A look inside the work and lives of some of the industry ’ s most innovative thinkers .
The construction industry became Paul Lafrance ’ s career completely by accident . As a young , 22-year-old , counterculture musician he suddenly found himself married with a mortgage . Paul , who had never used power tools in his life , was offered work with a friend , building wood fences in 1996 ! A year later , bored with building fences , Paul was invited to participate in a deck project and fell in love with the process . He quit his job , announced to his wife that they were opening up they own design and build company and Paul Lafrance Design ( now The Lafrance Group ) was born . Since that time , Paul has made a name for himself both as an expert in the deck building industry and as the host of numerous HGTV shows .
CANADIAN HOME TRENDS What ’ s exciting for you right now ?
PAUL LAFRANCE In 2018 , while still running my company and filming shows for HGTV , I began filming what was initially supposed to be a series of simple , product review videos on one of my larger backyard projects . It wasn ’ t long into initial filming that I realized I had the opportunity to make the show that I always wanted to make . A show that is 100 % raw , authentic , and most importantly , shows the mistakes that happen on a project , not just the perfect results at the end . This was not possible to do in the 22-minute format of all my previous shows . So I put on my producer ’ s hat , my director ’ s hat , and my TV host hat to create “ Backyard Revolution ,” a fourteen episode series based on one wild project ! We decided to make the show available to the world on my new Paul Lafrance YouTube channel .
CHT If you could go back 20 years , what advice would you give your younger self ?
PLF Your thoughts are not you ! Choose what you think about . Don ’ t let that choice be made for you . Listen to your father ’ s advice when he said “ Son , don ’ t let that rent space in your head .”
CHT What is your favorite room in your house ?
PLF My living room . There is nothing better than having open conversations with our four daughters in the same room , while laughing at Cosmo the dog , and Tony Stark the cat play-fighting . But when that same living room overlooks a sunset on Georgian Bay ? Yeah . Pretty awesome . - Paul Lafrance Design , www . paullafrancedesign . com
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