CARV Projects Carves Out a Roncesvalles Village Creative Hub
Interior designer Valérie Cardozo designs a fun home base for her burgeoning firm—and recruits furniture sales agency Handling Space to join in the action
As the blue branding of interior design studio CARV Projects suggests, the firm’s founder, Valerie Cardozo, doesn’t hesitate when it comes to naming her favourite colour. Walking into her office in Roncesvalles Village, both the carpeting (by Mohawk) and the porcelain countertops (from Marbella) in the corner kitchen embrace the same high-impact cobalt hue. “I no longer call it ‘Yves Klein Blue,’” says Daniel Puntillo, who runs the furniture sales agency Handling Space and shares the office with Cardozo and her team. “Now, I say CARV Blue.’” The day that I visited, Puntillo and Cardozo even served a flight of organic juices that included, appropriately, an all-natural take on blue Gatorade made using algae pigment. (The verdict: very refreshing!)
CARV Projects founder Valérie Cardozo (at centre, in orange) and her team, Yana Shavlovska (left) and Tiffany Liao (right)
Cardozo, Puntillo and their teams have shared the same office since last year. After recognizing that she had outgrown her first studio, located in Liberty Village’s Carpet Factory building, Cardozo was determined to find something slightly bigger, but with just as much character. “We like buildings that have a story,” she says. She fell in love with the perfect one — a former furnace factory on Golden Avenue — but realized that the natural light-soaked unit available in the industrial brick building was perhaps too large for her and her team alone. So, she pitched Puntillo on the idea of being office mates. For him, the timing was perfect. “I had just done a display at IDS, so I had all this furniture that I wasn’t really sure where I was going to put,” he says.
Daniel Puntillo (left) and Marc De Rose of Handling Space
The two met years back, when Puntillo was working at another furniture distributor and helped Cardozo source designs for a project. As Puntillo went on to launch his own agency in 2022, the two remained creative confidantes. “We were always very collaborative, and we’re at a similar stage in business, so we have good synergy,” says Cardozo. Moving their businesses in together seemed only natural.
Carlo chair by Missana (left), Bold chair by Moustache (right), 14p table lamp by Bocci, Column floor lamp by A-N-D and carpeting by Interface
Most days, Puntillo and his associate, Marc De Rose, are busy driving around to design firms to pitch their various furniture offerings roadshow-style. But their office can still function as a pseudo-showroom when it needs to, with a back wall showcasing chairs sourced from their catalogue of brands, which includes Lapalma, Ethimo, and Hoshina, among others. When Puntillo and De Rose are onsite, they tend to work from a cushy sofa in the centre of the room; Cardozo and her team claim an adjacent area defined by Three H workstations.
LEM stools by Lapalma, blue carpeting by Mohawk, porcelain countertops from Marbella
The office’s well-calibrated balance between work and play is no coincidence: CARV’s portfolio includes both commercial and residential projects, and the studio’s own space captures its skill in both sectors perfectly. While the corner kitchen gives off the feeling of a stylish loft apartment, the extensive material library and meeting room on the opposite side of the unit are ready to get down to business. Then again, the meeting area still skews more creative than corporate — instead of sliding doors, it features a pair of golden folding curtain-like partitions by Italian brand Dooor (another manufacturer from Handling Space’s catalogue).
Gala chairs by Andreu World, folding textile partitions by Dooor, felt wall panels by Hush Acoustics
The relaxed dynamic between CARV and Handling Space meant that Cardozo also opted for partial rather than full-height walls, which allows light into the meeting room but also means some sound is carried out. (Acoustic panels from Hush Acoustics help out while adding in another, softer hit of blue.) “In essence, it’s quite a raw space, so we wanted to go with that sense of the building,” says Cardozo.
Paperclip stools by Amisco, BESTA shelving by Ikea, work table by Three H, folding textile partition by Dooor
Several other aspects of the efficient setup repurpose elements of her first-generation office space. The IKEA BESTA shelving unit in the material library, for instance, is a new configuration of the same unit that she bought when she first moved into the Carpet Factory. “It’s very modular, so it allows us flexibility as we grow because we can reconfigure it,” Cardozo says. To give the shelving a little extra geometric flair, she fitted it with custom circular elements. And, in another throwback to CARV HQ 1.0, she maintained the same banquette window seat — upholstered, of course, in electric blue. “It’s all just carrying on our story of how we started and how we’ve evolved,” she says.
Kipu pouf and Jey side table by Lapalma (left), Carlo chair (at desk) by Missana, artwork by Amelia Valentine
Rounding out the office are a mix of vintage finds, including the chrome Amisco Paperclip stools in the material library (“I wanted to tie into some of the silver in the kitchen,” says Cardozo) and the solid marble meeting room table (“The guy we bought that from was so nice and carried it up the stairs, even though it’s so heavy”). A painting by Amelia Valentine holds pride of place in a separate work area formed by the curved hallway introduced at the entrance. “It’s a lot softer than a 90 degree, and just sort of guides you in,” says Cardozo.
Yellow stool by Kartell
Recently, CARV’s office design received the ultimate endorsement: Cardozo was approached by a location scout hunting for a set to use in an upcoming TV commercial. “It’s going to be for RBC Small Business Banking,” she says. How apropos, given that her own business is booming. CARV Projects turned five last fall, complete with a big bash in the studio’s new digs. And while she has a full slate of projects in the pipeline, Cardozo is still especially excited to be working on her first project outside the country: a pied-à-terre in New York. “It’s for a repeat client,” she says. “We also did their lake house. And that speaks to one of the pillars of my business, which is that I love building relationships.” CARV’s linkup with Handling Space is another testament to that — and in the ultimate office roommate success story, Cardozo’s love of blue is already rubbing off on Puntillo. While he describes himself as someone who typically sticks to a black and white wardrobe, he recently picked up a pair of “CARV blue” Stone Island x New Balance sneakers while in Chicago for NeoCon this June.
