Designer Spotlight! Mick De Giulio

While Mick De Giulio has held a lifelong passion for design, he’s been remodeling and elevating homes for over four decades now with his firm de Giulio design. De Giulio design features both a workshop and a studio in the Chicagoland area, and an artisanal metalcrafts studio in Michigan. Mick has taken his creativity all over the globe, completing projects in North America, Europe and the Western Pacific. De Giulio is also a product designer, creating best-selling collections for such international brands as SieMatic, Kallista, and Visual Comfort & Co. Outside of our Inspiration Studio, he has also designed showrooms for Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove in both New York and Chicago.

Mick’s years of hard work and creativity have earned him many accolades and numerous awards. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is currently serving as a judge for Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove’s prestigious Kitchen Design Contest. Publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Architectural Digest, and Elle Décor have featured him and his work. Many top European and Asian shelter magazines such as Domus, Architektur & Wohnen, and Asia Dreams have featured Giulio as well. Outside of designing homes and commercial interiors, Mick De Giulio is the author of two books, Kitchen Centric (2010) and Kitchen (2015), which you can purchase right here at Abt. The most fun fact we learned about our featured designer upon writing our spotlight is that De Giulio was a coproducer on one of HGTV’s first-ever series on luxury kitchens and bathrooms in 1997.

De Giulio designed the Inspiration Studio nearly 10 years ago with an eye toward the future. Today, the spaces look as fresh as they did when they were installed. This timeless quality has always been an important aspect of Mick’s design. There’s no one way to label his style, as like most creatives, he doesn’t wish to put himself in a box. We think this De Giulio quote about the Inspiration Studio says it best: “The spaces don’t adhere to the specific themes of traditional, modern or eclectic, which I felt created lines or boundaries within those styles. Rather, my goal was for each space to have a style of its own. I wanted to challenge conventional design and inspire visitors to think differently about kitchens and appliances”. Many say the kitchen is the heart of the home and Mick says it is often the driver for the home’s design.

De Giulio enjoys elevating the functionality and craft of each kitchen component, often experimenting with open floor plans as well. Open floor plans allow homeowners to have more loved ones in the kitchen. In turn, this makes the room a perfect place to host gatherings. Rather than the living room, De Giulio makes the kitchen both the hub of entertainment and a comfortable and livable in his designs. To make each cooking area truly stand out, he enjoys using movable surfaces for further flexibility. He also incorporates fine architectural details and a wide variety of materials for an artistic touch. You’ll likely see a lot of these facets upon exploring our Inspiration Studio.

So how did Mick De Giulio land the opportunity to design and install Abt’s luxury Inspiration Studio? Bob Abt himself chose him. Bob was the sole idea man behind the Inspiration Studio and while we didn’t know it at the time, it would end up becoming his final project at Abt. His goal was to create a lifestyle-oriented showroom that allowed customers to see the appliances in the context of real kitchens. Bob Abt, who inspired so many others throughout his lifetime, wanted to provide a space that fostered this same inspiration for home design.

Mick De Giulio has been working with the Abt family for over 30 years. So when the time came to find a head designer, Bob knew exactly who to turn to. De Giulio says, “Bob wanted quality to be felt at every level in the new space…in his words, ‘first class'”. While the Inspiration Studio had its grand opening in 2016, Bob Abt sadly passed away in 2015, preventing him from seeing his idea come to life. However, his idea has provided joy and creative vision to thousands of employees and customers for about eight years now.

The Inspiration Studio is the premiere destination for homeowners looking to plan a new luxury kitchen. Over 10,000 feet of floor space, you'll be able to look at 13 unique kitchen builds. Each one is centered around a premium appliance suite from one of the best kitchen brands in the industry. Mick explained, “I designed many one-of-a-kind artisan pieces including lighting fixtures, furniture, tables and sinks, as well as unique cabinetry finishes and details specifically for the project, and many were crafted in our artisanal metalcrafts studio. I used some of my favorite materials throughout the space including brushed stones, exotic woods and unique applications of metals such as German silver, stainless steel, bronze, and silicon bronze”. The best part is that the Inspiration Studio is completely interactive: “Each space includes live cooking, connected plumbing and sinks to allow demonstrations”.