What: A 1941 building, once home to a Slovenian Catholic congregation
Where: Trinity Bellwoods
When O’Laoghaire and her husband viewed their prospective home in 1993, it was still a functioning church. The couple had an eye for unusual living spaces, but they couldn’t afford to buy and renovate the building on their own. Their listings agent put out a casting call, and they soon found another couple willing to split the building—and its $400,000 price tag—in two. O’Laoghaire and her husband had first dibs and took the front of the church, which has more natural light. Both couples then hired architects—O’Laoghaire chose the modernist firm Shim-Sutcliffe—and started building. And after almost two decades, life in a church for this family has been a match made in, well, heaven.
O’Laoghaire made this DIY version of Ingo Maurer’s famous Zettel’z chandelier using chicken wire, dowels from Home Depot and document clamps. Her daughters, friends and various house guests have all contributed.
Mill worker Steve Bugler built 22-foot-high mahogany-framed windows to link the indoor and outdoor spaces.
The couple bought the sofa 10 years ago from a now-defunct store on King East. It sits seven, but without arms it doesn’t take up a lot of visual space.
The fireplace hearth is concrete, and the surround is made of repurposed bricks from the wall where the giant window is now.
The columns are painted steel—a hallmark of Shim-Sutcliffe, starting with the Garden Pavilion they designed for Barbara and Murray Frum.
The metal and glass fixture hanging in the front hall is original to the building. It’s one of three the couple saved from the church: two are still hanging, and one is now part of the base of a small table.
The main floor is seven feet above ground level, so the teal half wall around the living room is vital for safety. The architects envisaged it as an “interior hedge.”
The series of green grape paintings are by Peter Dykhius. O’Laoghaire and her husband like to support emerging local artists.
You missed the Church off Roncesvalles – on Sunnyside. A favourite.
November 2, 2011 at 2:30 pm | by Jessicasorry! I stand corrected. Number 4!
November 2, 2011 at 2:31 pm | by Jessica#5
Victoria Lofts, formerly a Presbyterian Church on Annette in The Junction. Completed and people are moving in now.
November 3, 2011 at 6:21 am | by HeyRedLove, love, love #1.
November 3, 2011 at 6:31 pm | by Davediggeri love the abbey lofts on Sunnyside…I was so excited to see one of the million dollar penthouses a year ago when it hit the market.
November 13, 2011 at 11:11 am | by amy