Blanchard Loft

"Isn't this what we've all been waiting for? All of us under the same roof?"

- Emma to Mary Margaret

The Blanchard Loft is a Storybrooke location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the second episode of the first season.

Visitors

 * Aladdin
 * Archie Hopper
 * August Booth
 * Ava Zimmer
 * Bashful
 * Belle French †
 * Billy †
 * Cruella De Vil †
 * Doc
 * Dopey
 * Dr. Whale


 * Evil Queen
 * Elsa
 * Granny
 * Happy
 * Hook
 * Jasmine
 * Leroy
 * Maleficent
 * Marco
 * Merida
 * Mother Superior


 * Mr. Clark
 * Mr. Gold †
 * Neal Cassidy †
 * Nicholas Zimmer
 * Regina Mills
 * Robin Hood
 * Robin Hood †
 * Roland
 * Sidney Glass
 * Walter
 * Zelena

Trivia
On-screen Notes=

On-screen Notes

 * The apartment number is 3 and it is located on the upper floor of the building.
 * The loft accommodates two levels with the second level, located in the roof cavity, containing a bedroom.

Location

 * The location of the loft is portrayed inconsistently. It is often implied to be situated right across the street from the pawnshop, meaning that it is in the same block as the clock tower building, in a location that does not actually exist in Steveston Village, likely in the area of the dentist's office. This location is prominently used in "Best Laid Plans", where the pawnshop is clearly visible through the window as Maleficent's sleeping spell approaches. The location is also hinted at in previous episodes:
 * When Mary Margaret is inside the apartment in "True North", Emma calls her on the phone from outside and asks Mary Margaret to come outside and meet her. The two meet across the street from the clock tower building.
 * After Mary Margaret leaves the apartment in "7:15 A.M.", she is headed away from the clock tower.
 * When David is cleaning Mary Margaret's car in "What Happened to Frederick", it is parked in front of Storybrooke Coffee Co, next to Jolene's Arts & Crafts, which are both located in the same block as the clock tower, opposite the street from the pawnshop. When Emma finds Henry's storybook, Emma's car is parked next to the clock tower building.
 * When David talks to Mary Margaret in "The Return", Mary Margaret comes out from behind Jolene's Arts & Crafts. Mary Margaret's car is parked in front of the same building.
 * When Emma and August leave the apartment together in "The Stranger", they come out from behind Storybrooke Coffee Co, before proceeding to walk down the street, past the clock tower. Emma's car is parked in front of Storybrooke Dental (which is right between Storybrooke Coffee Co and the clock tower).
 * When Emma heads toward the apartment in "New York City Serenade", she begins to walk toward the clock tower building.
 * However, there is also evidence to support that the loft is in the vicinity of Granny's Diner:
 * The bird feeder and birdhouses that Mary Margaret and Henry tend to in "The Shepherd" and "The Evil Queen", are located behind a white picket fence across the street from George's Taverna and Storybrooke Savings & Loan. These two businesses are situated near Storybrooke Country Bread, the building that is across the street from Granny's Diner. Granny's Diner is approximately fifty meters down the road from the clock tower building.
 * This white picket fence is located next to the Storybrooke Post Office. After Emma and Henry leave the apartment in "The Price of Gold", they walk past the post office and up to Emma's car, which is parked across the street from this building.
 * In "Unforgiven", David Nolan loads up his truck in front of the same fence, across the street from Storybrooke Savings & Loan.
 * The fence features prominently as the exterior setting for the apartment in "Best Laid Plans":
 * When Mary Margaret and David leave the apartment just before Maleficent casts her sleeping spell in "Best Laid Plans", they are walking away from the fence.
 * Later, when Mr. Gold leaves the apartment with Maleficent, Regina and Cruella, they walk across the lawn behind this fence, before getting into Cruella's car, which is parked in front of the same fence. This moment is secretly witnessed by Mary Margaret and David from across the street.
 * When Emma and Mary Margaret offer to let Ruby move in with them in "Red-Handed", all three of them head off in the direction of Granny's Diner, away from the clock tower.
 * In "Operation Mongoose Part 2", after returning to Storybrooke, Emma runs down the main street of town to reunite with Hook at the loft. She runs towards Granny's Diner, away from the clock tower.
 * In addition, when Mary Margaret is eating breakfast in her apartment in "The Thing You Love Most", she is surprised to see the that the clock tower is working. However, the clock is facing away from the buildings that are located across the street from the pawnshop, which would make it impossible for her to see the clock if she were living in this area.


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * According to set decorator Mark Lane, the apartment is supposed to be above a store, with a lumber mill out in the back of it. It is also supposed to be just off the water and is meant to have the feel of a fish cannery. The set was purposely filled with working-class antiques one might find in an old apartment in an old town to make it somewhat locked in time. Therefore, there are not a lot of new things in it.
 * According to production designer Michael Joy, the apartment is a kind of modern-day princess type of environment, an echo of Snow White as a romantic character living in the wood. It is supposed to be an industrial space or an old office space. The idea is that Mary Margaret is very earthy and crafty and because she is a teacher who does crafts with her pupils, she took the same do-it-yourself approach to decorating her home. One could imagine she decorated that all by going to garage sales.


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * Mary Margaret has a ceramic blue bird figurine on her nightstand. This is a reference to the blue birds in the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
 * When zoomed up close, the back of a dish Mary Margaret is washing has a Disney logo on it.
 * There are two small Bambi statues in Mary Margaret's apartment.

Lost

 * While talking about Mary Margaret's feelings for David, Emma and Mary Margaret share glasses of MacCutcheon Scotch Whiskey. This was a fictional brand on Lost.
 * When Emma is taking out her anger on the toaster, there is a bottle of MacCutcheon Scotch Whiskey on the countertop.
 * While he and his wife talk about the situation with Maleficent, David pours himself a glass of MacCutcheon Scotch Whiskey.

Popular Culture

 * The song playing while Emma is "fixing" a toaster is "Kool Thing" by Sonic Youth.
 * The song playing during Mary Margaret's homecoming party is "Origins" by Tennis.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * Mary Margaret has a Homegrown Monogram Mug by Anthropologie (no longer available).
 * Mary Margaret has an Anthropologie Grapefruit Sugar Bowl (no longer available).
 * The round cookies that Ava and Nicholas eat in Mary Margaret's loft also decorate the walls of the Gingerbread House.
 * Mary Margaret has an Anthropologie Monogrammed Mug. It can be seen sitting on the breakfast tray that David prepares for her in "Selfless, Brave and True".
 * In the apartment, there are framed photographs of Mary Margaret with her students. Emma picks up one of the pictures when she searches the apartment.
 * In the apartment, there are two Anthropologie Inside Out Bowls in Pink (no longer available). One of the bowls is sitting on a tray when David makes breakfast for Mary Margaret.
 * The tray David carries when he serves Mary Margaret breakfast is an IKEA Romantisk Tray in White.
 * One of Mary Margaret's shoe boxes is from Purbeck Shoe Store, a business located across the street from Granny's Diner.

Set Dressing

 * Jennifer Morrison owns a painting that was used as a prop in the loft.
 * In "The Thing You Love Most" and "Snow Falls", the window outside the door is a regular, clear single-pane window. In "The Price of Gold", it has been divided into four window panes. In "The Return", it's replaced by a glass-stained window. In "Broken", it's replaced by a new glass-stained window.
 * The window in "The Return" also appears in a corridor at the inn in "The Thing You Love Most", "The Stable Boy" and "The Return". It can also be seen on the entrance to The Rabbit Hole".
 * The second glass-stained window is also used in a hallway in the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Meissa in "Changelings".
 * Tree and flower motifs are decorating the walls next to Mary Margaret's bed. This is a reference to the Enchanted Forest.
 * Mary Margaret and her Enchanted Forest counterpart are known to have an affinity for birds, and birds are a common motif in her apartment including:
 * At least six different bird figurines
 * Pillow with bird motif on the bed
 * Ceramic teapot with owls on it
 * Sugarbowl with a blue bird on top
 * Framed bird pictures
 * The writing on the brick wall says "Original Liquid & Paste Grate Polish Black Bird" and there is a giant crow painted on the wall. According to Celtic mythology, the blackbird sings at twilight, the time that is neither day or night and therefore a time of going between. The song of the blackbird can transport the listener between worlds and for those who listen, the blackbird shares secrets about the Otherworld and magic.
 * There is an Oak and Acorn Tureen from Williams-Sonoma (no longer available) on Mary Margaret's kitchen counter.
 * There is a figurine of a white rabbit in the apartment.
 * On the countertop, there is a Vintage Enesco Tea for Two Owl Teapot.
 * One of the framed pictures on Mary Margaret's shelf is "Lesser White Throat", from volume VII of A General History of Birds (1823), a book by the English ornithologist John Latham. The illustration shows a common whitethroat nesting.
 * A framed illustration of a group of butterflies is sitting on Mary Margaret's shelf. The picture is from an 1852 edition of A History of Earth and Animated Nature, an eight-volume work by the eighteenth century Irish novelist Oliver Goldsmith. The books were first published in 1774 and went through over twenty editions into the Victorian era.
 * The apartment is decorated with children's drawings, most likely from Mary Margaret's students.
 * One of the drawings shows an apple tree, which is remarkably similar to the Storybrooke coat of arms, and Regina's apple tree.
 * One of the drawings was made by Henry.
 * Mary Margaret has a large collection of clocks, just like her grandson, Henry.
 * A wedding cake topper covered by a bell jar sits on Mary Margaret's shelf, a reference to Snow White and Prince Charming.
 * A vintage Borden wooden crate is sitting on the apartment floor.
 * The banner at Mary Margaret's welcome home party is later reused in Granny's Diner with Emma's name added below it.
 * After the first curse, an illustration by Julie Morstad, an award-winning author, illustrator and artist living in Vancouver, is hanging on the wall by Mary Margaret's bed. A few years later, after the third curse, it can be seen sitting on a shelf.
 * Neal has a baby mobile decorated with sheep. This is a reference to his father having originally been a shepherd.
 * A Gung Ho boardgame, published by E.S. Lowe in 1961, is lying on the shelf in Henry's bedroom.

Costume Notes

 * When Jasmine is in Mary Margaret's apartment with Emma and the others, discussing a plan to find Aladdin, Aladdin's fez is sitting on the table.


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The scenes in Mary Margaret's apartment is filmed on fully-dressed, two-story movie set at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, where Once Upon a Time films. Everything in the apartment set, including the kitchen sink and the gas stove, is fully functional, which is not always the case on TV sets.
 * The apartment set was built on a studio stage for the first season of Once Upon a Time. For Season Two, the set had to be torn down and be rebuilt on a different stage.
 * The inside of Mary Margaret's bathroom only appears in a single scene: when Zelena escapes through the window in the Season Three episode "Quiet Minds"; even though the room is fully decorated.
 * Despite being a two-story set, the show didn't shoot upstairs for the first three seasons because it is difficult to get cameras on the second level. The top floor of the apartment is explored for the first time in the Season Four episode "Smash the Mirror", where Henry reads comics with Regina in his bedroom.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.