, Etsy-type market, repeated trips there eventually led to a meeting with Eve Weinberg of Hillcrest Design, who helped bring the foyer to life.
In addition, Ms. Weinberg convinced Ms. Grierson to tie the foyer to the dining room using bold, colourful, floor-to-ceiling-to-floor painted stripes. While Ms. Grierson had already chosen a dining table – a $200 score that she and boyfriend Matthew Tosoni refinished then painted the legs a “sexy” gloss black – that she paired with used Thonet chairs, and the dining-room wall already contained the empty, ornate picture frames, Ms. Weinberg “amped it up” by adding more frames and commissioning artist A.J. Frick for the stripes.
“She was here for two weeks because no house is square,” says Ms. Grierson of the artist. “I thought a couple of times I was watching her pass out because she was staring at these lines trying to make them perfectly straight!”
In the middle of the home, the kitchen was in such great shape (again, due to the work of the previous owners) all that was done was knocking out some pantry cabinets on the staircase wall to improve sightlines, then brushing that wall with chalkboard paint.
In the family room at the rear (likely the original kitchen), Ms. Grierson and Mr. Tosoni have assembled a “family wall” of photos, art, and certificates. Ms. Grierson points to each of and describes its significance: here is Mr. Tosoni’s grandfather, “the first Italian to get his PhD in Canada;” next is Ms. Grierson’s great-grandfather with a cigar and scotch – “I love that people used to pose for portraits like this” – and her great-uncle the Mountie “standing in front of a teepee and he looks like a hero;” a sketch from Matt’s grandmother’s art collection follows, then it’s her late father, a engineering professor at the University of Waterloo. Punctuated by a peal of joyous laughter, she finishes at a photo of herself in Tinseltown: “Robocop red carpet in L.A., baby!” (Ms. Grierson had a prominent role in the 2014 film, and on CBC’s Battle of the Blades).
And if it weren’t for the “brand new” couch opposite the family wall, Ms. Grierson might borrow the previous owners’ idea of “rotating” the living and dining rooms “based on mood.” Behind the couch is a glorious wall of reclaimed wood by Swedish company Wonderwall Studios, a suggestion of Ms. Weinberg’s; it’s likely their first residential application in Canada.
With a rhetorical “isn’t this cool?” Ms. Grierson shows off the second floor. Here, a 1960s couch and two tubular chrome chairs invite conversation around the fireplace, and a desk the couple found abandoned on a Kensington Market street tucks so neatly into a nook, it looks as if it were purpose-built. A highlight of the bedroom is a bust draped with jewellery, an idea Ms. Grierson got hosting an HGTV television show called Space for Living in the mid-2000s.
Since the fundamentals were already in place, one gets the sense that decorating her own living spaces came easily: “The thing about houses that were within our price range is that nobody took any style chances,” she confirms. “Everything was staged so bland, boring and textbook.”
And despite the fact that a second bedroom could easily be added to the finished basement, or that walls upstairs could be reconfigured in the future, other potential buyers just weren’t able to visualize it.
“For me, it was a no-brainer,” she finishes. “This house was on the market once before and no one wanted it, and then they put it up again at a reduced price; because it was listed as a one-bedroom, nobody gave it a chance.”