Charlie’s Former Factory Loft
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Name: Charlie Man
Location: Toronto, Ontario
My home is a one bedroom, 775 square foot loft that was converted from an old scientific instrument factory, originally built in the 1920s. I’ve always loved converted lofts because of the charm and character inherent in older buildings. The original wood ceiling is definitely my favorite thing about my apartment.
I purchased it about two years ago and did a number of renovations, including completely redoing the kitchen and bathroom, installing new light fixtures and ceiling fan, installing custom glass sliding doors for my bedroom, and refinishing/staining the hardwood floors. It is a dramatic change from what it looked like when I first bought it and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.
As a design engineer, I’m pretty particular about design in general and I loved being able to design and hand-pick all the different elements to make the place exactly as I wanted.
Some of my favorite items:
2. My reclaimed wood dining table and TV bench that I personally designed and had custom made.
3. My vintage Heywood Wakefield theatre seats, which are perfect for putting on your shoes and then folds neatly away when not in use. I designed a custom galvanized steel base for it because I didn’t want to bolt them directly into my newly refinished floor.
4. My vintage Eames armshell chair.
5. The pendant lights in my kitchen that I made myself using various lamp parts I found online.
6. My vintage butterfly chair that I found on Kijiji for $20. It came with a green cloth cover that was so old and stretched out, so I replaced it with the brown leather one in the photo.
7. The two large vintage photographs I obtained from the Toronto Archives. They are photographs taken in the early 1900s of the installation of the streetcar tracks in my neighborhood.
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