Over a span of only a few years, Efe Kababulut has helmed a creative transformation of the furniture manufacturer Lazzoni that might take other family businesses a generation to navigate. When Efe arrived in America from Turkey in 2004, on the eve of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in industrial design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the brand was “just selling sofa frames to a company in Texas for resale,” he recalls. Now Lazzoni operates eight U.S. showrooms and enjoys a reputation for taut, multifunctional furnishings that appeal to urban dwellers.

Efe had been steering this rapid evolution largely from New York, where he had moved after graduating from RIT. But a shift in Lazzoni’s design perspective also meant changes in the company’s sales and operations, and Efe ostensibly lived out of a suitcase between 2017 and 2019 to have more hands-on involvement with his colleagues back in Turkey. “You become detached when you don’t have a home,” he recalls of the chapter.

Yet it was also during this period that, driving through Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, Efe spotted a 1972 apartment building overlooking the Bosphorus Strait that seemed like a place where he would be happy to spend six months of each year. Risking a faux pas, he asked the doorman of Imar House if he knew of any potential sellers among the residents. (“You don’t do that in Turkey,” Efe says of the conversation, “because people really want to understand who you are and that you’re not intent on destroying the community.”) The exchange revealed one man who had decided to remain abroad after his studies, rather than return to the apartment his father had purchased for him inside.

Before: Living Room

Efe acquired the 1,112-square-foot Imar House apartment from that father in largely its original condition. Stripping the space to just columns and beams allowed full upgrades of the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems.

Efe simultaneously replaced the windows with floor-to-ceiling glass that soaks in views of the Bosphorus Strait. Imar House is adjacent to the American Robert College, which Efe calls “basically, the only green place in Istanbul. You have parrots flying all around you, and almost anything in the world can grow in the Bosphorus climate.”

After: Living Room

A gut renovation also meant that Efe could fully execute a more poetic vision for the home, which he now shares with his wife, Peri, and their toddler daughter. “Istanbul is one of the most busy and crowded places in the world, and I wanted to have serenity in the chaos,” he says. The designer adds that he wanted to combine Asian and European influences within this minimalist environment, to reflect Turkey’s geographic and cultural bridging of continents.

After: Zen Garden

The renewed space incorporates an interior Zen garden, complete with raked sand in a triangle of the living room. The space was converted from an exterior balcony in a project that required a yearlong wait while Istanbul’s building professionals—namely, a city department dedicated solely to properties that are visible to sailors cruising the Bosphorus Strait—weighed the necessary approvals.

The strict regulatory requirement slowed the renovation to 28 months in total, but it was worth the wait—along the easternmost perimeter of the living room, meditation and work areas enjoy a front-row seat to the waterway.

Before: Entry

The entry had all the trappings of ’70s-era apartments, irrespective of their location: suffocating proportions, a confusing mix of materials, and so-so- storage.

After: Entry

Efe’s redesign of the entry proves that, in urban environments, every inch matters. He widened the existing closet and raised the head jamb, which not only increased the closet’s volume but also improved access to its uppermost portion. The closet’s integrated pulls hint at the capsule shapes that are routed out of the apartment’s radiator covers, and the slanted dropped ceiling mitigates the transition from narrow arrival space to the expansive living room. All surfaces are clad in cypress to lend the entryway an even bigger appearance.

After: Kitchen

The kitchen is located just off the entryway. Given its immediate proximity to both the front door and the living room, Efe maintained the work area’s separation from the wider space. The introduction of sleek cabinets in a duotone scheme, as well as the refinishing of the concrete slab, exorcized the kitchen’s vintage qualities.

Before: Primary Bedroom

Another 1970s trope of apartment design? Back-to-back bedrooms. In the existing residence, two bedrooms were individually accessed via the living room and a service corridor.

After: Primary Bedroom

In a dramatic revision to the apartment’s original plan, Efe combined the two bedrooms into one. Taking advantage of the boost in size, the Lazzoni board member lined the south wall in a grooved surface from which shelving cantilevers at nightstand and chair-rail heights.

Before: Bathroom

The apartment had received some incremental upgrades since Imar House’s construction, and nowhere was that clearer than in Efe’s former primary bathroom, whose combination of grays and mochas exuded a strong pre–Great Recession vibe.

After: Bathroom

Today the bathroom is an emblem of Efe’s East-meets-West parti. While the seamless flow of functions begs an easy comparison to a Turkish hammam, the references to Japanese culture are more palpable. The circular mirror is a kind of ensō; the hand-chiseled and highly veined stones surrounding it are imperfectly perfect in the manner of wabi-sabi; and the room’s color palette evokes the charring of shou sugi ban.

Before: Laundry Room

The service corridor terminates in a laundry room, the footprint of which echoes the former terrace. Abundant closets made the most of the oddly shaped space.

After: Laundry Room

Efe leaned into the existing storage even more heavily, by adding a Murphy bed to the room. The fold-down bed regains the accommodations that Efe had sacrificed by combining the apartment’s two bedrooms into a single retreat.

More Before & After Stories:

In Buenos Aires, a Crumbling Home Gets a Major Refresh With a Rooftop Pool

A Breakthrough Renovation Reveals a Parisian Apartment’s Good Bones

Project Credits:

Designer: Lazzoni / @Lazzoni

Builder: Lazzoni

Lighting Design: Lazzoni

Interior Design: Lazzoni

Cabinetry Design: Lazzoni

Photographer: Ibrahim Ozbunar / @ibrahimozbunar

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Before & After: A Design Visionary Gives a Neglected Istanbul Apartment a Fresh Outlook