Valentina

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
◇

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

A Good Match | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

27 Feb 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2017Greenery, #ColorComboWithGreen, #Greenery, #https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/a-good-match/, #Pantone2017Colors, #PantoneGreenery, #WordPressPhotChallengeAGoodMatch

The color of this year is Greenery, says Pantone, Institute of Colors.
Greenery includes green foliage, vegetation, undergrowth, underbrush, plant life, flora, herbs and green vegetables. Often people associate colors with holidays. It’s OK to wear green for St. Patrick’s Day, but not any other time, many people think this way. The other day, I heard a friend saying she would feel a potted plant if she wore green. OK, green is not her color and many feel the same. It’s hard to dispel this myth, when it is inculcated in people’s mind that green clashes with their skin tone, corroborated by expressions such as “green with envy”- all these beliefs contribute to keep green color away from the wardrobe. Green is a good match to many colors and I will prove it.

First, I suggest not to wear green around the face if it feels that uncomfortable, wear it at the bottom or as accessories.
Second, mixing colors is an art and a fun art. If you really want to mix your own green and create original combinations, just remember that green is a secondary color made with blue and yellow. By introducing some yellow into green, the result is avocado and by adding more of the blue to the yellow the result is turquoise. Avocado and turquoise are good match with silver, cream, gold, black, brown and even rust.

I have composed two combinations, one for spring-summer and one for fall season. Both combinations are easy to wear, casual-elegant and classy, perfect to leisure around or for work.
Don’t tell me green is a difficult color, these are a good match anyone can wear.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Spring-Summer: Turquoise – Avocado – Beige

In the above composition:
Turquoise Shirt – Reborn Collection Green Garden
Avocado Pants – Paul Smith Green Avocado Cotton Blend Pants
Avocado Bag – http://www.poshmark.com
Wedge Sandals – Badgley Mischka Women Cashet-Ii
Suede Wedges – Soludos – Saks Fifth Avenue

Fall: Green – Rust – Brown

In the above composition:
Moto Jacket by Veronica Beard – https://www.veronicabeard.com/stevie-fringe-moto-jacket.html
Knit cardigan by ModCloth – https://www.modcloth.com
H&M Suede Dark Green Pants
Leopard Scarf – http://www.scarfand.com/scarfands-crinkled-leopard-infinity-scarf/?gclid=CKic2MqeqtICFYhsfgodmNg
Shoes by Monroe&Main – Heelcap Oxford
Dolce&Gabbana Animal Print Bag – http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/main/ProductDetail.jsp

Still afraid of green? Don’t be, I am here to convince you of the contrary. 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 very 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

Walking Fashionable | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

17 Feb 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #CaliforniaFashion, #DonalJPlinerShoes, #ElegantMenShoes, #ManFashion, #ManShoes

Welcome to my Fashion Friday episode.
My parents and their siblings were in their late teens when WWII broke out. After the liberation by the hands of American troupes, the entire Europe fell in love with everything American, products, fashion, cars, food and English language took over the world. Roll time forward, Italy, many years later, there I was watching American films with my fashionable aunts who, like everybody else in Italy, loved Hollywood. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

We admired the class of American actresses, dressed impeccably, hats & gloves, their hair always in place, nails always painted red and that infamous cigarette holder forever between their red lips. They exploded elegance with body language, through their clothes and in the expressions they used. Never, I heard blasphemy and vulgar words out of their mouth. The actors were not far behind, charming in their manners and so well-groomed. I believe, back then, people centered life around looking perfect in every moment of the day; even homes showed in films, often set in California, were so elegantly decorated.

Roll time again, forward it many more years later, I moved from Italy, now living in California. I came here and didn’t find all that elegance I saw in American films. California is still under the influence of hippies and bohemian free people, casual is the style. There is nothing wrong with casual, but when being casual borders untidiness, then it’s a different story, we can call it slovenly, or lack of self-respect. At times, I feel people go out in their pajamas and don’t even bother to wash or dress. Californians live in flip-flops and sweat suits every day. Stores sell cheap merchandise with high price, fashion choices are awful for both men and women.

Hollywood today,…..well…. it is not an exemplary place, it’s only a platform for venom and vulgarity.

One day, I was walking in a posh area, elegant stores all around and very casual people walking in the streets. Something caught my eyes. Returned on my steps and saw original men shoes artistically displayed in the window. It was the store of Donald J. Pliner. I asked a woman working there, if she knew who is the typical client buying these shoes. She couldn’t say, probably thought I was a weirdo. I asked for permission to take photos and left, irritated by her lack of interest.

(Photos taken inside the store Donald J. Pliner -https://www.donaldjpliner.com)

Shoes tell a lot about us. It’s encouraging to know someone still cares for personal image. I like to understand where are the men wearing these shoes, because out there, feet are wrapped in UGLY.
Thank you Donald J. Pliner for designing for men who care to look good for themselves first. 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 very 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 and Barnes & Nobles.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Playing In Green | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

09 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2017ColorOfTheYear, #2017PantoneGreen, #GreenColorPalette, #PantoneColors, #PantoneGreenery

Pantone says Green is 2017 color of the year. How many things does green represent?
Green: color of some currencies.
Green: color of grass.
Green: color of leaves.
Green: color of stones such as emerald, or granite.
Green: color of tea.

Green represents peace and relaxation.
The green street light tells us to go, but a green light in the bedroom induces sleep and the green color in the bath chromotherapy let us relax.
In the ocean, a green water patch indicates that below there are live algae feeding from the sea nutrients.

Green is not one of the colors people wear well.
In the home, green walls at night look muddy, at times even greyish and depressing.
Green furniture look outdated, unless we give some strong power to the green.

I have composed a living room with colors which will boost the power of green.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Source of items in my board
Orange Sofa: http://www.devineleathercare.com.au/?attachment_id=327
Caramel Pillows: https://www.zazzle.com/caramel+square+pillows
Yellow Rose Pillow: Valentina Interiors & Designs

Of course, any room can be dressed with these vibrant and full of life colors, even office spaces. The idea is to play with the green and to make it come alive. I don’t see live plants in homes anymore. Live plants clean up the air, add oxygen in the home and decorate very well.

I am not afraid to combine green with colors others ignore, they look dynamic and I love them. Any questions on green? I am here at your service. 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 has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15 and on RAI – Italian National TV. 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