Just opened: Love the Design is the newest addition to gallery row

Just opened: Love the Design is the newest addition to gallery row

Love the Design is more like a living room than a gallery

Up a long, narrow staircase, above the shoe store Chasse Gardée on Queen Street, sits a cozy new addition to the city’s gallery row. Love the Design, a light-filled, loft-like space owned by Christine Flynn, features a variety of contemporary art created from a collection of her vibrant photographs.

Flynn's photos are coat with resin for a glossy finish

Fusing her passion for photography with an undeniable flair for art and design, Flynn sells custom mixed-media works that are on display in a living room setting. Exposed brick walls, an inviting sofa and sparkly chandelier set a comfortably chic scene, where clients can sit and chat with the award-winning artist, contemplate a purchase and picture the art as they might live with it.

Love the Design is the umbrella brand and storefront for Flynn’s stationery company, Love the Card, and reaches a larger clientele with a taste for creative decor. Flynn counts Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland and television host George Stroumboulopoulos as fans, in addition to brides and society girls (like Amanda Blakley).

The art can be customized to suit intimate or industrial spaces and personalized with a selection of photographs and treatments. Whether a New York City subway–inspired sign or a rich rural Ontario landscape, photos are enhanced, given distinctive graphic treatment and finished with a glossy resin. An image of a majestic horse peering out from a large polished canvas is priced at $2,080, and a serene shot of wind turbines costs $1,960.

Visitors can drop in for a visit on Tuesdays and Saturdays or make an appointment Wednesday through Friday. Select pieces can also be viewed on-line.

Love the Design, 1084 Queen St. W., 416-408-1727, lovethedesign.com.