Valentina

Reflecting | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

14 May 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/reflecting, #LondonMemories, #MothersDayReflection, #Reflecting, #WordPressPhotChallengeReflecting

Taking photos is a sort of amusement we all do. Professional and non professionals photographers, we all want to lock time in place and remember those moments years later. I remember when photos came out of a film and printed on paper. In the back of all my paper photos there is a note and a date. Without those notes attached to each photo, I would completely miss a piece of my life. A photo reflects and records fashion, customs, or manners of an era. It records a landmark that might be no longer there. It reflects people expressions, emotions, good and bad times. Often, we can hear words spoken in a particular situation captured in the photo.

In the London tube, looking at this picture, I can still hear the stranger coming down on the other side, fervently inciting with a “ravish her!” the man who was kissing me on the neck as we were climbing. That man later became my husband. The reflection of that passionate moment, leaves on in this picture. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

London Tube

Carnaby Street was the reflection of a changing society, pop art and fashion reflected the rejection of anything traditional, old ideas and conventionalism. Objects of consumerism started to show up on the market. I saw my first wood hand massagers and didn’t know what to think of it.

Wood Massagers

I saw hanging legs moving like can-can dancers showing a new style of pantyhose in a store resembling a sleazy theatre backstage. Pantyhose was the reflection of a changing fashion.

Hanging Legs

Covent Garden reflected British life, traditional looking stores with wood trims, café with windowpanes, tea time English style. I recall one tourist, an Italian woman, saying to her man the espresso coffee she ordered was not even good enough to wash her feet in it. She had no idea I was listening and understood everything she said. If I didn’t have this picture of Covent Garden reflecting that moment, I would have forgotten that funny episode.

Covent Garden

Street fashion

Wigs

This is really strange, but this reflecting theme took a different meaning for me. Now, so many years later, I am reflecting on the reason I was attracted since a young age to an Anglo-Saxon country, me, a Mediterranean girl, full of life, who loved to improvise and organize things on the spur of the moment. Leaving Italy, family and friends behind to go live in a speaking English country was difficult and the hardest thing I have ever done. In am reflecting on what attracted me to people so different from me, in background, culture, language, beliefs and customs. What attracted me to people saluting with “I see you later, or I call you later” if it doesn’t mean anything? It could mean next year just as well. I am reflecting on the reason, I get to be on my friends’ schedules when I want to have their company for a casual cup of coffee, lucky me! Was it supposed to be my destiny?

I am still reflecting why on mother’s day I have no longer a mother to celebrate….Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She trots the world and loves to write travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design home interiors of her clients .
She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Go With The Flow | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

12 May 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ConvertedScarf, #HowToWearLargeScarf, #HowToWearPonchos, #SummerClothes, #SummerFlowingClothes, #SummerPoncho

Welcome to a spring episode of my Friday Fashion.
Spring is here with fizzy air, cool winds, fun colors, flowing skirts. That desire of leaving behind the heavy bulky winter clothes and slip in something light, breezy is growing. Soon, even Summer will arrive and we need to prepare for the heat. I am dreaming of tropical beaches, my naked feet being massaged in a white sand like sugar and blue waters giving me a sense of calmness. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Getting dressed, even for hot days, is a form of art that requires talent, skills, discipline and practice.
Spring and Summer are the season that encourage people to get sloppy and loose in the appearance, almost like saying “it’s hot I don’t want to dress”. Going in flip-flops everywhere is not going to help a personal image nor raise a personal a self-esteem, just saying….
Explore some creative ideas of getting dressed in these warm seasons in your special way that is different than others. Make a collage with your clothes and sculpt your image.

(Let it loose poncho style)

I want my clothes for spring and summer to give me a sensual benefit of these two seasons and have a few practical functions as well:

I don’t want the clinging effect to my body;
I want them to be loose and flowing without making me appear boxy;
I want them stylish and versatile;
I prefer breathable, natural fabrics over polyester or synthetics.

(Tie it in the back)

(Tie it in the front)

I purchased a variety of convertible scarves with arm holes, which become ponchos, regular scarves, shoulder wraps and bikini covers. I can wear them in many ways as shown in my photos, loose, tied in the front , tied behind and even as short dresses.

(Let it loose as dress or blouson and wear it with leggings)

Above here is another examples of a converted scarf with arm holes, from Monroe & Main and how they suggest wearing it. It becomes a great shoulder wrap for any occasion.

Winter will look very colorful wrapped in these converted scarves under a coat. Try them, they are a pleasure to wear, especially when the wind blows.
Go with the flow. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. To better help people all over the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Midwest Zen Meditation | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

04 May 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #MeditationDecor, #MidwestHomeDecor, #MidwestStyle, #MidwestZenMeditation, #PeppinoCampanellaLighting, #ZenMeditation

Talking to someone from the Midwest USA, who loves to meditate, I realized not everyone knows what to do with interiors and their needs. How do you combine these two things, so very different in style and feelings, he asked me?

Midwest is relatively flat, consisting either of plains or of rolling small hills: the Appalachian Mountains, the Great Lakes Basin, the Ozark Mountains, the rugged topography of Southern Indiana and far Southern Illinois, hardwood forests, flat lands are converted to farms, pastoral areas and urban areas. Due to various rainfall patterns, even grass grows differently in the prairies: tall grass in the wetland, mixed-grass in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the Rockies (Bits from Wikipedia).
The elements for a Zen meditations are all there. Refer to the local nature’s essence, copy it, bring peace and balance in the home décor. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

In the Midwestern Zen style, I see furniture made with sustainable wood, chairs with natural fiber and washable slip covers, upholstery patterns that imitates nature’s examples of the area such as leaves, butterflies and swaying grasses. For the meditation area plan for sisal rugs and comfy pillows. Be inspired by past and present. Mix modern accessories with vintage and artisanal-made items to stage a casual expression of the Midwestern rugged area, such as furniture left natural and shaped as if as a tree trunk has taken its own form.

(Photo above taken at Luoghi di Pitti, Altamura Italy with permission granted)

Add a bowl full of pinecones, a driftwood with embedded air plants, rocks form the mountains, quilts and local pottery. Make sure everything is a perfectly mismatched, in that, all together these items and findings will communicate with the outside environment and will bring a special charm in the décor.
Choose leather, suede, velvet, raw silk and no pastel colors. The rugged Midwestern calls for bold colors: rich reds, juicy oranges and earthy inspired hues such as blues to emulate the sky and green tones to bring in the various prairie grasses. Once the space has been created with a mixture of local elements, the harmonious elements of air, water and earth must be put in place.

Invite lots of fresh air, let the sun filter through bamboo shades and let the cool breeze caressing your face. Put a fountain in a corner to cut all other noises; long tree branches or shapely driftwood in four corners of the room as buffer and grounding elements; add soft meditating music, if you like and an altar with the objects of your personal beliefs. Make sure the room is well ventilated for a pleasant meditation experience .

Light up the meditative space as you wish. I suggest objects of light by Italian artist Peppino Campanella. http://www.peppinocampanella.it/en/atelier/
Glass is a natural element, it reflects well light and atmospheres created around it.

Oggetti di luce – Peppino Campanella

Location of daily meditation should face nature if possible, a blue water, a green park, a scented meadow, or a garden full of flowers. If this is not possible, any room can be created as nature-like setting and, sometimes, just hanging a poster of nature on the wall, or an enlarged photo of nature you took during an exotic trip is sufficient to recreate a similar effect of being in the nature. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope that through my writing and my stories I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspiring you to live in beauty. I have loved my profession as an interior-fashion designer since 1990. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line if you need. Check out my latest book on the subject of colors Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Tranchier Style | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Cheeseboards, #CoastalDecor, #CoastalTableSetting, #CuttingBoards, #HistoricTrencherTableware, #TrencherTableware

Cutting boards today are party vessels to serve cheeses and other dry finger food, or kitchen utility items to chop, mince and slice food for cooking. Some new style cutting boards are designed to use as plates, with a cut out space for holding a wine glass on one side and place food on the flat area. This is a convenient way to hold food while shaking hands with people at networking events. Those of us who are habitué at these gatherings know how difficult it is to eat, hold a wine glass and shake hands all at the same time. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/s/puzzle-cutting-board

Tranchier was the name for cutting boards in the Medieval era, from Old French tranchier “to cut” and it was far from being a common wooden board. A trencher was a type of flat round bread used as a plate, upon which the food could be placed to eat. At the end of the meal, the trencher was given to the poor or dogs. Later, around the 1500s the trencher became a circular or square and completely flat wood plate, made of natural beech or sycamore, without the lip or raised edge of the plates we know today. A circular indentation in the center of the trencher would catch sauces or juices and in one corner, another circular depression contained salt. Diners filled up their trenchers with food from the larger charger plates and larger trenchers placed in the center of the table.

(BLW_Trencher_David-Jacobson – Wikimedia)

Forks didn’t exist yet, the only way to eat was to cut food in bite-size with the knife and eat it from the tip of the knife. In the upper crust, gallant men cut the food for the woman on his right side and fed her from the knife. However, eating with hands was a normal custom even for the upper class. Those trenchers of the 1500s are the cheeseboards of today and in some cases, we can also use them as decorative items under a plate set, as I saw it done at one of the World Market stores.

Don’t really understand the function of a cutting board under a stack of plates, other than wanting to sell it as part of a whole table arrangement. However, it looks pretty, different and it caught my eyes. For a coastal table setting, it picks up a perfect rusticity. If you have a special coastal table setting, please share it here.
Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual, as much as she likes to restyle people’s images. She needs your story to design your dream. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Noble: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Colors Matter | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

07 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BlueandCharteuse, #BoldFashion, #CasualFashion, #ColorTalk, #DressWithChartreuse, #HowToCombineChartreuse

Welcome to a Friday Fashion episode.

The question is always: black clothes or color clothes? The answer for me is always color clothes and I will never stop saying this, people wearing black, to my eyes, look as if they are mourning their life.

The youth of today prefers black as the uniform of the century and they wear it 24/7. The youth of today want to fit in the crowd and don’t much care to be original. The youth of today follows a current common to all and want to be approved by their peers who all wear the same style and the same colors, black, grey and beige.

Then, there is the crowd of adults who falls in the same category of the “army of people dressed in black” as I call them. They think black is elegant, easy to wear and slimming.
True, black is elegant, especially for evening events and glitz, in the day light it take energy away.
True, black is easy to wear, because it doesn’t need any thinking or artistic skills to match it with something else and more black items. It’s also easy to wear because it doesn’t show any dirt….
As far as slimming….. it will work if you believe it …. Black doesn’t receive or reflect light, thus a large person dressed in black looks like a dark large box. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

In my life, I never wanted to fit in. I dress in all colors, I put on what I like and looks good on me, regardless of fashion rules of the moment. I don’t paste myself with well-known signatures to feel important or rich. My everyday clothes are colorful, smart and stylish, enough to push two guys working in a grocery store to talk about my colors for an unusual long time, even disregarding the line building up behind me. One was a cashier, the other one helped bagging the grocery.

They were dressed in black, both had faces decorated with rings and tattoo covering arms and necks. They smiled and greeted me, I smiled back. They looked and kept looking, I smiled and kept smiling.
Then the cashier guy unexpectedly bursted in compliments. It seemed everything on me had caught their attention. They described my blue sunglasses (from Sorrento, Italy) like a blue sky on my face. They couldn’t believe such bright green apple pants combined with the night blue crocheted sweater was matching so well. It was almost like going through an x-ray machine, they scanned everything I had on and declared I was the best dressed woman passing in front of their eyes that day.
I thought I was only dressed casually for grocery, what would they say if they seen me really dressed for an occasion….

The conversation evolved from my colorful fashion to my colorful food and what I was going to cook with the items I bought. The guys were truly surprised that I had crocheted my sweater and I could cook as well.
Well, I will leave this last issue to a different post on Lost Art.

Front side – https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

Back side – https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

This only tells me one think: if these guys see an army of people dressed in black, gray and beige, day in and day out, what is there to be excited? The same would be in offices, in the street and any other place. Then, someone trots along with color energy, suddenly people smile, feel happy and inclined to start a friendly conversation. It means colors open people’s eyes wide and wake them up from the sedated colors they see every day.

Fashion should be fun and invigorating, it should give us confidence to express ourselves, it should make people smile and wanting to admire us.
Be a leader with a contagious personality. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

I am Valentina, a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style has surrounded me since the beginning of my life. My many years of experience in design business led me to offer consultations in both fashion and interiors, so much so that I can remodel homes as well as personal images. I am passionate about colors and I encourage my clients to express their individual style in their homes and with the clothes they wear. I am the author of three books, one of which is a book on color theory: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

One Day Two Years Ago | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

30 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArchLittleItalyCeremony, #ArchLittleItalySanJose, #LittleItalyAwardPlaque, #LittleItalyFundRacings, #LittleItalySanJose, #PasqualeEspositoTenor, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

Two years ago, this month, Little Italy San Jose, Ca was unveiling a new arch. I had been part of a design team for years. In-kind professionals formed the team, donating our time to attend meetings, discussion, challenges and all that it took to move a city project forward. In addition to time, many of the professionals donated construction material to build this beautiful artistic arch and when it was completed, all of us received the award in a form of an engraved plaque with our name.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Little Italy Arch – San Jose, CA – http://www.littleitalysj.com/archway.html

Above: My award – http://www.littleitalysj.com/archway.html

(President Little Italy – Joshua De Vincenzi-Melander, speaking at the arch unveiling ceremony – March 27, 2015)

The concept of the arch was to create a bridge between the old Italy and Italian emigrants who landed on American soil at the turn of 1900s and the vibrant Italy of today, competitive on the economic level with cutting edge stylish products known worldwide. The arch is situated in an area of San Jose where the Italian emigrants lived to honor their lives and work.

Some of the Victorian homes the Italians emigrants occupied were renovated for resell. An area, we called Piazza Piccola, delineates an Italian style patio with trellises and pavement made of bricks engraved with donor’s names. In Piazza Piccola, Little Italy organizes street fair, opera in the piazza, Italian Christmas carols in December and celebrates Befana Day in January, as it is customary in Italy.
Often visitors simply sit on benches and sip a glass of wine with friends. Little Italy have organized large fund racings, of which as a designer, I was part as well, and many small events of all sorts to find capitals to pursuit our goals.

(Photo above courtesy of Little Italy – Brick area in Piazza Piccola)

(Little Italy Gala – 2014. Food, wines, music, silent auction and a load of attendees)

So far, we have established the presence of a few Italian businesses successfully operating in the Little Italy area: a restaurant, a café, an Italian language school for kids and the August 2-days Family Festival in the park, event which attracts $40,000 and more visitors every year. They flock to visit our vendors with Italian products, listen to the music sitting on grass, watch the Renaissance parade, participate to talks on various subjects related to Italian culture, watch art exhibitions, taste food and wine and many visitors will dance, happy to be in a recreated Italy.

(Pasquale Esposito, Italian tenor with Valentina Cirasola, Italian designer, celebrating the unveiling of the arch and the awards – March 27, 2015)

The unveiling ceremony was a day of celebration for many achievements and successes the Little Italy organization reached though the years. The ceremony culminated in Italian food, wines and music experience, as it should be.

(Above: Little Italy arch illuminated at dusk. Below: bronze plaque on the arch with all the “in-kind’ people’s names)

Little Italy future projects in the making are the building of an Italian-American Museum, a Pinocchio Village for children, a Bocce Ball Court, an Italian Cellar Bar and an authentic Trattoria.
It will be a very nice Italian village where everyone will enjoy Italian culture and learn about community.

It has been a journey, I met so many good people, learned so much….I would have never thought Italy is dearly loved outside its borders. I am an expat of modern times, to see so much love towards my country, warms up my heart.
I am proud of all the people who work to keep Italian traditions alive. I am very honored and grateful to have received an award for my contribution in the design concept of the arch. Ad majora, Little Italy! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also was seen on RAI – Italian National TV and has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of three published books, the latest ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors is on the subject of colors.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

It’s Easy Being Green | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

27 Mar 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: # https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/it-is-easy-being-green/, #ItalianFood, #Pesto, #SpecialityPastaDish, #SpinachPesto, #WordPressWeeklyChallengeGreen

It’s easy being green in my kitchen. Vegetables abound even though no one in my family is vegetarian or vegan. Every meal is composed of various food, complemented with vegetables prepared in all possible ways. We eat everything, nothing goes to waste. There are no enemies at my table the “infamous calories”, we don’t believe in counting calories. We enjoy our food. Simple as that.

People who have eaten in my house, ask me why my food is simple and full of flavor. The answer is equally simple: I don’t need to produce complicated food every day, but I want to eat savory food, with layers of flavor easy recognizable one by one, inside of which every spice comes through vibrantly fresh. The secret is the freshness of every ingredient. In my kitchen, there is nothing pre-packaged, pre-made, nor pre-organized by the food industry. I go to market to get fresh food and I return every two-three days. My vegetable and spice garden produces a small quantity of food, if the season goes well, and I take full advantage of that too. (Click on the photo to view it larger).

What was green on my table today? Fusilli pasta with spinach pesto. When basil is not available, use spinach, arugula, or parsley.
It takes almost 15 minutes to make it, all the ingredients are raw except for the cooked pasta.
Before starting the preparation, very briefly toast a hand full of pine nuts in an iron skillet over the stove, or in the oven for 5 minutes. Be careful, they burn easily.
Now, wash all the spinach. Drain the water, but leave them a bit wet.
In the food processor, put all the spinach, 3-4 cloves of garlic and grated Parmigiano cheese (I used pecorino for a stronger flavor).
Turn on the machine and from the top hole, add olive oil a little at a time, until spinach have become a cream.
Drop the green mixture in a skillet, add pine nuts, season with salt and pepper to your liking.
Cook pasta al dente for no longer than 8 minutes. Drain the water, add it to the skillet with the pesto mixture.
Toss and turn, let it marry well. Serve this delicious green pasta with more cheese to add at the table.

This is a green dish to cook and eat at once, good for summer or winter. It will surprise you how easy it is being green and to eat green food.

Oops, I goofed, I should have used a yellow plate with this green dish. Food photography should be equally appetizing. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is the designer who cooks. She has a deep interest in food that led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, well-being and learning food of the world. She wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate of http://www.wine-fi.com says: “Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Why Not In Blue? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

23 Mar 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BlueHardwoodFloor, #CoastalColors, #FloridaColors, #HardwoodFloorSolutions, #HomeDecorating, #LifeOnTheCoast

Last week an email arrived in my inbox. The title was a question: Why Not In Blue?
This is a typical example of how an intriguing title will make you open an email.
Reading the email, I realized it came from a person I didn’t know, who was asking me for a color consultation on the hardwood floor of his house in Florida.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In the process of re-styling the main livable areas of the home, client realized the common floor to all those areas needed attention. The previous “butcher-block” hardwood floor was going to be stripped and revamped with a new color or stain. The house is on the coast of Florida, my client caressed the idea of a blue floor to reflect the coastal atmosphere, but was hesitant to try it, the new color or stain was a challenge to them. After a few Skype calls, after seen the spaces in the screen and through photographs, the choice of blueberry color for the hardwood floor was the best, which urged to redo a lot of the colors in those spaces. Hardwood floor usually covers a large space, often items in the areas defined by the hardwood floor need to be taken in consideration as well, such as tiles, hardware, furniture and lighting. Repainting or re-staining the hardwood floor cannot be a lonely act, one must be prepared to change a few things, to make everything flow together.

That is exactly what happened with this virtual client, who asked for help through my online consultations. They listened to my suggestions and were willing to take on the challenge to renew certain other things. The new color composition was born based on a bowl of shells I own, which met my client’s favor.

The kitchen top cabinet doors will change to glass fronts. All the golden beige colors will go on walls, some crucial walls where light hits differently will be accented with aqua, jade and basil colors. The browns will be some of the rustic furniture client wants to get. Gray colors are the existing ceiling beams and will remain as they are. Black and white represent existing interior doors, wrought iron door hardware, some new black lamp shades and some white pillows to mix with various green and bluish pillows. Decorative items will be in blue, aqua and decorative glass.

I am so happy to have found someone excited about a blue floor, one in a million. Most people think of resale value and don’t live in the environment they have always dreamt.
A few hours of colors consultations will bring you a new energy, a renewed life force, a new face to the home and I haven’t moved one inch from my studio.
Are you tired of your butcher-block hardwood floor yet? I am here to help you. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle and personality. She offers on-line design consultations through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Wish | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

16 Mar 2017 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: # https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/wish, #PersonalWishes, #ShellHouseDetails, #ShellHouseInterior, #ShellHouseWish, #WordPressWeeklyChallengeWish

A few years ago, I wrote this piece of advertisement and I can proudly say it is true! All my dreams and wishes came true so far. What is a wish without the action and the energy to go out there and get it? It’s only day dreaming.
Being a type A person, meaning hyperactive, I am that kind of person that doesn’t stop, once I have realized one dream, I want to pursuit the next one. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

My long-time wish has been to build my own shell house. Ambitious? Yes!
Most contractors don’t want to invest time in building curves and artistic details. Fluid architecture, artistic buildings, creative homes take time, involve a great thinking and take efforts doing something out of the ordinary. Most of them is happy building a shoebox that is sellable to the mass, makes money quick, move to the next project and repeat it with the eyes closed many more times around.

It takes the same effort to dream big than to dream small. I wish big things. I wish to build a shell shaped home, everything inside made of natural, organic materials, wavy walls emulating the sea movement and in some parts of the interior I envision walls with lacy design through which natural light plays its games on the floor.
I see undulated, cozy, warm, embracing fixtures and furniture. In some areas of the shell house, I envision a thick temperate glass floor with real sea fauna and flora underneath.
Expensive without doubts, but hey, this is my wish.

In my wish I envisioned a décor filled with rugged wood mixed with tumbled stones and interior doors made of coiling glass shaped like a shell. I see wrought iron balcony rails. Greenery and luscious vegetation framing the exterior of the house all around and twirling exterior stairs taking to various levels of my shell shaped house or in other detached areas of the house.

This is not all. My wish turns more pleasurable. The shell house is near the sea and not necessarily outside the door. I would be fine just to know the sea is in a walking distance. Once a week, I envision organizing bon fires on the beach, roasting fresh seafood with friends and telling stories. The back of my shell house is another paradise: my vineyard!!! That’s right. In my wish, I want to grow my own vines and produce specialty wines in a small scale. Among my vines, at least once a week, there will be evenings with Shakespeare plays acted out by students and aspiring actors.

This is my wish and so alive in my mind. For now, I start with drawings, let’s see where it will take me. Ciao,

Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle and personality. She offers on-line design consultations through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Sky Blue and Green New Vibrations | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

06 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2017SpringColors, #PurpleAppleGreen, #SkyBlueGreenColorCombo, #WarmColdColorCombination

Warm and cold, extravagant, original, young, modern and fresh, this is how I see a color palette for March. Let’s take March to renew, to get rid of useless winter stuff and regenerate the atmosphere in the house. Aquamarine is the birth color for march and even if it is not your stone, it is an easy color on the eyes. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Starting from sky blue, I worked my way into the greens and what a combination it is. It’s almost a retro color palette.
In the ‘50s, sky blue with apple green was a beautiful combination seen from tableware, kitchen appliances to fashion. The characteristic of the era was plastic and shiny chrome. Today, we pair these two colors in a new way and it is still beautiful. Chrome on furniture is gone, we are into natural, eco-friendly materials, breathable fabrics, wood and distressed metals to emulate nature in home décor.

In my room composition, I added blue purple and magenta as accent colors. Now, imagine a living room with a purple accent wall and a purple sofa against that same wall. Being a bulky item in the room and of the same color of the wall, the sofa disappears in the wall. Imagine the other three walls in the room being of a golden beige and the room filled with colorful chairs from magenta, sky blue and apple green. Illuminate this vignette with funky lamps, add wood end tables of different shapes and voila’ les jeux sont faits (the games are done, or the chips are down).

Above sources:
Reclining Purple Sofa https://www.templeandwebster.com.au
Copper Lamps http://www.lonestarwesterndecor.com/turquoise-glass-floor-lamps.html
End Table – Mercury Thaddeus Twist – Wayfair
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Now that you have seen how good these colors look together will you wear them too? I just both a sky blue pants and an apple green short sweater buttoned up in the front. I will add a scarp with abstract design in bluish purple and green and that’s the reason I wrote this post. These are comfortable colors to wear and to live in.
Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As an Italian designer and true to my origins, I am well-known to bring originality to people’s homes, but that’s not where I stop and any situation is a perfect opportunity to design something out of the ordinary. Check out my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w