Before & After
Before & After: See A Boxy Condo Get Transformed Into A Cool & Curated Home
Updated on November 28, 2023
When Joey Diaz (left) bought his downtown Toronto condo, he never imagined spending so much time in it. He was moving from a large house with a ravine view on the edge of the suburbs and wanted to move back to the downtown core — he missed his more urban life. Born in the Philippines, the retail executive grew up in Manila and spent a lot of time in California. He’s enjoyed a long career in fashion and home merchandising in both San Francisco and Toronto, including many years at Holt Renfrew. This move would mean more time for travel and enjoying local restaurants and his new pied-à-terre. “I’ve always wanted a New York–style condo with European flair,” says Joey. The unit was an empty 1,248-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom model suite at The Harlowe, at Bathurst and Richmond, complete with exposed concrete ceilings (which he liked) and dark wood floors and sterile synthetic materials in the kitchen and bathrooms (which he didn’t).
In 2020, before Joey moved in, he called on Mazen El-Abdallah (right) of Mazen Studio to overhaul the space. Mazen had worked on Joey’s last home, and the two immediately fell into a comfortable rhythm. “Mazen already knew my style and what I was looking for, so the process was easy,” says Joey. They quickly settled in to their shorthand and got to work.
Scroll down to see this cool and curated Toronto condo!
The first order of business was to redo the flooring in a white oak herringbone. Mazen got the new floors ordered just before the pandemic ground supply chains to a halt, and before the building stopped allowing construction projects at all for several months.
In the interim, they planned for a design that focused on comfort and ease, pulling it together in a way that didn’t rely too heavily on major construction work or importing exotic, hard-to-find pieces and materials.
Before: “Sometimes, the instinct is to rip everything out,” says Mazen. “But it was nice to take a moment and question whether it was necessary, even from an environmental perspective. We entirely transformed the kitchen, and it has no lesser of an impact than if we had started fresh.”
After: They kept the layout but reclad and extended the cabinets, and bought new appliances. They also added a longer island with a Paonazzo marble top and improved the lighting. “I like to have a guiding principle for projects,” says Mazen (right), “but then I focus on the experience of the space, and on the moments that make a home feel special.”
Other touches throughout add a sense of warmth and texture to what was otherwise a basic, boxy space. The condo’s concrete ceiling had awkwardly placed junction boxes, making lighting a challenge, but rather than build a drop ceiling and add recessed lighting — an expensive and time-consuming proposition — Mazen sourced fixtures with long cords and counterbalanced or asymmetrical lines.
Before: They worked with the existing living space, upgrading where it made sense and building around Joey’s already impressive collections of art and furniture.
After: Now, the unit seems much larger than its square footage implies, thanks to the many distinct spaces that have been carved out. There are elegant sight lines from almost every angle, and plenty of places to sit with a laptop (or a cocktail) and enjoy the city views — something that, over the past couple of years, has become even more important than either of them could have imagined
Before: To add warmth to what could have been a dark nook, Mazen designed the dining area to feel like a library, with a gallery wall and open shelving. Keep scrolling to see it!
After: The gallery wall and banquette make it feel like a great restaurant booth. Statement light fixtures — many of them vintage — accentuate each space and bring interest and character. “Mazen and I agree that lighting is like jewelry for your home,” says Joey. “And here, it makes the space look entirely different at night. It almost feels like a different apartment.”
“It’s so funny,” says Joey. “I do a lot of Zoom calls, and everyone is in the process of redoing their workspace and redecorating. I’m so glad I moved forward with the project and that we could get everything completed. It makes working from home so pleasant.”
Before: The principal bedroom felt cold and sterile.
After: Now, it’s serene in white and shades of grey. Joey’s favorite piece of art, Icarus by Deganit Berest, hangs above the bed. “At first glance, it just looks like dots,” says Joey, “but when you stand far away, you see the feet of the diver.”
Dark built-in cabinets in the bedroom alcove are perfect storage for clothes and shoes.
Before: The principal bathroom was lacking character.
After: The new space is clad in limestone. Horizontal striations juxtapose the vertical grain on the vanity and medicine cabinet.
Joey’s collection of spectacles makes for a cool accent in the principal bedroom.
Silvery-blue grasscloth lines the entry and extends through a new glass and metal doorway into the second bedroom, which Joey uses as a home office.
Stacey Brandford
Mazen El-Abdallah