How a stager remade a Liberty Village loft

Location: Liberty Village

The stager

Meeta Gunsheen founded Studio Sheen, a staging and interior design firm, in 2015. She has a master’s in fine arts, and spent years in India working on custom interior design projects before moving to Toronto in 2009. “Staging involves both art and science,” she says. “The art is the beauty and the colour, and the science is about keeping size and scale in mind and creating illusions.”

The property

This two-bedroom Liberty Village loft belonged to a couple, who were selling so they could move into a house. When Meeta visited, they were preparing to move in two weeks, so the space was extra cluttered. After she was through with it, the property sold for asking price in two days.

The strategy

Meeta’s main goal was to make the home seem as large and luxurious as possible. To open up the space and give it a polished feel, she painted the whole place white. She also researched the demographics of potential buyers in the area and decided to refashion one of the guest bedrooms into a home office. “I wanted the buyers to see the full potential of every inch and corner,” she says.

In the living room, the only thing she kept was the clients’ original drapery. She liked the warm gray hue and, since the ceilings were 18 feet high, she knew it would be difficult to find replacements. She brought in a sectional couch and highlighted the height of the ceilings with two tall pieces of abstract art. She thinks throw pillows made from swanky materials are essential. “They show a certain lifestyle,” she says.

On the couch, she added some quirky accessories to give the space some character, like a magnifying glass and a gold apple:

Opposite the couch, Meeta made the television a focal point. “It was a big, 16-foot wall, so I needed a statement piece,” she says of the TV stand. To contrast the dark wood, she added lighter pieces of decor, like eucalyptus and a white Buddha sculpture. The two pieces of wall art add a pleasing asymmetrical vibe.

In the dining room, Meeta swapped the owners’ heavy wooden dining table with a sleeker glass-topped one, and hung a circular mirror to brighten the space:

When Meeta first saw the master bedroom, there was a couch against the wall where she thought the bed should be. She got rid of the couch and added some side tables and accessories, like a clock and a framed photo:

In the guest bedroom, Meeta kept it simple: she didn’t want to add any dark furniture or heavy fabrics, for fear of making the room seem cramped: