Home Decorating

Pink, white and frilly as a Valentine, the hand-painted façade belonging to this century home on Avenue Road, north of Dupont, at first glance suggests a designer's atelier, or boutique. But then the word “Anselmo,” written in large letters over a double-pane two-way mirrored window, gives its identity away.

The home of Attila and Elizabeth Anselmo, Hungarian-born artists trained and practised in the age-old technique of mural painting, at one point used their private residence as a gallery for their work, attracting clients as diverse as David Cooper, owner of the notorious Zanzibar strip club in downtown Toronto, and the Queen Mother in England.

For the Zanzibar, the couple created a three-dimensional mural honouring the ladies of the night, while for Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the most popular member of the Royal Family before her death in 2002, they hand-painted roses on a silk bedspread under which she slept during a Toronto visit.

A sample of their work for the Queen Mother is framed and on display in the house that the Anselmos are selling after 22 years at the same address. Buyers of the semi, zoned for both residential and commercial use, have the option of also purchasing the couple's art.

These include a series of geisha paintings and a pop-art diptych of a white cup and saucer that Mr. Anselmo once created for a Tetley tea commercial. The paintings hang upstairs in a second-floor apartment, one of three in a home with views of the Toronto skyline. Exposed brick, an original claw-foot bathtub and arching passageways are authentic antique details that help give the home its charm.

Others, like the faux-finished walls and faux-stained windows, have been fabricated by the Anselmos, specialists in the art of trompe l'oeil, pictorial painting that creates the illusion of architectural structures.

Visual tricks aside, the house is solidly built, with structural changes including a new support wall where a bank of ovens once stood in service of a catering company that previously operated out of the premises. Picture that.

Stats: Three storey semi-detached house at 280 Avenue Rd. in Toronto is a 3,161 square-foot, five bedroom, three bathroom home. The owners are asking $1.199-million and taxes (2007) were 4,477.43. The house has a double-pane two-mirror front window embellished with 18-karat gold; parking for six cars at back; private entrance with limestone walkway.

By Deirdre Kelly