I can spend hours in awe looking at homes of flamboyant, audacious people, those who decorate their homes as the last paradise on earth, or as if they are living in their own fantasy. In my reality, I rarely visit homes that leave an impression on me. People think decorating is all about rules, geometry, and functionality. Although functionality is a requirement for harmonious homes, playful fantasy is not, and somehow people think an undescriptive home is better than a fantasy home. That overwhelming feeling of admiration we feel when we are in front of a piece of art, that sense of sublime we feel when we see an originally decorated home doesn’t exist in today’s homes. Most decorating today is about minimalism, straight lines, and space-saver container furniture. I can understand that, builders are not interested in making artistic homes, they want to turn around more shoeboxes homes as possible in a very short time and saturate the market.
I am not complaining, I am only wondering how is it possible to live in a home that doesn’t show any fantasy, any hidden dreams and the playfulness towards life.
Iris Apfel Book on Amazon $21.99
One of the people I have extreme admiration for is a former interior/fashion designer, and a geriatric fashion model: Iris Apfel, I believe now is 96 years of age. Iris is a maximalist and has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberant. She can mix high fashion with low street fashion, modern with ethnic jewelry, baroque with French-style and oriental furniture. She carried her vivacious personality in home decorating as well as in fashion.
Through her designing years, Iris collected incredible home accessories that show off all her personality. Iris is an original. She combines fabrics, colors, and patterns like nobody can.
Christian Lacroix 2008 book on Amazon $41.25
Someone else got my attention years ago, French fashion designer Christian Lacroix with a totally different style, colorful and equally flamboyant as Iris Apfel.
I am glad my home is not any less than the flamboyant, audacious people that inspired me in my design career. In my theatrical home, I broke all decorating rules because I can and I made it very colorful.
“Life is a theatre and this is my comedy,” I said it. Ciao,
Valentina
Copyright © 2020 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
Valentina Cirasola is a storyteller by nature. Stories are very important to her design career to convey ideas because making someone’s home or personal images is not only about building around shapes, lines, forms, and colors. It is about the story one can create around their spaces and how they want to appear to others. It’s about life experiences and how Valentina can incorporate them in her clients’ homes. She is the author of five books, the latest ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition is about colors. All Books are available on Amazon and Barnes&Nobles
Valentina Expressions 
Jan 27, 2020 @ 04:56:10
A splendid post, Valentina. My home is exactly how I want it, stuffed full of my antique doll collection, bits and pieces from my travels, paintings and prints and many, many books. I love colour so a lot of my artwork is very colourful.
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Jan 27, 2020 @ 05:03:37
I really love to hear it. I was in a totally white house today, top to bottom and in between everything was white. I felt in an insane asylum, I was waiting for the straight jacket to come out 😀🤪🙃🙄
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Jan 06, 2020 @ 00:33:39
I love all the beauty here. Oh, and I also love Iris! 🙂
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Jan 06, 2020 @ 01:30:19
I admire Iris, she can make everything looking interesting.
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Jan 06, 2020 @ 14:34:32
Yes! 🙂
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Jan 05, 2020 @ 12:45:13
Marie Kondo, bless her, is doing a lot of good work by encouraging us to get rid of clutter and keep only those things that ‘spark joy’. But she too is all about minmalism and I can’t see how minimalism can be ‘playful’. I can respect it as an aesthetic, naturally, but I don’t love it. LIke you, I think that everyone’s home should reflect the comedy of their lives. If you can’t be silly, playful, eccentric and true to yourself at home, for goodness sakes, WHERE can you be? La casa è la nostra terza pelle – our home is our third skin (the second being the clothes we wear). Buon anno Valentina, Happy New Year and keep up the good work!
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Jan 05, 2020 @ 22:57:42
Grazie Josephine, you are absolutely right, if we can’t be playful at home, where can we do that? It’s even hard to work for me, as everyone wants empty spaces….of my….
Buon Anno anche a te, sara’ un bel 2020, certamente vedremo tutto piu’ chiaro. 😀
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