Designer Daniel Corbin has every reason to smile.
Series Sell or renovate, which he co-hosts on Canal Vie, is a success. His business, D-Cor, is thriving. “In the last year, we received 850 project requests. We had to refuse more than 700.” His design projects are nominated in international competitions. On the sidelines of all that, he manages apartment buildings.
“I have the career I always dreamed of,” he enthuses, with this frosty side that has made him one of the darlings of the general public. But the more our conversation progresses, over black coffee in the newsroom of The Pressthe more Daniel Corbin reveals a side of him that we know less about.
His serious side.
The last three years, marked by the pandemic, have shaken him. “When everything closed, I thought my tenants were all going to lose their jobs. That no one was going to pay me anymore. » Customers have become more and more demanding – and in a hurry. Then prices exploded. Not just materials. Those of the houses, too.
It worries me. I have daughters aged 14 and 10. I look at the price of properties at the moment and I say to myself that if they don’t both become specialist doctors, it will be impossible for them to buy a house.
Daniel Corbin
A concern shared by several parents and which echoes his own story.
That of a man who, as a young adult, never thought he could become an owner.
Daniel Corbin comes from a background that he describes as “very modest”. He and his older brother were raised by their mother in the village of Nominingue, between Mont-Laurier and Mont-Tremblant. In his family there were no artists, engineers or designers. At home, no decoration magazines or architecture books. School? “It wasn’t my strong suit. »
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Daniel Corbin
Where did he feel good?
In his room. He was 12 when his brother went to live with his grandparents. “I inherited his room. I didn’t like him. I threw it all away. I moved the furniture. I went and took the gallons of paint that were lying under the stairs, and I decorated. I wanted people who came into my room to say ayoye, your business is cool. It all started from there. My inspiration didn’t come from magazines. It came from between my two ears. »
In his late teens, he took up sports. Snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing. “In a pretty intense way. » So much so that at the age of 18, he founded a sports store with a friend in Mont-Laurier. “We created everything ourselves,” he says proudly. After four years, I realized that I loved drawing, construction, marketing. But the operations? Zero and one bar. I didn’t want to know anything about that. I realized that what turned me on was the design. »
He moved to Montreal, where a contact at Mexx offered him marketing at the store on Sainte-Catherine Street. “I didn’t know what marketing was. They told me: “Put the rag on the racks”. I did that for a year and a half. I didn’t really understand why this collection had to be on the edge of the door rather than at the back. I trusted my instincts, but you know what? It worked. »
He went to offer his services to all the businesses on rue Saint-Denis, “from one side to the other”. Neon trusted him. “The manager screwed up. » The contracts kept coming, until the day the owner of a business asked him to transform his house. “That’s where I fell into residential. »
At that time, he never would have imagined finding himself at the head of a respected firm. Nor be a homeowner. Nor even be an owner at all. ” No. It was impossible. When I was young, the people around me didn’t think much of my future. I consider myself a [rescapé] of life. The only business I wanted was to make $40,000 a year and make a living from my job. Even today, I pinch myself. I can’t believe I’m being paid to draw plans.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Daniel Corbin
“Are you suffering from imposter feeling?
– Not anymore. But I had it until three, four years ago. Because I wasn’t trained at school for this job. And then because I was looked down upon for years.
– For what ?
— Because I was on TV. In the industry, you have people who do purist, brutalist things, without decoration. You also have people doing a TV show, with plastic plants. I’m between the two. Our projects at D-Cor are very niche. But on TV, I make projects for ordinary people. And I, the average person, know him well. I was. I know what it’s like to have money to buy just a gallon of paint. But with a gallon of paint you can do a lot of things. »
The topic of money comes up often in our conversation. Daniel Corbin says he is “very, very, very conservative” with his own money. “I even have difficulty spending. I’m not a scratcher. When I go out, I spend. I want the people around me to be good. But I am very aware of where I started and where I am. That’s why I look at the state of the market right now and why I worry about young people like my daughters. »
He is aware of being on the side of the privileged today. This is because he has made good investments over the last 20 years by purchasing apartment buildings in difficulty in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of Longueuil. Except that the market has changed recently.
My approach was to buy a duplex and transform it into a triplex. It worked six years ago, but not anymore. The price of blocks has exploded. It’s completely insane.
Daniel Corbin
“Twenty years ago, a plex with fewer than four units was a safe haven for an owner-occupier. Today, that no longer happens. It has come to pass that people come together in groups of two or three to buy a plex.
— Did that take away your desire to buy them?
— It certainly cooled me down. When I rent a place, I always wonder if my children could afford it one day. Don’t understand me, I’m not here to give charity. But when I see two and a half or three and a half for $1,200 in Longueuil, I find that it no longer makes sense. I don’t know where it will end. »
The solution, he believes, will come through teleworking.
“I don’t think young people will live in the city. With our firm, we do projects throughout Quebec, and what I notice is that young people are already starting to leave the major centers. They go north of Tremblant, for example. I see the emergence of cool little cafes in a few villages. From design offices. Web agencies. It wasn’t like that five or six years ago. These young people have understood that they will have to leave the big centers to afford something.
— Do you think that’s a good thing?
– No. When you take a trip to Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Denis, you understand why. There are pathetic areas. »
The future of cities, according to him, involves even greater densification.
“In Quebec, we build too big for absolutely nothing. We duplicate everything. We have two living rooms. A dining room, a dinette and an island where you can eat, even if there are just four of you in the house. People ask me to expand their homes, but they don’t even know what to do with their basement. In recent years, our consumption habits have changed. But housing? Not that much. »
Questionnaire without filter
Coffee and me: “Once my father came to our house. I asked him if he took his coffee with milk and two sugars. His answer ? No, I like coffee. Since then, I have been drinking my coffee black. »
The most beautiful city : “It’s kitsch, but it’s Montreal. When I was young, it was one of the great cities in the world. We haven’t lost any charm. We did some crazy stuff. There are beautiful, little-known neighborhoods in Montreal. The history of its architecture is captivating. But I challenge you to find young people under 40 who are interested in this. »
The most beautiful neighborhood: “Mile End, in Montreal. I also like my company’s neighborhood, on the border of Griffintown and Pointe-Saint-Charles. What they did with Wellington Street is really interesting. »
Who is Daniel Corbin?
- Designer born in 1973 in Nominingue
- Founder in 1999 of the D-Cor firm
- The general public discovered him from 2009 in half a dozen television shows, including the success Sell or renovate, which he co-hosts with Maïka Desnoyers on Canal Vie. The eighth season will air during the winter.