Inside and out, this Barrie home is a living canvas being retouched regularly by decorator and resident Michael Peirone.

“There’s always a project going on in our home,” says the owner of Renderings Interiors. “My wife says it’s a good thing she’s not blind, or she’d trip over furniture when she gets home.”

The family room’s rich brown tones make it a cosy place for the family to gather. Michael mixes texture, form and function in every room of the home.

Dr. Kelley Wright, a family physician and hospitalist, met her creative husband in the Costa Rican jungle during a four-month Youth Challenge International development project while at university.

The couple built their own south-end Barrie home six years ago, and have been shopping together for it ever since. Luckily, they share a similar aesthetic sense.

“I know a room will look better with collaboration,” Peirone says.

In their kitchen, Peirone and Wright opted to paint the builder’s cabinets and change the hardware for a new look. They added small storage cupboards in the space above the upper cabinetry, and chose reeded glass for the door panels “so it’s not so heavy.” Relocating the fridge to the servery also made room for a large island and customized ceiling beams that arrived during the third year of their renovation.

According to Peirone, things are easier and less expensive to change in your home prior to construction.

“Think of how you’re going to live in it, and try to make your decisions from the floor-plan stage,” he recommends. “That doesn’t mean adding square footage; it just means moving things around.”

The large kitchen combines cream cabinetry up top with chocolate below, and light granite-topped counters along the perimetre. The large island with antique black granite anchors the space. The stainless steel fridge is tucked around the corner in the servery, which links the kitchen and the living room.

Once the walls and doors are in the right place, it’s time to decorate.

“My personal style, if I could impose it on everyone, is casual contemporary, verging on modern,” he reflects. “The kind where you can still put your feet up on a table, but it’s a really nice table.”

Originally a molecular geneticist, Peirone made the leap to full-time decorating in the spring of 2003.

“This is a passion,” he says. The decorator of Oscar’s and Michael & Marion’s restaurants had the opportunity to work on commercial projects for friends, and then word of his talent spread quickly.

He doesn’t impose his own tastes on his clients, but instead works to interpret their wishes and find a compromise between their dreams and a practical and beautiful reality.

A home with young children, for example, may not be the best place for a white, silk-covered sofa, even if that’s the look a client is striving for.

“There are usually alternatives that are a lot more practical,” says the avid shopper, who updates a mental catalogue as he goes along. His training and experience come into play when creating a desired look within budgetary or sensible limits. “If you know how things are constructed, then it’s usually much easier to apply these things.”

Taupe walls in the living room allow cheriched art to shine. A glass table between two sofas and two clear acrylic Louis XIV ghost chairs give the room an open, modern feel.

This is the reality in his own home, where Carter, 10, and Ella, 8, roam.

In addition to child-proofing measures, Peirone acknowledges the rarity of an unlimited budget, so he’s always looking for adaptable and less expensive options.

The airy living room gains a spacious look with a glass table placed between two sofas. Two clear acrylic Louis XIV ghost chairs provide additional seating, as well as an unobstructed view through a large window unadorned by drapes.

“I love the cleanliness of it,” he says. “I like the space around things - sometimes more than the things themselves. It’s uncluttered. Calming.”

The mismatched sofas were re-upholstered with the same material and trimmed with identical piping, skirting and cushion styles to create a uniform look. Nearby, two different occasional chairs (both garage-sale finds, costing a grand total of seven-dollars for the pair) were also recovered to match each other – an economical alternative to replacement.

“It doesn’t have to cost a fortune,” he says. He points out a massive original Martha Sturdy platter hanging on a wall above four Ikea bookshelves – turned on their sides for a customized look. “I was going to do a built-in, but it would have cost about 10 times the price.”

The dining room is divine. Michael made the maple table.

Built-in cabinetry was just the ticket, however, in the den off the master bedroom. The long narrow loft, which looks out a huge window to the forest beyond, enjoys a long desk and extensive cupboards, suitable for two.

Sometimes Peirone just makes what he wants himself.

When he first walked into the dining room, he had a vision of the finished room. It included a long, wooden table with steel legs. So, he joined two-inch thick walnut planks for the top and commissioned the stainless-steel legs.

The large-scale rectangular chandelier hanging above the table echoes the shape, while the hanging crystals add a whimsical elegance.

In a nearby powder room, a Moroccan-style beaded candle lantern employs the same warm amber tones as the onyx vessel sink below. These items sat in the dark for years before finding a home.

“There’s a storage room downstairs with accessories, lamps and some artwork that gets rotated every now and again,” he says. “When you come across a treasure, you should get it.”

Michael combines texture and a mix of traditional and contemporary furnishings in the master bedroom.

The treasure upstairs in young Ella’s room is Honey, a stuffed polar bear sitting in the middle of her bed. Opposite a fuchsia wall (that was colour-matched to complement her favorite pillow shams), is a desk unit Ella designed with her dad. The cupboards within, in addition to the bay window toy box, provide lots of storage space.

“I put organizers in all the closets – it changed my life,” says Peirone, a self-admitted neat freak.

It’s obvious that Carter loves skateboarding. His room was originally decorated in a cottage style, with tongue and groove pine wainscotting, but his ‘stuff’ now hangs on the replica lighthouse and lantern that mark the room’s one-time theme.

“I don’t necessarily subscribe to spending a fortune on kids’ rooms,” Peirone says, “because their tastes change, and their needs change too.”

But they do put their stamp on the house, regardless. The children’s guinea pig lives in the basement, their photos are all over the family room and their treehouse sits against the backyard fence overlooking the ravine. They also splash in the pool, which is surrounded by a stone deck and landscaped borders.

Their parents enjoy evenings in the hot tub, watching the stars through a skylight.

Looking down into the backyard from the master bedroom.

In the backyard too, something is always being changed. A Japanese garden, for example, is a new addition.

But the plants, with the exception of one leafy green display on an antique cabinet, all live outside. In keeping with the desired lack of clutter, the rooms acquire their natural warmth from more artistic sources – painted coral shadow boxes, a cow-hide chair, a vase full of twigs, or a glass jar of moss.

All décor items are liable to be re-located at a moment’s notice in this experimental showroom.

“I wouldn’t say daily, but every couple of weeks something changes – moving furniture, rolling up rugs and laying down new ones, or hanging pictures,” says Peirone with a smile. Kudos to this talented couple, who have created a liveable and ever-so unique home in Barrie.