DeSerres

A spacious craft and art supply store in the heart of Toronto’s Fashion District. De Serres has two floors, offering home décor, framing, and crafting supplies on the first floor. Crafting supplies include fancy paper, wrapping supplies, stamping, scissors and cutting tools.
Upstairs there are fine art supplies, pens, pencils, frames.
What I like about this place is that it caters to both the serious artist and the occasional crafter. The tools are high quality.
The only downside is that for the series crafter some areas have less selection than you might like, for instance there is half an aisle of stamps, but you could have a whole store devoted to just that!
The employees are knowledgable. There is a loyalty card program.

Deserres has been around for a while, and it definately shows. This store started off as Loomis, and became Deserres a while back. The store is huge, spanning two floors of the building. On the ground floor, you’d find scrapbooking supplies (paper, stickers, stamps and stamp pads), more crafty kinds of things (they have an area dedicated to fabric pens!) and more «kid-​friendly» stuff. The upstairs area is a bit crowded with «serious» stuff — like paints of all sorts, and other stuff. (Can you tell I’m not an artist?) It’s all a bit confusing, as trying to find a specific item is unneccessarily annoying! (I ended up browsing both floors to find lino cuts upstairs and fabric paint downstairs…) They have a custom framing area, and it looks to be pretty competent.
Staff is generally willing to help, but pretty scarce to find. It’s all a bit hit and miss. (They might know where some stuff is, or they might know something about the art supplies you need or the technique you need.) However, that is par for the course in a huge art store — not everyone can know everything about every technique or material invented.
Prices are generally on par with what you’d expect to pay at a higher end art store. However, there are cheaper alternatives to buying from these guys. (But, Deserres does stock stuff that even Curry’s or Woolfits doesn’t…)

I have great gratitude towards the staff of DeSerres, especially Chris and Carrie (the store managers) and the framing department.
I had a quantity of framing mats cut and the staff made sure everything was done right and that I was totally satisfied and happy. This is how service should be!
Prices are competitive and their rewards program really pays off if you are a regular buyer of art supplies.
They have great sales all the time, so be sure to visit often.

I’m not much of an artist, but I still find reason to pop by this conveniently-​located DeSerres from time to time. Mostly, I come here for scrapbooking supplies. They have a spacious layout and everything is easy to find. They have a good selection of different sizes/​styles of scrapbooks (adhesive pages or those clear-​pocket style), fancy scissors, photo corners, printed sheets of paper, stickers, gel pens, etc. — everything you need to make an awesome scrapbook!
Prices are a bit high compared to Above Ground next to OCAD/​AGO. However, they have some great sales depending on when you go. The last time I went, I stocked up on semikolon (
) stationary for 50% off. The notebooks are great quality and come in a rainbow of fun colours!
They have all your other standard art supplies too, spread out over 2 floors. Staff are generally young, knowledgeable, and happy to help in any way.

My favourite place for art supplies. Well stocked, great staff and reward points that actually make sense.

I love walking through this place … although, I’m not an artist, I can always find something to entertain the DIY’er in me!
Yesterday, I was there with my doberman, and we bought a variety pack of felt — let the crafting begin!
They have in store framing dept, so if you’re looking for custom framing or cut mat’s, it’s super convenient.
They have large beading selection, too.
Dog Friendly.

I cannot for the life of me break out of the stick figure scene but DeSerres really saved me this holiday season. I have 6 children to buy for and don’t have time to be running thru the insaneness that is the mall so I head to DeSerres and they have many gift giving options for the young, and the young at heart. Whether you have a 3 year old or a 40 year old, they have many options.
I also decided this year to make my own wrapping paper and the options they had were great.
I highly recommend a visit.

De Serres (formerly Loomis) is a 2 floored art supply store. Downstairs you’ll find crafts type things, including beads, frames, colouring books, a variety of different papers, etc. Upstairs, you’ll find paint brushes, paint of all kinds, sketch books, pencils, pens, drafting tables, etc.
It’s nice that they divide up the store like that because you can figure out quite easily which floor you’re supposed to be on based upon what you want.
However, after having been here a few times, finding what you’re looking for isn’t always as easy as knowing what floor to go to. From time to time, their paint brushes are all over the place, and generally it’s hard to figure out which one you need. Sure, you could read every single tiny barcode tag description there is, but even then it doesn’t always follow logic.
Granted, the staff is friendly, and usually helpful. I’ve had moments where the staff knows where to find the things things I can’t. And then there are also times where I bring a staff to a part of the store and they become as frazzled as I do.
The prices here are pretty much on par with other arts supply stores, so you can go here and be confident in the knowledge that you won’t be ripped off.