Mick DeGiulio

Mick De Giulio (born 1953) is an American designer widely recognized for growing and bringing distinction to kitchen interiors. His innovations also include kitchen products and furnishings.He founded his company, de Giulio Kitchen Design, in 1984, with a focus on custom residential and kitchen industry commissions in the United States and abroad.The company is headquartered in Wilmette, Illinois, with another showroom at LuxeHome in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, a shop facility in Skokie, Illinois, and a metal fabricating facility in Yale, Michigan (Mill Creek Metalworks).In 2003, De Giulio was named a Kitchen and Bath Design Leader by Interior Design magazine, and in 2005, he was recognized by Kitchen and Bath Business magazine as one of the 50 most influential people in the kitchen and bath industry over the last 50 years. He is the author of two books on kitchen design, KitchenCentric (co-author Karen Klages Grace, Balcony Press, 2010) and KITCHEN (with Candace Ord Manroe, Pointed Leaf Press, 2015) and has been a frequent speaker at industry and trade events such as Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference (K/BIS) NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, and Coverings. His designs have been extensively profiled in international consumer and trade magazines (Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, Interior Design, Traditional Home, among many), as well as books, newspapers, and television (HGTV). He designed the kitchens for the Ritz-Carlton Residences in 2012, an exclusive condo development project on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Non-residential commissions for his designs include research and demonstration kitchens for the Chicago Tribune, Meredith Corporation, and Sub-Zero/Wolf. In 2012, Mick designed the Kitchen of the Year for House Beautiful magazine which was on exhibit in New York's Rockefeller Plaza, and "Crystal Clear," an inspiration room featuring his sink collection for Kallista at the Kohler Design Center in Kohler, Wisconsin. On September 14, 2016, De Giulio was inducted into the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame and awarded the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to design. He was also recognized as a notable Chicago author by the Chicago Public Library Foundation during the 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Awards. In October 2016, a new 10,000 square foot Inspiration Studio designed by De Giulio opened at Abt Electronics in Glenview, Illinois.

Melding classical influences into a modern idiom, de Giulio’s rooms typically bridge traditional and contemporary esthetics. Historically, his work widens definitions of American Transitional Style with homage to global cultural influences, handcraft, and technology. Textures are varied in his work, and natural stone and sleek metalwork are marks of his hybrid rooms. Lifestyle changes over the past quarter century inform his designs, which are of a generation that break from the one-cook-only work triangle of the “Frankfurt Kitchen” to include multiple family cooks, as well as lingering and dining areas to encompass a new range of gatherings—from everyday casual to formal—now centered inside the family kitchen. As the kitchen grew into one of the home’s more important rooms, De Giulio garnered praise for professionalizing the craft of its design. Apart from his distinctive interiors, De Giulio’s legacy to industry practices are a more holistic focus on the kitchen’s diverse range of innovative products and furnishings (woodwork, sinks, appliances and lighting, for instance), and the promotion of the kitchen designer as a profession beyond that of the cabinet seller. Said Newell Turner, Editorial Director of Hearst Design Group, at the opening of the 2012 House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year, "Mick is not just any kitchen designer - he is THE kitchen designer with hundreds of projects completed around the globe."

De Giulio is the designer of several product lines, including cabinetry by the kitchen manufacturer SieMatic Corporation based in Löhne, Germany. In 2002, his design of the Hudson Valley line was selected for the kitchen at Washington D.C.’s historic presidential guest home, Blair House. His most recent collection, BeauxArts (introduced in 2004) has become a bestseller for the company worldwide. A new version of BeauxArts, called BeauxArts.02, premiered in Cologne in January 2011.Under the de Giulio Collection brand, he has designed an extensive collection of sinks, light fixtures, ventilation hoods, and case pieces, including Metal Boy, a cabinet constructed of nickel silver, polished stainless steel, ebonized walnut and glass used for storing cookware.Kallista, a Kohler Company, introduced the Mick De Giulio Kitchen Sink Collection in 2011. In December 2011, De Giulio's Multiere sink for Kallista was voted Best of Year by Interior Design magazine.

De Giulio supports several charitable organizations in Chicago with kitchen remodels and installations, including projects for Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities, Boys Hope/Girls Hope, and Tabitha House. In 2004, he established a scholarship for design students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.