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Readership of over 200,000 in Vaughan & beyond Volume 6 Issue 3

makeovermagicianDesigner glen Peloso on how to make your space stylish… and functionalhow to make your space stylish… and functionalhow to make your space

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“COvEr STOry

By filomena rosati

14 whatever magazine | FaLL 2010

WHeN a house no longer feels like home – a home that should be a safe haven, an abode to live in, a place to relax

and be inspired – it’s time for a change, perhaps a renovation! Over the years, many people fill their homes with objects they think they’re supposed to have and not with the things that work for the way they live life, turning their home into a house that rather than being a place of rest, often becomes a source of frustration.

so says Glen Peloso, principal designer of Glen Peloso Interiors and a regular on home improvement shows on television. It is, he says, a matter of appearance versus func-tionality. “Why would someone be willing to spend thousands of dollars on renovating a kitchen with a large, high-end fridge if eating out is really what they do?” wonders Peloso. “I would convince them otherwise.”

He finds he has to remind people that it is important to utilize their home space to suit

Decorate your home to fit your lifestyle, not to impress your friends, says

celebrity designer and TV regular Glen Peloso who offers valuable tips on making your space work for you.

mYspace

Glen Peloso: “A home that allows you to shut the

door at the end of the day and say ‘Ah, I’m home’ is

far more important than a home that merely looks good. It has to be a space

that makes you happy, a space that is comfortable.”

whatever magazine | FaLL 2010 15

16 whatever magazine | FaLL 2010

their lifestyle. “Ultimately, it’s not worth it,” says Peloso to those who fill their homes with expensive objects they will rarely use. “High-end items are fine if they fit your lifestyle, but buying them just for the sake of it doesn’t make sense.”

A common mistake people make is to create and design a home to impress friends and family, says Peloso. “One sure way to tell is to ask yourself : ‘Am

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ask yourself: ‘am i happy in the house i live in?’

if you’re not, chances are you’ve designed it wrong.I happy in the house I live in?’ If you are not happy, chances are, you’ve designed it wrong.”

Peloso, who has operated his design studio in Vaughan for the past five years, has been working in the field for more than 12 years, crafting beau-tiful yet functional spaces for residen-tial, hospitality industry and commer-cial clients in the GTA and beyond.

If you are a busy family person with children in activities all week and you barely have time to sit and eat a meal together, your needs differ from an empty nester whose life is not as hec-

tic, says Peloso. “If your life’s priority is kids and family, you definitely don’t want to have things own you, as my grandfather used to say.”

A home that allows you to shut the door at the end of the day and say “Ah, I’m home” is far more important than a home that merely looks good, advises Peloso. “It has to be a space that makes you happy, a space that is comfortable.”

He often asks his clients to think about

what makes more sense, alter who they are to suit their home or alter their space to suit who they are?

He explains that very often people are interested in form rather than func-tion. That is to say that the tendency is to care more about how our home looks than how we intend to use prin-cipal rooms in our home. If our homes are an extension of ourselves, then the way our home is designed and used should work with and fit our lifestyle.

Personally, Peloso is most attracted to clean, simple lines – contemporary and uncluttered. “However, with any client,

my job is not to overlay my preference but to interpret the owner’s desires in a way that works for the owner.”

In the final analysis, says Peloso, it’s the people and architecture that provide the most inspiration. “Who they are, why they chose the house, how they live their life… that gives me the inspi-ration of where to look from the per-spective of time periods, materials etc.”

Peloso is not just a successful interior

designer, he is also a familiar face on home improvement shows on television. He has hosted Restaurant Makeover, Take This House and Sell It and Renovate My Wardrobe, besides appearing on other shows. He got his big television break some eight years ago when a sound guy work-ing with him on Decorating Challenge recommended him to the producers of Restaurant Makeover. Peloso came on board for the third episode and has been on the show as one of the designers for the past eight seasons.

Although Peloso enjoys both residen-

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18 whatever magazine | FaLL 2010

tial work and commercial design, he does admit that he “adored” working on Restaurant Makeover.

“It is different from residential in that your ‘end user’ is the patron of the restaurant. You have the freedom to create things in restaurants that would not normally be used in residential applications. Creating décor that is bespoke is a very exciting process and creatively very enjoyable.”

It is also very challenging, because of the budgets limitations involved. “Realistically there is not much that can be done to a restaurant for $30,000,” says Peloso. “You have to have great relationships with suppliers and be very clever selecting what you will attack to make improvements.”

Peloso says that as a designer his role is to achieve a functional space for the client. “My job is to ensure the marriage of form and function. Once I understand what a client loves about a certain style, I jump in and make sure they execute that style using the right dimensions and proportions and balance. I don’t think it is right for a designer to give you ‘their style” in your space; they need to help you reveal your own style and then execute that in the space that they are working with.”

Peloso says a common mistake people make when doing a renovation them-selves is trying to achieve a look of something they like that doesn’t belong in the space they have.

“As a simple analogy… statues are bril-liant on the grounds of Versailles and look beautiful, but they don’t work on the front lawn of a house in Vaughan unless the property is large enough to feature it. Part of my job is to under-stand the ethos of what someone is attracted to and give them that.”

It’s natural to be attracted by pictures in a magazine, says Peloso, “but what looks brilliant in a magazine doesn’t always work in reality.”

“It’s my job to give clients the ‘feel’ of that magazine picture appropriate to what they have, or explain why they can’t achieve that look in their cur-rent space. It’s important for me to mitigate expectations in most cases as people see something and think it will fit perfectly in their house.”

In recent years, the rooms people have sought to renovate most often

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are kitchens and bathrooms, but these are also the most typically misunder-stood, says Peloso.

“These are two rooms that are filled with function and that function is super important,” he says. “Often people want to address the form of those spaces first because they have to love the look. And most people use those spaces several times a day (unlike the den or living room, for example),” he adds.

“When rooms look great but don’t work for you, they end up being more frustrating than before the reno. The big rule of design is that form follows function!”

The DIY (Do It Yourself) market has been steadily growing over the years. Has this impacted the designer busi-ness, we asked Peloso.

“I think you can pull off a DIY project as long as you have the skills and the

it’s natural to be attracted

by pictures in a magazine.

But what looks brilliant in a magazine

doesn’t always work in reality.

‘‘

’’

20 whatever magazine | FaLL 2010

tools required,” he said. “You also have to choose the right materials for the project you want to tackle.”

He however cautions that DIY renova-tions aren’t necessarily cheaper than using the services of a designer. “The DIY market is focused on selling a product. When you install it poorly, you don’t blame the product, you blame your inexperience. The cost of buying something, installing it, hating it, ripping it out, hiring a design profes-sional, selecting again and installing again is way more expensive than start-ing with some help. Unfortunately that lesson is only learned in retrospect.”

Let’s say a couple has just bought a fixer-upper home, and has set aside $50,000 for upgrades. What would you recommend, we asked Peloso.

“I would tell them to start by solving any structural issues, then tackle the kitchen. You will use this room a lot – other rooms can be solved with paint until you can save to do more. Address the things that are not functioning first. If people are concerned about

keeping their home environmentally sound, I still recommend to begin with structure – windows, insulation, dim-mers, heating and AC controls, grey water collection – these are things we consume daily (or waste daily). Only then should you move to materials and products in your home,” he said.

“Once that is taken care of, bathroom and kitchen renovations are big. stylistically we see a trend to high gloss tylistically we see a trend to high gloss tmaterials or medium brown (teak like) finishes. In the city, spaces are getting smaller so multifunctional furnish-ings are popular. We are still a country that buys more outdoor furniture than almost any country in the world. Our yards are becoming our cottages!”

For those people who are thinking about selling, Peloso says the most important thing they should do, especially before listing their home, is to work on curb appeal.”It’s what gets people in the door. Then make sure that everything is in good repair and super clean,” he said.

“People respond to colour, so look

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through magazines and see what colours are popular. Plan to spend about 1% of asking price for repairs and upgrades. Replace or repair anything that is worn out. Well-kept, clean, open, uncluttered spaces work the best!”

Peloso says he cannot stress enough how important it is, before any project begins, “to plan, plan and plan!” It is what helps you stay on budget.

“Most people go off the rails because there is no real solid plan and budget. Just going shopping for a renovation will kill you in increments of $100 or $1,000. With a plan, (materials, labour, product, finishes), you select according to your budget. You plan a bit for the unexpected and then move forward.

“Don’t sway from the plan and make impulse buys – things go off the rails because people select along the path as opposed to having everything pre selected and deciding what all the finishes are before even lifting a hammer!” he added.

This process also helps with contrac-tors and labour, says Peloso. “say we are installing tiles, and the contractor assumes porcelain and gives you a price. Instead you select stone and the price doubles per square foot – and thus starts the process of the ‘over budget reno’.”

One of the other challenges clients seem to face, says Peloso, is their inability to see a plan or space in 3D. When they shop in a large department store, proportion and scale are often miscalculated. What looked good in a 30,000 sq. ft. store will not look the same in a 1,500 sq. ft. home. The sofas they love are too big for the space, hin-der the flow of the space and instead of walking through the entrance easi-ly, they have to go around the sofa and the coffee table to get to the kitchen.

Given the sheer volume and the types of projects Peloso is involved with, how did he manage to keep the cre-ative juices flowing, we wondered.

“My grandfather used to say: ‘The larg-er the island of knowledge, the larger the shore of wonder’,” replied Peloso. “It reminds me that you have to keep learning and researching to be new and innovative, to bring your clients fresh ideas specific to the project. All of these matter most to me.” W• For more info, visit www.glenpelosointeriors.com.