Designer Mick De Giulio’s secrets to a trendsetting kitchen

Key takeaways

• Mick De Giulio is a Chicago-based designer with a focus on kitchens.
• De Giulio sees kitchens being designed first, giving the space dominance over the rest of the home's design.
• While kitchen design changes, De Giulio works with basic design principles to guide space curation.

Kitchen trends come and go, but Mick De Giulio says the fundamentals of good design endure. Over more than 40 years designing kitchens for luxury homes, condominium towers and high-profile clients, the Chicago-area designer has relied on the same core principles of proportion, volume and balance even as the room has evolved into the center of the home.

His kitchen designs are found throughout some of Chicago’s most luxurious homes, from circa 1800s renovations to modern-day builds, and throughout the country. At the designer's Wilmette, Illinois, showroom, a digital map charts the locations of his projects, which are dotted across most of the country.

De Giulio of de Giulio Design has created kitchens for the Coppola family in Italy and the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Chicago, while also designing product lines for brands including SieMatic, Kallista and Visual Comfort.

His career has paralleled a broader shift in residential design: increasingly, kitchens come first.

In recent years, De Gulio says the kitchen has taken over the home's hierarchy, becoming the starting point for the rest of the home's design.

Kitchen design now “is really setting the pace for an entire project,” said De Giulio in an interview with Homes.com News. “And it should, because with our clients, it’s the No. 1 place they want to be and focus upon.”

De Giulio explores that idea in his third book, “Mick De Giulio: Kitchen First,” publishing this fall. The book highlights projects that reflect the kitchen's increasingly central role in the home.

“There are projects right now where nothing else is designed, but we’d start with the kitchen. But then people would say, ‘Can we just keep going?’” said De Giulio.

Despite experiencing the progression of kitchen design for decades, De Giulio has always held tight to design principles that make a space feel comfortable and personal to the client.

In his new book, the designer shares the behind-the-scenes of 12 selected projects that speak to the principles that have guided his work for decades.

He sat down with Homes.com News to talk through those insights and the background to his projects.

There is a difference between how a space might feel and the reality of its layout. For example, a kitchen might have low ceilings or immovable beams that look to limit the space's capabilities.

With smart, intentional use of proportions and volumes, De Giulio executes kitchens with soaring ceilings that feel human-sized or low ceilings that feel wide and open.

Tucked into the Aspen Highlands of Colorado, one of De Giulio’s projects features soaring pitched ceilings that mirror the silhouette of a mountain.

“That works because it works with the house. … Now, how do we now make this more of a human scale?” said De Giulio.

He started by creating what he calls a "relatable" reference height. Cabinetry in the Aspen project remains within reach and helps bring the room's scale down to a more human level.

Other times, De Giulio uses a canopy to foster a feeling of security when ceilings are high.

“There might be something like a light fixture or a frame that is over the island that gives it a canopy, so you feel like you’re protected,” he said.

In another project in suburban Chicago, the ceiling heights posed a different challenge: they were barely 95 inches.

“The concentration there was all the natural light and the floor-to-ceiling glass. It took your eyes away from the idea that you’re in that smaller space,” said De Giulio.

He emphasized the sunlight with shiny metal detailing and a long metal cabinet that reflected light, creating the illusion of even more light. White cabinetry and countertops further enhanced the sense of openness despite the low ceilings.

One of De Giulio's signature design elements is his use of metal, often in custom innovations that drive his design vision into even the tiniest of details, like his bespoke hardware for kitchens.

He owns a metal shop in Yale, Michigan, that creates custom pieces for all of the firm’s projects. That spans from the custom hardware to custom storage cabinets and etched cabinet fronts. De Giulio describes metal as having a certain "nobility," and it adds a sense of structure and weight to his work. To balance, he offsets it constantly with textured or handcrafted elements.

“The idea of these offsets in layouts is something I try to concentrate on,” said De Giulio.

Enclosed cabinet doors are often counterbalanced with open glass-front storage, or sleek kitchens have accents of cocciopesto, a material made from crushed brick. De Giulio often mixes it with pigments to create a saturated blue finish, then incorporates metal inlays for added contrast.

He uses cocciopesto as an accent for tabletops and countertops in many projects, even a large gathering table in his showroom, as an artisanal counterbalance to his weighty metals.

Cocciopesto “is all hand sculpted. … When your hand is on it, it’s smooth, but you feel that artisan roughness,” said De Giulio.

Balance could also look like De Giulio’s Belgian farmhouse project near Chicago where he placed a Wolf range atop a wood table rather than a typical dense kitchen island with cabinetry.

He leaves the table as the only wood element in a kitchen surrounded by white finishes, then throws in an ultra-thin custom raw steel frame that's "in direct contrast" to the table.

Kitchens today are larger and more open than they’ve ever been. When De Giulio was 19, the first kitchen he designed was largely an afterthought, tucked away and valued primarily for function.

As kitchens have become larger and more integrated into living spaces, storage can become a challenge, De Giulio said.

“If things can’t be put away in a space, there can be a lot of clutter in people’s lives. Small appliances, bowls ... all of the things out in the kitchen,” said De Giulio. “That spawned other ideas, like a back kitchen, which is much more popular for that reason.”

De Giulio regularly designs secondary, or back kitchens, for clients. These spaces are usually tucked behind the main kitchen.

Now, though, he's increasingly integrating the secondary kitchen into the primary one.

A Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, lake house project highlighted in his book features mirror-imaged kitchen ranges with a double-wide range hood.

One range functions as part of the back kitchen and the other the main kitchen, but the traditional dividing wall has been removed.

“Then we can get the natural light from the other areas by using these expanded pass-throughs,” said De Giulio.

The kitchen features three island structures, one shared between the two kitchens and one used in each kitchen. With larger and larger islands, De Giulio has also added dual sinks that mirror each other.

“Which is something we’re doing quite a bit of, too,” said De Giulio.

This allows home cooks to easily access a sink on either side, without having to run around the expansive island.