Valentina

Gadget World | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

19 Oct 2016 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #KitchenGadgets, #KitchenTools, #PastaWheels, #UsefulKitchenGadgets, #UselessKitchenGadgets

I heard a whisper in my ears…. a shopper was telling me these new gadgets are for people who don’t know how to cook. How did she know I am a professional home cook? Perhaps the stuff in my basket gave away a hint of my serious cooking, who knows, but she got me curious to continue browsing around the shelves full of kitchen gadgets and to discover how other people cook or what they put in their kitchens.

Kiwi Peel & Quarter

Brussel Sprouts Twister

Cauliflower Florettes

Avocado Slicer

Tomato Corer

Strawberry Huller

Frankly, I must say, the gadgets look good in the kitchen, they are colorful, give the impression of getting the job done better or easier and in addition give the owner a serious chef look, but when it is time to wash dishes, this is myself talking, do I want to wash all those small parts and components that make a gadget? I am sure after a while I would get tired and will deposit them in the drawers never to be used again.

Frozen Herbs

Salad Shears

Garlic Chopper

Kale & Greens Stripper

Herb Stripper

Grape & Tomato Cutter

(All photos taken in Sur La Table store with permission granted)

I do have plenty gadgets in my kitchen, they are useful for my type of cooking, they might not be useful to someone else’s cooking.
The half-moon chopper, an Italian made tool is one tool I use all the time and the super fancy wheels to decorate my hand-made pasta. The wheels are very expensive but worth the price, they are custom-made by Luigi Desortes on the Italian Island of Sardinia. He is an artist, engraves the name of the owner on the handle and each wheel does its own original design.

My suggestion when you buy kitchen equipment is to look at your cooking style and find the tools or gadgets that will make your time in the kitchen easier. Often a good knife will do all that many gadgets can do.

Half-Moon Chopper

Pasta decorating wheels

A long time ago, I invested in a large chef knife collection to last me for a lifetime. With those blades, I chop, shred, slice, cube, Julien and everything else. My kitchen drawers are not cluttered and my washing time is minimal. Cooking is an art, don’t make it a chore. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens, cooking and extensive knowledge of food. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms, and entertainment rooms. Check out her books available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Light Sensations | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Oct 2016 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColoredLights, #DivaLights, #InteractiveLights, #ItalianDivaLights, #MoodControllingLights, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

What if you could change the sensation of dark winter days?
In the fall, days start to get shorter, weather becomes cooler, natural light is low, the garden outside the windows looks dark at night with a very little hint of colors from flowers hanging on to their life, until winter comes, then it’s easy to feel in hibernation. Fall and winter are beautiful seasons, if you ask me. Fall with its jewel color tones picks up a subtle golden coloration and winter with snow time becomes nature amusement park. However, many people suffer depression during these months due to lack of sun and too much rain in some parts of the world.

What if you could change all of that instantly? What if, by placing some special lights, the entire environment surrounding the house could become a happier and colorful place? And not only that. Feeling sad? Change the color of the lights to permeate the room with happy feeling. Feeling too stressed out? Change the color of the lights to feel calm and relaxed. Need to be energized? Change the color of the lights to pick up new vibrations. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

DIVA Lights, Italian made, can do this for us, as they almost breath with the surroundings and our emotions. DIVA Lights, being managed by a software, sense the weather outside and change automatically into the opposite colors of the outdoor. Let’s say outside is gray and raining, by placing DIVA lights in the interior of the home, the lights will pick up the vibes of the weather condition and will change the interiors of the home into summer light tones and feelings.
In fact, restaurants in Europe use them to keep customer inside the premise longer, inside of their created spring-summer atmosphere when outside is cold, gray or raining. Due to the colored lights and the “feel good” atmosphere generated by the lights, customers feel to stay put. Who needs to go out there, when inside is cozier and colorful?

DIVA lights are portable, thus they reproduce in the garden the same scenario created in the home. DIVA Lights are intelligent, by placing them among the foliage, bushes and shrubs, the lights will feel the cold fall or winter temperature and will create warmer colors, contrasting with the evening-night colors. Suddenly the garden will not seem so dark, bare and uninviting. Under the moonlight with DIVA lights the garden will be luminous, will have a colorful appeal and will pick up a happier feel. Psychologically the lights help feeling better during the dark period of the year.

(Photos courtesy of DIVA Interactive)

As I said before, from outside to the inside, the lights are portable, a smart phone manages the software even at a distance, the color system they bring to us is the secret. Today we want to “feel good” with the technology we use, when we entertain, when we eat exceptional food, when we exchange ideas in a living room full of friends, when we work, when we sleep and when we spend time in the bathtub. DIVA Lights promise these experiences and I add “change your colors, change your life energy and you will have a story to tell”.

Feel free to contact me about DIVA Lights, or go here:
http://www.divahome.co/
https://www.facebook.com/diva.light.home/

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

Artistry in Fashion | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

30 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #ArtistyInFashion, #Britex, #CañadaCollegeArtistryInFashion, #CanadaCollegeFashion, #CanadaCommunityCollege, #Fashion2016

Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.
How do you motivate aspiring fashion designers to create originality? Give them a bag of mixed fabrics, tell them nothing of what’s in the bag and wait to see what they create. That is what I saw last weekend at the local Cañada Community College in the Fashion Department. Students created some interesting clothing with that mystery bag showing their knowledge in the history of costume projected in new shapes of modern lines.

Book by Angela Lan

Student’s display

Student’s drawings

Student’s Drawings

Student’s drawings

(Photos were taken at Cañada Community College by Valentina Cirasola)

The highlight of the presentation was Angela Lan a 14-year-old girl who is already an author of her published book titled #OOTD Sew and Style (OOTD stands for Outfit Of The Day). She modeled for all the photos in her book and included six outfit patterns ready to copy. She wrote this book for the teenage population who wants to learn how to sew.

Sewing art is resurging again, just like most crafts and handicrafts. In a world of corporations, mass production and uniform look, it is a breath of fresh air to see youngsters taking interest in manual work.
I am hoping, they will find value in making unique clothes to spread originality and push them to become their own style and not the anonymous shades they are now in the sea of people who look just the same in all four corners of the world.

The next speaker was the owner of Britex the biggest fabric store in San Francisco founded in 1952 by her father who emigrated from Poland with the family. Sharman Spector presented her store as one of the few remaining family-owned businesses in the city, where every piece of fabric ordered goes through her personal scrutiny, tasted, evaluated and examined before going on the shelves. Her favorite country to shop for fabric is Italy, she said, I had no doubt about that. I am one big fan of Britex, there I can find fabrics from all over the world for fashion and interiors.

My pleasure at the end of the presentation was to visit local artists in their kiosks. Oh my, so much to buy……. everyone showed interesting pieces of their wearable art, really out of this world.

I do admire artists who can work on metals and come up with something as soft as rose and it is still metal.
At 7 Hands Design, I found a choker to take home with me.

The fashion field is so beautiful, rewarding, creative and so strongly competitive. Welcome new fresh minds, welcome to the world of expressing art through body and clothes. This article was published also on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine by Sally Cronin. 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 the subject of colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Atrium Delight | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

29 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Atrium. #AtriumDesign, #AtriumLiving, #HomeDesign, #HomeWithAtrium, #RomanHomes

house_of_vettii_peristyle

Lately I have gone back in history to find inspiration for home designs with a different feel and character, homes with pleasant lay-out flowing harmoniously from room to room, homes filled with natural light and homes where nature decorates the interiors just by itself. Modern shoebox homes don’t provide that inspiration anymore. In the market I see only houses with ceilings so high that even the soul can’t find a resting place and it escapes the body, or I find homes with rooms without any creative detail. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Sometimes ago, I went to meet a new client in a new built home. She was so tiny, skinny, short and young, when she opened the large six feet doors I mistook her for one of her daughters. The ceiling was 20 feet high, she even admitted to have a feeling of cold emptiness when she was in the house. She purchased large furniture to fit the scale of her high ceilings, but she felt lost in them and I noticed her feet dangled when she sat in the sofa. The house was a huge shoebox built on a small lot and no yard. Is that a good living sticking people between four walls and not a stitch of garden or outdoor space?

House _Of_Golden_Cupid

In Italy I grew up in a round building, one storey high with a terrace up above where women hang their laundry, dried tomatoes for the winter on large wood planks and kids played together. The building had a central atrium, a common area to everybody, open to the sky. It was a playground for the adults, it felt just like an outdoor space but it was really enclosed between walls secured by a large iron door. The adults gathered in the atrium to play cards, to shoot the breeze, to enjoy a drink or two, sharing food together, or in case of needs someone was always ready to help.
Balconies on the first floor led to each apartment and overlooked into the atrium.

In Europe people live in building apartments. It is still very common to find buildings with an interior atrium closed with a door to the exterior. Life around the atrium becomes a public one, puts everyone in close proximity, basically we know everybody’s business.

Even in America at one point atriums were popular in buildings with apartments. In fact, in the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window with Grace Kelly and James Stewart we see how the life of people living there evolved around an atrium. In a single family home an atrium is a private affair. Basically the backyard shifts to the front of the entry and it becomes the playground for kids and adults, a BBQ and entertainment area. The exterior door to the street protects and encloses people between walls.

House_Of_The_Faun

(Roman Homes photo source: Pompei – Past and Present – Guide to Reconstructions)

Patrician Romans built their homes in this fashion. In my picture the House Of The Faun (above), bedrooms opened up to the atrium, as well as dining areas for summer and winter. The layout of the house ran around the atrium. They situated bedrooms under a portico of Ionic columns, from where people and guests enjoyed the white noise of a fountain, bronze statues and the view of fragrant central garden. Kitchen, baths and servant quarters were located farther to keep the smells away. In the Roman atrium, musicians entertained with their music, men talked about politics and business, women occupied themselves with kids, gossip and women activities, the atrium was the area of the house for socializing, as we might use the living room today.

Centuries later my life as a kid evolved the same way in the round building with an atrium.

The four walls of a house are what they contain, they protect the dreamers. I dream of a natural living, surrounded by nature, colorful waters, positive vibes from a fluid architecture that exudes the earth’s energy, allows me to live mostly outdoor and shelters my friends and family as an oasis. Ciao, Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She especially loves to design all those rooms with a “make me feel good” tag attached, such as kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. She is a public speaker and a mentor. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books and an interior design book on the subject of colors, all-available here in this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Become Friend With Your Closet | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

25 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #DressingUpMistakes, #RulesOfDressingUp, #SecretsOfDressingUp, #ValentinaCirasolaDesigner, #ValentinaCirasolaImageConsultant, #ValentinaCirasolaSeminars, Fashion

….and I will add become friend with your body as well. I want to bring some novelties in the way women dress, show them rhythm and how to sculpt with accessories, how to create color combinations they never thought possible, I want to show them how to highlight their body’s beautiful features and how to hide those parts less attractive. For this and juiciest designer’s secrets, I have organized a special fashion seminar directed to women who want to look good at any age, anytime of the day, in any situation even when they go to bed.

(Graphic Source: Fashion cliparts.co)

My attitude towards fashion has been always one of respect, first because fashion is an art, an expression of one’s body through clothing. Second because it makes us feel good when we are dressed up and look ourselves in the mirror, or when we receive compliments from a total stranger. It boosts our confidence. There will be people who don’t care about fashion and don’t care to dress up ever, I don’t want to change a country, that’s not my goal. As a designer, I only want to show women who are willing to listen that transforming their look is fun and improving a personal image is easy and painless.

The knowledge women acquire at my seminars will empower them to shop confidently for the rest of their life in a way they will finally buy only the best clothes for their body and not the entire store just because something is on sale, or the offer buy one get two is too good to pass up, or because fashion dictates.

On Sept. 29, 2016, I will host a seminar in Los Gatos, CA – Dinner is included in the price.
If any of you out there lives close to Los Gatos, CA and is interesting in sharing an evening of fashion with friends, please register here through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/become-friend-with-your-closet-and-your-body-tickets-27764193450
I hope to see you there Sept.29, 2016 at 4:00 pm.

“Beauty begins the moment you become yourself” ~ Coco Chanel

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

Maverick Of Style | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

17 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BoldFashion, #Fashion2016, #IrisApfel, #IrisApfelFashion, #IrisApfelFashionExibition, #IrisRareBirdOfFashion

Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.

Call her “A rare bird of fashion”, call her “A Maverick of Style”, the woman with huge round frame glasses is still making headlines in her third age of life.

She says a beautiful woman can live off her look as long as her natural beauty vanishes, but an interesting woman who says and does interesting things and she is not necessarily beautiful will always attract people to her because her quirks. This is Iris Apfel, interior, fashion designer of the rich and famous and business woman. In her career, among many activities, she produced Old World wallpaper to decorate most historic homes in the country and even the White House under various administrations.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Today some people look at her with a bit of envy and a lot of admiration. She is a fashion icon and an example to follow.
Her strong fashion sense can raise the dead and can also inculcate a strong self-esteem in those women who do not have it. She can dare with bold jewelry, bold clothes and colors making everything fit together perfectly.
The secret of her successful combinations is having no rules and pair accessories that don’t look put together on purpose.

Jewelry Collection

Ethnic Jewelry

Necklaces

Scarab Bracelets

Exhibition

Sculpting

Jewelry Collection

Sculpting

(Photo credits to KQED – I photographed them from my TV while watching a program dedicated to Iris).

Dressing up, she says, should be a great experience for every woman, creating originality while following one’s personality, making a personal style, putting things together differently every time and breaking rules. She encourages to play, have fun with fashion and amuse people with the clothes.

According to Iris, composing, layering and sculpting are the three key elements when putting an outfit together.
Composing the outfit based on one’s body shape. It is the same process a musician uses to compose music with different notes that make harmonious sounds.
Layering colors to awaken dormant energy. Layering lines and patterns to create an interesting rhythm.
Sculpting is done with accessories, large and small, glitz and flat finish, long and short, ethnic, antiques, vintage and modern, finally playing with texture that makes jewelry appear as one piece.

Iris owns one of the few most beautiful jewelry collections in the country and often lends it for exhibition in museums. It conquers visitors with great success every time. It seems to her that “finally people caught up with her style and as much as they don’t want to be bothered with it, as everybody wears the black uniform these days, they do yearn for style”.

She could never be friend with anyone who wasn’t curious, commented in a TV show, I couldn’t either, I add. She is a very interesting character the reason why she is lasting so long, touching and inspiring so many people.
Be different, be curious and experiment with new looks, you will see many doors opening for you. 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. To better help people in 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

Elements Of Surprise | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

15 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #2016FallColors, #Anthropologie, #AnthropologieWindowDisplay, #FlowerArrangement, #PaperFlowers, #StoreDisplay

It’s one of those days in California, the sun is high, the air is fizzy, mid-morning coffee in a fashionable area with business associates. Women of leisure are out shopping and carrying shopping bags bigger than their size.
Window shopping is one of my favorite activities when I am in those parts, but I am always moving fast from window to window, perhaps because merchandise is the same everywhere and not much out there interests me.

Here fashion is all about black clothes. We can still feel the influence of Steve Jobs, dressed in his uniform: jeans, black t-shirt and black sneakers. It feels to me as everyone is mourning their own life.
I am sorry to complain about black all the time, but it isn’t the only color available and I will not allow anyone to tell me I need to wear the “black California uniform” 24/7. If it makes them happy, black is the color for them.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Flowers Made With Vegetable Twist Tie)

(Flowers Made With Paper Price Tags)

I was walking mindlessly, suddenly something struck me in Anthropologie.
To attract people’s attention, the visual department has designed these flowers all made with paper price tags, muffins paper cups and vegetable twist ties, you know the type we use at grocery stores to seal a plastic bag full of fruit or vegetable.
The “wow” effect was there and the curiosity too.

I entered the store and spent an hour studying store display, flowers arrangements and roaming around merchandise. This store is ready with new colors, as it is always attentive to market demand.

(Flowers Made With Paper Cups For Muffins)

(Photos taken in Anthropologie store with permission granted)

The paper roses made with price tags reflect the warm mood and emotional feeling of 2016 fall. We just need new vibrations in new color combinations, which are visible in the paper price tags’ treatment.
All those subtle and powdery colors is an indication of what we will wear in the next fall and winter.
Human creativity has no limits. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior-fashion 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. Valentina needs your story to design the home of your dream and add elements of surprise. 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

Cognac Collection | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #CognacColor, #Pantone2016FallColors, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #WarmTaupe2016, #WarmToneColors

The sophisticated appeal of cognac colors retain its allure in part because it is a classic timeless color, which adds quality and prestige to any interiors.
Blending cognac is an art and so is blending cognac color with other colors.

This coming fall we will see bronze, cognac and warm beige mixed with warm and cool colors.

The Warm Taupe of this Autumn suggests reassurance and stability. It is a trusted colors because it feels organic.
It is timeless and it pairs well with the top 10 shades studied for this Fall 2016 season.
I like to pair it with Cognac for an additional flavor. Yes, flavor, because colors are not only made to be seen, but we should feel them on our the skin and sometimes even be able to say:
“I just want to taste you”.

In my imagination swirling cognac in a brandy sniffer glass warmed up slowly over a small flame is a sensual act that brings out all the tones and shimmering light of yellow, orange, gold, topaz and hypnotizes the viewer. Mixing various colors with Cognac to me has the same effect.
In my projects, I have done it always, even when these colors weren’t dictated by anyone. Their natural structure seems to bring happiness in my clients’ environment.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(A bistro in the kitchen on mahogany floor )

(Whimsical Bathroom Corner)

Italian Carrara Marble and Rosso Verona Marble

(Fireplace Italian Style)

(Custom-Built Entertainment Unit with a Secret)

Allow these colors to bewitch you. 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/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Art Is On The Ground | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

02 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BerlinStreetArt, #BerlinStreetFashion, #ManholesArt, #ManholesPrintedTShirts, #PiratePrinting

Welcome to my Friday Fashion.
In the European news this week I found something interesting: Pirate Printers, it has been around for a while, but this morning was a news to me.
“Whatever covers garbage does not look like garbage in most cases” ~ says an article on Berlin’s street art. There has been an exhibition in the past called
“Under Our Feet-Manhole Covers in Berlin“. Special exhibition in the photo technology department. Click the title to visit this original exhibition.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Schöeneberger Town Hall Manhole)

It was an exhibition of photographs depicting manhole covers by industrial designer Annett Stroetmann. The artist has a fascination for utilities covers that are literally part of the ground beneath our feet. She revealed a facet of industrial design we usually don’t consider art, we stump on it mindlessly and ignore something that might be covering sewage or electricity.

This is not all, a new movement in Berlin made of collective artists Raubdruckerin (pirate printer) is now printing manhole covers, vents, and utility grates on t-shirts and bags by applying ink directly to the streets and printing on-site in known cities as Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris. The collective of artists sell their creations through an online shop

(above: shot from my TV)

(Above: Berlin Manhole)
Manholes are not just square or round covers to disguise unattractive sites, they are designed to beautify sidewalks. The collective of artists extracted beauty from urban signage, as there is beauty all around us and in a way forced us to see it. The graphic on the streets, once printed on fabric look pretty snazzy and do not look as sewage covers. Who would have imaged it and yet these young artists did.
Very clever and original!

(Above: Paris Manhole)

I will never look at manholes the same way again. Welcome new ideas, welcome new possibilities. 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. To better help people in 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

Fall In Love With Fall | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

31 Aug 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #2016FallColors, #AiryBlueBodacious, #MusatardAiryBlue, #Pantone2016FallColors, #RedVoyageIntoColors

This fall there is a new, fresh way to combine colors we have already seen before. Spicy Mustard with Airy Blue or Airy Blue with Bodacious (a type of magenta) are a very new pair. Blues are leading the pack of colors this coming fall mixed with warm heart tones. Dusty Cedar is a real welcomed revelation for its brilliancy and the capacity to mix well with all the fall colors planned for this year. Airy Blue has an intrinsic light, it is weightless and it means serenity. It pairs well with all the fall colors. Let’s see how I have combined it. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Airy Blue, Spicy Mustard and Potter Clay – Color Combination – Concept One

If you are remaking a living room, for instance, here I have a couple of suggestions for you. My idea of a living room, provided that the size of the room allows it, is a playful space made up of various seating arrangements.

I have never liked the “large sofa” against the wall, two chairs on each side of the sofa, side tables and coffee table in front. I find this arrangement very boring.
My ideal living room is a space well designed for conversation or reading with various vignettes consisting of chairs for two or three people, a few tables between each seats or just one small table in the middle to serve everyone.

Airy Blue, Spicy Mustard, Shark Gray and Bodacious – Color Combination – Concept Two

(Furniture in my concept boards are from Grandinroad and Wayfair)

Besides central lighting in the ceiling, I like to add a source of light in each vignette, to create the rhythm of shadows and light. This type of arrangement facilitate conversations at a deeper level, allows to get to know a person closely, especially in parties, where nobody sits on the large sofa next to a person just met and everybody engage in meaningless small talks.

If you had a fireplace in a living room in needs of restyle, which main color or color combination would you choose? I am here to help. Ciao,
Valentina
ww.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/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w