Award-winning property stylist and interior decorator Red Barrinuevo is living his dream
Credit to Author: Lisa Evans| Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2022 14:14:22 +0000
Red Barrinuevo came to Canada in search of freedom. As a gay man, Barrinuevo spent years in the Philippines, masking his identity. He did what he felt society expected of him, working as a pharmaceutical representative, getting married and having a child. “I put myself in this situation where I ended up so miserable,” he says.
At the age of 35, Barrinuevo decided to change his life and immigrate to Canada, a place where he felt he would be able to embrace who he is without the cultural expectations of his home country.
Today, Barrinuevo is a proud gay man and one of Toronto’s most sought-after interior designers and home stagers. But what might sound like a glamorous career started from very humble beginnings.
When Barrinuevo left the Philippines, he left all of his savings to his ex-wife and young son. “I felt so guilty coming out and leaving them,” he says. He arrived with his savings of $600. He worked two jobs washing dishes for a restaurant and also as a home and office cleaner, trying to make enough to cover his bills while still sending child support back home.
Eventually, Barrinuevo was offered a telephone banking job at CIBC where he worked for two years followed by a job at an investment bank. Getting close to his 40th birthday, Barrinuevo decided he no longer wanted to sit at a desk. “I left my son, I left my life, I left everything not to just work in an office,” he says. “The point in moving to Canada was to actually do what I want to do. I wanted to do something more.”
Barrinuevo always had a passion for interior design. His Toronto apartment was so nicely decorated that it was being used by the rental office as a showroom. “The rental office would ask me can we use your apartment because someone wants to see a unit. It was like a model suite,” he says. Friends were always asking him for help decorating their own homes, picking paint colours or furniture.
While Barrinuevo thought he had the talent to become an interior designer, he didn’t have the time or money to go back to school. “I read an article about home staging. I didn’t have to go back to school for it. It’s unregulated as long as you have the eye for it.” Barrinuevo took a $1,200 online course with the Staging Diva. “I put the badge and certification on my website as though I’d finished at York University. It gave me confidence just to know that I passed it.”
Barrinuevo started his staging and interior design business, Redesign4More, in 2010, but during his first two years of business, he continued to work at the bank full-time. “I worked for the bank from 8 to 5, then I was helping people stage homes and decorate from 5 until 2 or 3 in the morning. During my lunch break, that’s when I would do my design consultations,” he says.
One of his first projects was for a friend who had recently immigrated from Cuba. “They bought a house in Cabbagetown and they wanted me to help them furnish the house and decorate it.” The house was featured in Canadian Home Trends magazine. “It validated that I was on the right track and people are noticing it,” he says.
In 2012, Barrinuevo decided to leave his bank job and jump into his interior design business full-time. Since then, his career has taken off. Since 2020, Barrinuevo has been the property stylist on HGTV Canada’s Hot Market, a show that follows real estate agents through landing big listings and getting the best return for their clients through transformative renovations and staging. “When I got the phone call (from HGTV) I thought it was a joke,” he says.
In addition to HGTV, Barrinuevo’s work has been featured in Toronto Life, House & Home and The Toronto Sun, and he was named one of the most influential people in real estate home staging by RESA Global. While becoming an award-winning interior designer feels like a dream come true, Barrinuevo says it never would have happened if he didn’t have the right mindset. “When I moved here, I told myself failure is not an option. I sacrificed my comfortable life to be here.”
When he meets newcomers to Canada, he tells them to be present and make the most of where they are. “When you move to a new place, move in physically and mentally. Don’t move to Canada with your mind still in the Philippines. This is where I decided to move, and I have to do what I have to do based on where I am.”
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