Valentina

My Bohemian Thanksgiving Table | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

30 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HolidayEntertainment, #PumpkinPieFairy, #TableCenterpieceDesign, #ThanksgivingTable, #TheArtOfDining, Tablescape

Yesterday, sitting with friends at my Thanksgiving table, I was remembering the same day four years ago, when I turned on my computer early in the morning before starting the festivity cooking and found a message from my publisher congratulating me for publishing my first book. The feeling of being on 7th heaven was indescribable!!!

(Click on each photo to view it larger). (Click on each photo to view it larger)

We talked about this event while enjoying the mixture of typical Thanksgiving American food and food from Puglia, Italy, in fact some recipes even came from my book. I think my friends were more surprised to see how the simplicity of my food can hold a high flavors and taste than the huge production I made.

It seemed to me that the mixture of food from two different cultures, called for an eclectic tablescape. I wanted to have a Bohemian style table with colors and things not matching to perfection and that is what I did. The colors of my house lean towards warm tones, they are perfect for an autumn festivity.

I chose a white tablecloth as the base for layering all the colors. Two different colors tea tablecloth covered opposite corners of the table, one black with motif of nature and birds and the other one in golden tones with classical motif.

Playing with geometry and mixing round with square plates from various dish sets was fun. The square plates designed with fruit come from Italy, I carried them with me on the plane.

I made the napkins from leftover material of other projects and closed them in brass napkin rings. Tea light holders made of rusted metal go well with brushed bronze flatware.

Glasses don’t match but the greenish tone is their common denominator that marries well with other greens on the table.

Prosecco bottle has an interesting Venetian embellishment. She is the autumn leaves lady that sometimes is on a wine bottle and sometimes is on a mirror somewhere else in the house. Her purpose is to embellish.

My Pumpkin Pie Fairy by Mark Roberts is a highly collectible character hiding between the tablescape.

Dinner was great. Menu was long, but we paced ourselves through many hours of eating, conversing, drinking and music listening. I was so grateful to have had some friends eating at my table on this day of gratitude. Thanksgiving is one day, thanks-living is a life-style.

Is there one Thanksgiving you remember more than any other? 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 a book on colors, all available here in this site on the Books page and on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Italian Madness And Practicality | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

25 Nov 2013 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #FormasettiPlates, #FornasettiArt, #FornasettiAshtray, #FornasettiFurniture, #FornasettiScreens, #MilanoTriennale, #RedVoyageIntoColors

Milano Triennale Exhibition this month of November 2013 celebrates 100 years of Piero Fornasetti’s work as a painter, sculptor, interior decorator and engraver. 100 years of practical madness is the name of the exhibition due to the practicality Fornasetti’s objects offer with a twist. A bit of surreal feel doesn’t hurt in everyday life, almost like an escape from reality. I particularly like a pixellated wall representing a woman’s eye with a real convex mirror as the iris. Face and hand are the trademarks of the Milanese born artist who produced approximately 13,000 objects through his artistic life. He took a theme and plaid on its variations to the nth power.

The face of Lina Cavalieri – Italian Opera Singer

Palladian Villa

Obelisk Screen

Fornasetti Canisters

Fornasetti Teapot

Fornasetti Dresser with Lips

Piero Fornasetti at triennale di Milano designboom

Screen-detail of wardrobe from the house in Varenna

Black and white interior of Casa Lucano

Shells Chandelier

Fornasetti Table

Fornasetti Ashtrays

Piero Fornasetti

(Most photos shown in my slide are courtesy of ©Designboom)

His famous plates portraying the face of opera singer Lina (Natalina) Cavalieri are known worldwide and they are highly collectible. Fornasetti found her face in a nineteenth-century French magazine and used it in many variations creating whimsical imagery as he pleased. It has been said that Fornasetti was her assiduous admirer and covered his bathroom walls with many plates onto which Lina’s face was immortalized forever. It must have been hard to know he was only a small part of her large number of admirers, followers, fiancées and husbands. Apparently she was one of those rare beauties every men wanted. Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida reenacted her life in the film “The most beautiful woman in the world”.

Not all Fornasetti’s plates carry Lina’s face. He produced many more with animal and snakes with written, strange recipes printed on the front, such as snake à la Cleopatra and oyster egg omelette. Other plates design carried printed architectural details from Palladian villas, Venetian street scenes and symbols of Italian culture. He created chairs with capitals, dressers with lips and furniture with Neo-Classical building façades. His trompe-l’oeil screens are adorable, suitable for illusionist theatrical tricks, I would not mind having one example in my house. Being particularly attracted to the screen as a mobile object, Fornasetti studied the function of this element of décor through various historical periods and produced quite whimsical pieces also in many variations.

Remarkable are the variations of ashtrays that describe a culture of smoking, when smoking was accepted as both relaxation and social recreation. Shaped like small dishes, today his ashtrays can be used to serve canapés and will be perfectly fashionable on any table.

The Milano Triennale will stay open from November 2013 to February 9th, 2014.

The master illusionist of ornament and design left us numerous examples of objects that are, but they are really not, objects that are pleasant and functional and others that are purely decorative with no function. However we hope 100 more years will not pass before we can see practical madness again into everyday objects. Being Italian I can help you find some original pieces in the meander of Italy. 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 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

Jardinière | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

14 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #EuropeanAntiques, #EuropeanJardinière, #MyPersonalAToZChallenge, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #TableJardinière, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, Jardinière

Welcome to my personal A to Z Challenge on the subject of Home. The goal, in a year time, is to elaborate and dissect topics regarding the Home not as containers of stuff, but as a cocoon for the soul, mind, and heart.
I will touch on decorations, style, trends, history of home and sometimes technical information.

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Jardinière is a common French word for a woman gardener. The interesting thing is that flower boxes and containers for plants are also called jardinières, as often words have more than one meaning. I am thinking the origin of the name could have come possibly from the full body curvilinear women of the past, when being round was a guarantee for a good marriage and proliferation in great abundance. In fact, all the examples of jardinières I have seen are squatted, very round with a belly and feet or propped on high pedestal. Their purpose is to keep the plant and dripping water inside the pot to avoid staining elegant floors, or expensive rugs.

French Napoleon III Boule Jardinière

Stone Garden Jardinière

Antique Victorian Silver Plated Louis XVI Jardinière

Jardinière for an entry

Jardinière for chili peppers

Table Jardinière -BHandG

Jardinière for a bath

Decorative Jardinière

La Belle Jardinière painted by Raphael

Jardinières are highly decorative and very valuable if they are antiques. Auctions are best places to find some good pieces from dismantled buildings that once belonged to counts now without the account, or you might find some simpler pieces at garage sales.
Tall jardinières decorate entries, gardens and important event tables or they might be a good solution to store firewood near the fireplace. The low types, beautify table settings and furniture.

However, they are not always meant for flower arrangements or to plant chili pepper trees and vegetables. If you have decorative balls fill them up, they will look good all year round. In the bathroom, they can be used to store some handy products for everyday use and in the office, they will be a nice place to rest incoming mail until you decide to read it.

This is one French word without an equivalent translation in English. The other meaning of jardinière refers to a type of winter food served with vegetables cut all the same size, mixed with legumes.

Last but not least “La Belle Jardinière” painted by Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, commonly known as Raphael. A noble from Siena commissioned Raphael to paint the Madonna and Child with young John the Baptist, currently in an exposition at the Louvre, in Paris. My hat off to you Raphael!
Find some original piece from the past and include it in your décor, I know it will fit. 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 is the author of her book on Colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Décor and Comfort | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

04 Nov 2013 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BelleÉpoqueStyle, #BuiltInFurniture, #HomeComfort, #HomeDecor, #LibraryRoom, #MyPersonalAToZChallenge, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SmokingRoom

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One of the fundamental human needs that must be satisfied is feeling good at home. History gave us plenty of examples of how people found domestic well-being through comfortable, multifunctional furniture and decorations, but comfort and décor are not the same things. Décor is the result of what fashion dictates from one year to another or from decade to decade. We are still using Queen Ann style chairs with cabriolet legs because this style chair falls into the classic style, but when fashion dictated to leave the straight legs behind for the curvy and more feminine chairs, it was a fashion fad that was well received and though to last for only a few years, in reality, it has lasted more than a century.

Titanic Reproduction Smoking Room – Courtesy Blue Star Line

Horchow Tub Chair Ottoman

Trône de Pauline, Claude Lalanne -1990

1920-Dining Set

Valentina’s Original Suede and Cow Skin

A smoking room is no longer in fashion because it’s not a good custom to smoke in people’s face or fill the rooms with smoke smell, therefore there are no smoking rooms in today’s homes. The same is for library rooms, people still read today but they read on-line and mostly with reading devices, thus there is no more need to keep shelves full of books, or design a reading room around books, magical lights, and comfortable seats. I really miss designing library rooms!
Smoking room and library rooms represented the comfort of behavior in a particular era, the content of these rooms, colors, and style of a décor followed the fashion of the time.

In architecture or in-home décor, often we see the return of a style that we call revival, such as Tudor revival, Neo Classic revival or Gothic revival, just to name a few. Revival style is pretentious and artificial. It is only limited to the style of architectural details or the style of furniture. It has nothing to do with the behavior that characterized those historic periods. Every era has seen modern improvement in domesticity comfort with the technology available at any given moment.
We went from candlelight to electric light, from sleeping the entire family in one room with no privacy and often sleeping in one large bed, to kids’ rooms and parents’ rooms each with its own bathroom. Once the comfort of a home has been improved with modern technologies it is no possible to go back in time to sit on hard chairs without padding, washing clothes by hand or sleeping all in one room.

The reason for reviving a style perhaps is the lack of traditions and the desire to experience a nostalgic time. I like the Belle Époque style, but I would not like to live in that time when women swept the streets with their long dresses and horse & carriage was the only transportation for those who could afford it, the rest of the people went on foot. We cannot copy the past and transfer it to our life of today, we can only appreciate it by surrounding ourselves with a few traditional ornaments as an acceptable alternative.

Domestic comfort is found in the feeling of privacy, intimacy, an atmosphere of coziness and accommodating furniture. What we have adopted from the past is the concept of privacy when rooms were small, appropriately sized windows, built-in-furniture, and natural material. In early 1900 with the advent of industrialization, the incorporation of home appliances and modern devices made life more convenient without sacrificing a beautiful décor. This practice goes on today with more advanced sophisticated electronics hidden in strategic places. Most homes of today don’t look industrialized at all and we feel very comfortable using a remote control to lower curtains, turn lights off and get the movie started all with one click.

However, the comfort and coziness of a home don’t come from today’s fashion of making oversize spaces, open floor plans, and super high ceilings. The human soul gets lost in these impersonal spaces. To coordinate all the activities of a family to work in harmony in large spaces is a real challenge and it takes a lot more energy to keep large spaces warm. Kitchen and bath counters should be made in different heights to accommodate the average height of people living in the house and laundry machines should not be placed in the bathroom.
Cooking is intense and tiring work, kitchens should have a minimal walking space between the stove and the rest of the appliances with comfortable flooring.
Bathrooms are rooms for relaxation through experiencing a soothing bath with music, suffused lights, scents, and books without seen dirty clothes and clutter in plain view. Undressing room, once called boudoir serves the purpose of taking off clothes, eliminating the need for a large bathroom floor plan and while one person is bathing, the other person can do small ablutions in the undressing room without waiting.
These are some examples that will provide personal comfort.

Comfort is a very subjective thought. It really involves human physiology and how we perceive our comfort. Ergonomic chairs, versus artistic chairs, bright light versus ambient light, natural material versus man-made inexpensive and easy to care material, oversize furniture versus human-size furniture, the list can go on forever. Comfort doesn’t mean the same thing for all the people. Once we have abolished the feeling of discomfort, then we have achieved Comfort and only a person who knows his/her needs will know how to produce real comfort, not following the style of today that dictates to decorate our home in a certain way.

Should you need a technical eye to pull together a comfortable décor, I am here to help. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Classicism, stylish and timeless designs have influenced Valentina’s design work. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away your comfort. She loves to restore old homes, historic dwellings and she focuses on remodeling. Author of three books, all available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Plug me up, I will light up | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

31 Oct 2013 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HalloweenCostumes, #HalloweenFashion, #PlugSocketSetCostume, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaExpressions, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

We entered the room as the Plug and Socket set and sure enough we turned the heads of all the guests already at the party. The costume party’s requirement was only one, to come dressed in something original.
Everyone chose a recognizable costume from 1700s style to British Bobby, from pop rock stars look-alike to the animal world and ridiculous costumes portraying political people. Everyone was beautiful in their expensive costumes. My friend and I were 18 years of age, we didn’t have a way to buy an expensive costume and one week of notice was not enough to sew something extravagant either. My friend was knowledgeable in electricity and electronics, I was the mind and I came up with the Socket and Plug set idea.

We started to work frantically, we only had one week to perfect our creation. It was nothing more than painted card boxes and a mechanism of electrical wires that turned on and off the light bulb sitting on my head. I sewed the cap with insulating material to protect myself from possible circuit shortage and my friend wired me up. The set was white and underneath we choose to dress in all white to keep distraction away from our creation. I imagine by now you understood I was the socket and my male friend was the plug. We danced all night to the tunes of rock and roll music of the era.

Often during the dance we got closer to each other to show off our light bulb flipping on and off when my friend plugged his “large male prong” into my socket. What? That’s exactly what the purpose of the costume was, to push laughs and some funny comments on how many times my friend plugged me up in one evening. At times I saw a few of the guests rolled on the floor for so much laughter. We had no idea a draw at the end of the night would appoint us as the best costume.

We had no camera at that time to immortalize the moment, we were young and didn’t think we would need the memories. Luckily, I found my drawing and the fun continues. I hope you have a great costume and a place to go celebrate. Happy Halloween. 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. If you are up to it, I will design something unforgettable for any of your occasions. Check out my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Autumn Leaves Inspiration | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Oct 2013 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AutumnColors, #ColorTheory, #LivingRoomColors, #MyPersonalAToZChallenge, #NatureInspiration, #OnLineDesignServices, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

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A new on-line client from France hired me to compose a warm color scheme complete with furniture suggestions that is in tune with her Autumn archetype. I went to my nearby park to get inspiration. The leaves are yellowish, brown, burgundy and if I stand in the right light I can see undertone colors like lavender, grey or chocolate. The jewel tones of the Autumn are amazing and really suit me. Fortunately, this new client likes them too.
I took many pictures of the leaves fallen on the ground and studied them in-depth. The yellow color in the Autumn leaves, although beautiful, indicates that the chlorophyll and oxygen are gone, therefore the leaves are lifeless and fall to the ground. The yellow has many undertones, from sandy color to golden beige and brown. Some grayish leaves with lilac tones spotted with burgundy really intrigued me. Amazing how something lifeless as these leaves still retains an attractive beauty!

The palettes for my French client contains all the colors I saw in dead leaves transferred in the furnishing and accessories suggestion. I gave her two solutions, one with walls in Grey and the other with walls in Chocolate Brown as shown in my video. Each background color sets a different mood.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves Color Chips

Autumn Inspiration with Brown Walls

Autumn Inspiration with Gray Walls

Burgundy Inspiration with Sky Blue Walls

Of course, I can go with a hotter color scheme in burgundy, light brown, beige and Sky Blue on the walls. With this third color scheme, I will substitute the silver console with a piece of furniture in brown or sand color.

While I am waiting for the client’s response, I would like to know which of these color schemes is your preference?
Designing on-line is not any difficult than designing in loco. The challenges and the energy are the same, except that I am not physically on the project and a lot of things I do, become the client’s work, like overseeing the project development and managing contractors.

Sharing is caring. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope that through my writing I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspire you to live in beauty. I have loved my profession as an interior designer since 1990. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line if you need it. Check out my latest book on colors
©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Closet Doors Are Often Forgotten | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Oct 2013 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ClosetDoors, #DecoratingClosetDoors, #DecoratingIdeas, #HomeImprovement, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

Many areas of a home are often left undecorated, as if they don’t belong to the house. Services areas for instance are treated like the “Maid Quarters” as if only second-class people live there and guests are prohibited access to.
Saving money on these areas is one reason for using low quality material and no design thoughts whatsoever. Most people settle for shelves and good appliances, the rest is non-descriptive.
Sure there is no attraction in the laundry rooms, closets, pantries, storage rooms, but what if these areas open into the beautiful parts of the home? Let’s say the laundry room’s door opens in a well-designed kitchen, wouldn’t it look better if the façade of that door was designed to disguise the laundry room entry?

I take any opportunity to change even a simple door into a painting canvas, like the mural I painted on a linen closet made of two doors and six drawers. This mural breaks the monotony of a long corridor and adds the element of surprise. If guests go to the bathroom near by, I hear a big “WOW, what is it?” all the time. The façade of this closet represents an Italianate style building.
Here I’ve put together a roundup of examples to help creativity flow and personalize your home.

House & Garden

Portholes Mirror Closet Doors-http://www.wallpaperforwindows.com/decorating_ideas/2012/07/2156/portholes-mirror-closet-door2

Decorative Closet Door by Spazzi

Mural on Closet by ©Valentina Interiors & Designs

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.  She offers design consultations on-line through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge any where in the world. She is the author of three books. ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors is on the subject of colors. All Valentina’s books are available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Infinite | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

14 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColumbusDay, #ItalianFood, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #VenetianCostumes, #VenetianDécor, #VenetianFashion, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/photo-challenge-infinite

This week photo challenge on WordPress is Infinite. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/photo-challenge-infinite/

At Columbus Day celebration in the city of San Francisco, I had plenty infinite inspiration. Coming in the city, an infinite number of Art Deco buildings and modern skyscrapers line the horizon. An infinite number of palm trees, street lights and street sculptures filled The Embarcadero, a long promenade stretching for a few miles overlooking the water.

Trolley buses revamped to their original charm come by with antique coquetry and their infinite electric wires share the air space with street lights, palm trees and buildings. Weekends in the city are devoted to street markets. Infinite number of white-tented kiosks occupy empty plazas on the Embarcadero, where San Franciscans and tourists shop for arts and crafts, novelties, custom-made pieces and organic food. Music colors the air making a pleasant city to walk in. San Francisco is definitively one of the best cities in America.

Entering San Francisco

Embarcadero

Remodeled Trolley bus

Ship building

Following the Embarcadero, I reached the parade for Columbus Day celebration. The parade was nice, happy people, infinite candies thrown from moving vehicles making kids really happy.
I was more interested in seeing signs of Italian heritage, it was Columbus Day after all.
Other than a few stereotypes, tarantella, Perry Como and Dean Martin songs, things modern Italians don’t relate to, I found my infinite interest in a group of people dressed in colorful Venetians costumes.
The flag didn’t belong with the costumes, Tuscan people made an art of throwing flags, but not Venetians. OK, I understand, this is a make-believe Italy of the past, the Italy tourists like.

Among infinite marching bands from different cultures, Italian products and socialites in their convertible cars, I chose this group of people as they seemed the most authentic, true to the colors and opulence of historic Venice. Their gestures conveyed well the flirting mannerism of La Serenissima (ancient name of Venice) and the frivolity of the era.

I heard on the news today that someone is thinking of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Day. Really? Did this person fall off the bed? Should we change the entire history of United States as well to suit every ethnicity? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Classicism, stylish and timeless designs have influenced Valentina’s design work. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away your comfort. She loves to restore old homes, historic dwellings and she focuses on remodeling. Author of three books all available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Good Morning | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

09 Oct 2013 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BreakfastTableSetting, #MorningBreakfast, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #TableCustoms, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/photo-challenge-morning

This week photo challenge is about how we interpret our Morning. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/photo-challenge-morning/
My day starts very early with a good morning ritual. My first thought as soon as I wake up goes to the Sun. I salute the Sun for its powerful energy that will energize me all day.
To have an advantage on my morning, I set my breakfast place the night before. As seasons change, my place settings change as well, I like to get in the mood of each new season.
Basically, on a place matt, I set out the book I am reading in that moment, a coffee or tea-cup, a glass for juice, a plate and silverware, fruit and a scented candle. Perishable food will come out in the morning.

Breakfast1

My breakfast setting is simple and cheerful. I enter my day with ease and I allow myself to be with my thoughts in the quietness of morning silence. I don’t listen to the news and I don’t read the paper, these are activities I don’t do when I am eating. At breakfast I read only a pleasant book and I listen to pleasant classical music. I treat myself as the preferred guest of my life.
My private life is not disjointed from the business. Long time ago, I realized that to run a successful business one needs clarity of mind and eliminate all the negatives. That’s what I did.

I also realize that our lives are not the same. Families with kids have hectic schedules and may not have the same luxury to easy into their days. However, running a family is very much like running a business. It’s all matter of organization and planning the right activities for the right time. Those breakfast food that can be prepared the night before and warmed up for breakfast will cut the stress of the morning and the clothes to wear can be made ready to go the night before as well.
“Il buongiorno si vede dal mattino” ~ says an Italian proverb. Translation: A good day stems from a good morning. 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.  She offers design consultations on-line through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge any where in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Sitting On Pediments For Centuries | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

09 Oct 2013 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArchitecturalDetails, #ClasssicArchitecturalStyle, #GableRoofs, #InteriorDoorsPediment, #MyPersonalAToZChallenge, #PedimentDesign, #RedVoyageIntoColors

Welcome to my personal A to Z Challenge on the subject of Home.
The goal, in a year time, is to elaborate and dissect topics regarding the Home not as containers of stuff, but as a cocoon for the soul, mind and heart. I will touch on decorations, style, trends, history of home and sometimes technical information.

*****

Oh, come to mama! I opened the window of my hotel in Venice and saw the naked statues of the building right across the street. Every morning the scene of naked statues sitting on top of pediments was more interesting than the action in the street down below. The male statues carved in marble stood on the pediment in all their male beauty oblivious to the passage of time.

Aegina, reconstruction

Vicenza, Italy – Rotonda broken pediment by Andrea Palladio

Various pediment style

Pediment with dentelle work

If we look at any Greek temples, a Pediment is the triangle gable built above a colonnade filled with sculptures representing humans and sometimes animals in some type of action. Pediment decorated each entrance, front or back, of any temple and each pediment told a different story. Sculptures were not made all together, marble is a hard material and much time passed between one chisel and the other. Due to different time of fabrication, we can see now the evolution of the species through the art of sculptures. The gable being a triangle with two slender corners, limited the placement of standing statues in all their height, thus reclining figures, kneeling figures and figures with bent knees were the only positions for depicting statues.

We are accustomed to see statues in the pristine white of the marble and never gave a second thought that Greeks took inspiration from the Egyptians and used very bright, contrasting colors, at times even garish for the background of pediments and for the statues. Temples were the houses of Gods and places of worship, thus always built high up on hills, perhaps the reason for coloring sculptures and the background of pediments was to be seen from afar when ships approached the islands.

Romans copied the pediment idea from the Greeks and placed it on top of their temples built all over the Empire. Since then, the shape of a pediment continued through various periods and various architectural styles evolving in pointed, curved and broken pediment, the latter became the most used pediment in the very ornate Baroque period. Today we still build homes with pediments and we have extended its application to furniture, mirrors, fireplaces, entry doors and interior doors, windows and roofs. We still call it the “classical” style as the Roman did when referring to Greek architecture. Certain details never go out of vogue!

If you like the classical style, ask me how to add value to your home with timeless features. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

It’s my hope through my writing to enrich your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspire you to live in beauty. I have loved my profession as an interior designer since 1990 and seen many happy people after I leave a project. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line via Skype if you need.
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