31/10/2024
When Stephen Maio began working as a tiler 40 years ago, he was simply looking for a way to support himself and his family. But as the successful jobs mounted up, he noticed that most clients didn’t want to deal with a host of different contractors. Instead they wanted to do business with a single person who could consult, design and construct their dream home.
So he acquired a builder’s licence and began specialising in bathroom and kitchen renovations. From there, he progressed to full homes and then into extensions and outdoor spaces. And while Stephen has started to take a backseat in the business, his son-in-law Giancarlo Rescignano is ensuring its future as General Manager.
The most recent expansion was the launch of a 700-square-metre showroom on the corner of Magill and Glynburn Roads in 2016. This helped to make Creative Home Renovations South Australia’s largest one-stop shop for renovations, and the business has now overseen a staggering 2000 projects.
This showroom takes prospective clients through the entire range of offerings, from fully functional kitchen areas and bathrooms to outdoor living spaces with barbecue areas, louvres and feature walls. Along the way, each area shows off the breadth of materials, flooring options and finishes available. But despite the extensive range, Creative Home Renovations doesn’t have a retail offering. Instead, the end-to-end service takes clients all the way from the initial design and selection of materials, through project management and construction to the final handover.
“Once we find out what a client wants to do, we look at the plans and map out a bit of a concept,” explains Giancarlo. “We offer that free consultation up front. If they want to move forward, then we look at the site to measure everything, do a full design with 3D renders and put together a costing for the project.”
“A lot of people might only renovate once in their life, but we live and breathe it,” he continues. “So a lot of that initial consultation is about education. Most people will shop around, but they end up coming back to us because they have confidence in us. We let them see and feel the materials so they know what they’re getting, and they feel comfortable because they can see our other projects so they know we’ll take care of them.”
Since moving to St Morris, Giancarlo has worked hard to improve the design team and “we’ve found that we’re getting more high-end clients as people realise we can service those more opulent jobs.” But while the showroom reflected this, the exterior was beginning to feel a little dated.
“That’s why we’ve decided to give it a little upgrade by adding some feature stonework, squaring up the facade of the pitched roof and recladding the canopies with fabricated steel to give it a more modern look.” Picture windows flanked by aluminium cladding with a timber-like finish give a peek into the showroom, and the garden walls between them each pop with half a dozen shades of green.
And despite the glamorous new look, Giancarlo insisted that “this is a commercial building and you don't want to be out there cleaning or staining timbers every five minutes. So the brief was to use low-maintenance materials but still create something that will stay in vogue and last a long time. We want people driving past to see something that really reflects our brand.”
The $300,000 upgrade is about half finished, and will be completed by the end of the year. But Stephen says he’s already had plenty of people coming in to compliment him on the new look. “We’ve even had other traders on Magill Road telling us that we’ve inspired them to make their businesses more appealing, so I’m hoping this facelift is just the start of the whole area becoming more attractive.”
Creative Home Renovations
291 Glynburn Road, St Morris
creativehomerenovations.com.au
