Brian Gluckstein: Transforming Houses Into Homes

With more than three decades of experience in interior design, Brian Gluckstein celebrates the release of his new book, Brian Gluckstein: The Art of Home.

- Victoria Scott

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s not familiar with design mastermind Brian Gluckstein, whether from his exquisite product range available in Canada, Europe and the United States, GlucksteinHome, or from one of the impeccable spaces he’s created and curated with his business, Gluckstein Design.

Having worked for more than 30 years in the industry, Gluckstein has become one of the most highly regarded interior designers out there — but this wide recognition was not always the case. Not only because it took time for Gluckstein to amass his skills, but also because, when he was starting out in this industry, the public was not familiar with the role of an interior designer.

“They thought it was all decorating, and they didn’t [understand] the difference between an interior designer and a decorator,” says Gluckstein. “They thought an interior designer picked fabrics and picked paint colours and that’s it. They didn’t realize we … do space planning and millwork details and design entire interiors of common spaces — partitions and layouts and lighting and electrical and the finishes and the furniture. Of course, the decorating, also, but it’s a very comprehensive scope.”

Since then, Gluckstein has revolutionized interior design, showing people the possibilities they can achieve in their own homes and workspaces.

His love of interior design began in his youth. “I didn’t grow up in a house where they furnished it once and it stayed like that for 40 years. I definitely was in an environment where my mother wanted things changed and updated, and different points of view all the time,” says Gluckstein. “It was traditional when I was young, [with] beautiful​ colours, then it went modern; my parents went very contemporary and very neutral, so it was all creams and beiges and chocolate browns and chrome.”