Growing up the son of an Italian immigrant who created a wood workshop crafting rooftop cupolas, Mick De Giulio absorbed the trade. Secretly creating a hope chest for his high school girlfriend as a graduation gift revealed his workmanship and led his father to recruit him at age 19 to add cabinets to their business inventory. Working with clients and contractors led to a job running a kitchen showroom in Chicago. A few years later, in 1984, De Giulio started his own business creating kitchens, homes and commercial spaces around the world. His outlook and achievements are chronicled in his luxurious book Kitchens.
Why do you say the kitchen is the hardest room to design?
It requires so much precision. There’s no fudging on the dimensions and tolerances. In other rooms, you may be able to tilt a chair or move a table slightly, but in the kitchen there’s no tweaking.
How have kitchens transformed over the past half century?
Today they are number one. Kitchen architecture used to be in last place of hierarchy, but people started to live in the kitchen, discovered what it could be—somewhere to hang out. Cooking and eating are activities people enjoy. Now they’re the driver of the home, in America and worldwide.
How does your Italian background inform your work?
Italy is all about cooking and eating and family and being together. And part of Italian culture is design and creativity.
What is your Metal Boy?
It’s a cabinet with sliding glass doors. Instead of nesting, the pots and pans hang on each side so they’re visible, and you can take them out without making a lot of noise. There are better noises than clanging pots and pans.
Why will the white kitchen never go out of style?
Because it’s a translation of fresh and clean, plus there are endless possibilities, so many unique interpretations. White isn’t the culprit, it’s really the artistry and creativity that can make a great kitchen.
What do you mean by the refrigerator “armoire”?
It’s when you can’t discern the difference between the refrigerator and a beautiful piece of furniture. You mask the facade, and integrated fridges are what I like to work with.
What’s an example of reimagining a kitchen feature?
Stainless steel is an example. We own a metal shop and can do our own unique metal crafting, fine brushing, hand rubbing. Our finely brushed, hand-rubbed Angel Hair finish is not typical, but it gives countertops, door frames, hoods a little different texture, pulls out the yellow tones and make the stainless feel warmer.
When is a back kitchen called for?
The challenge of an open kitchen is you like things to be put away neat and clean. So you put the coffee maker, the smoothie machine, the dishwasher in a space supporting the main kitchen, so you have a kitchen you can entertain in.
What’s your approach in countertops?
Beautiful materials that can’t burn or stain, and are hygienic—don’t absorb or harbor bacteria. Besides stainless steel, we’ve been using quartz, and we fabricate cocciopesto, a pounded terra cotta, an impermeable surface that’s stain resistant. It was used in Roman aquaducts. In butler’s pantries, we use wood, a softer material.
How has LED transformed kitchen lighting?
They’re warmer than fluorescent and don’t give off heat. Because they’re so small and sculptural and can be completely hidden, we’re able to light small offsets and details. And they increase visibility, so when you open a cabinet you can see inside.
What’s a detail that offers great impact to the look of a kitchen?
In every single element, there’s something that can be done. It’s details very thoughtfully resolved, refinements that take a lot of precision to execute and are hard to describe, like the dove tailing and certain joints in Japanese woodworking. A very fine piping at the bottom of a range hood gives a very refined edge you can’t help but notice. You look and there is unmistakably so much craft and mindfulness to it, that’s what people look for and appreciate.
You designed a Barbie-themed kitchen. Who’s an actual celebrity you’d like to design for?
Paul McCartney would be a very interesting person to do a kitchen for, because of his creativity and approach.