Things are really heating up for North Shore kitchen designer Mick de Giulio of Wilmette. Last spring, tony Town and Country Magazine dubbed him the “King of the Kitchen” in one of its rare pieces on Midwestern talent. And now, Home and Garden Television (HGTV) is banking on his being a prince of a personality on camera.
De Giulio, 42, whose classic, cutting-edge designs can be found at the culinary heart of many hundreds of homes throughout the northern suburbs, made his national television debut in October as co-host of the new “Kitchen Design” and “Bath Design” shows on HGTV. The programs feature homes throughout the Chicago area, most in Lake County.
Shown in about 50 major to small cable markets throughout the country and in Guam and Saipan as well, the 13-week kitchen series is airing locally at 8 p.m. on Thursday on the Post-Newsweek Cable System, Channel 57. (Areas served include Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Northbrook and Riverwoods.) It runs through Jan. 5, after which the 13-week “Bath Design” series takes over its time slot.
A spokesman for the Knoxville-based E.W. Scripps Co., which owns HGTV, said the company is working toward wider Chicago area distribution of the shows within the year. Reruns on Post-Newsweek are also likely.
De Giulio appears on each show with Chicago actress Joan Kohn. The duo’s on-air partnership is not unlike that of Bob and Norm on the PBS program “This Old House.”
Explained de Giulio, “Joan interviews the people whose homes we visit on camera and makes everything flow smoothly. She’s the television pro. I’m the home expert side of the show.”
De Giulio was suggested for the job by New York designer, author and HGTV producer Joe Ruggiero, who, coincidentally, was also a consultant to “This Old House.” He was familiar with de Giulio’s work from mutual professional affiliations and was impressed by what he read about him in Town and Country.
“Mick seemed like someone with terrific style and vision. Working with him has been a great experience,” Ruggiero said.
De Giulio provides on-camera commentary during home site visits, explaining the challenges met and materials used for the varied kitchen and bath installations viewers see on the shows. Each program also includes several short info-segments in which the co-hosts share “how-to” tips, from buying the right floor tile to choosing the correct countertop for your needs.
De Giulio was primarily responsible for finding the approximately 30 kitchens and baths featured on each segment.
“We had only three months last summer to find the stories and shoot them,” De Giulio said. “I was told it was impossible by TV standards, but we did it anyway. Sometimes the crew had to work 18-hour days to get the tapings done.”
De Giulio’s workdays were also unusually long last summer. When he wasn’t running his business or shooting segments, he was running around finding more kitchens and baths to feature on the show. Not all of them could be de Giulio designs, of course.
“I agreed from the start that we’d show the work of a variety of people. There were a great many local designers and architects involved, including Howard Holtzman, Scott Himmel, Claudia Skylar, David Karlson, and Steven and Marsha Guerrant, to name a few.
“There’s such a great talent pool to choose from in Chicago, so that was the easy part,” de Giulio said.
What was harder, he noted, was finding enough different and interesting story angles to please his producers.
“Every story had to have a different twist. Some of the segments show kitchen and bath makeovers in what would be considered more average, traditional homes. Others are gigantic dream rooms,” de Giulio explained. “The human-interest angle was almost as important as the design angle in each case. Just as I interview clients about their lifestyle and dreams for their kitchen before we start a design, Joan interviews the homeowners on the show from that angle.”
For example, there’s a brain surgeon who works 12-hour, high-stress days and uses cooking as a way to relax with his family. The design goal in this case was to create a kitchen that would be fun and practical for him to cook in, where the whole family could also convene in the process. In another segment, a real estate agent talks about how she re-created her kitchen with an eye to maximum resale value. And a busy professional couple tell about how they wanted their master bath to double as an in-house spa and retreat.
According to de Giulio, “We really tried hard to find a balance of stories, with each show looking at new installations and renovations on small to large budgets. . . . Our target audience is really anyone with a kitchen or bath.”
Among the Lake County homeowners whose homes were featured in recent “Kitchen Design” segments are Davis and Judy Heuter of Lake Forest, for whom de Giulio had designed a large kitchen and solarium combination. It has become a favorite place for the two doctors to unwind, which was a major goal of the renovation at the outset.
“Mick helped us create an English Country feel in a very spacious and inviting space. It’s added a great deal to our enjoyment of the home,” Judy explained.
Of the taping experience, she noted, “Everyone couldn’t have been more professional. It was a long day, as they shot from many different angles. . . . But it was fun and interesting to be a part of, too.”
Martha Peck of Highland Park is among those whose bathrooms will be featured on the upcoming Bath Design series. With the help of Chicago designer Andy Noha, she renovated the master bathroom in her Arts and Crafts period home, making it larger, installing spa elements and new hand-painted custom cabinets, and decorating the room in an Old World style.
“Our story was that we had been sharing the bathroom down the hall with our children! The shower in the master bathroom didn’t work, and overall the room was too small for our needs. We wanted to create something really special that would be ours alone,” Peck explained.
She said she felt flattered to have her home chosen for the show.
