Home Designs Master | Valentina Expressions

Glowing With Salt Lamps

14 Apr 2024 11 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HolisticHealth, #HowToCleanSaltLamp, #SaltLamp, #SaltLampBenefit, home, Interior Design, lamps, mental-health, wellness

Our home is our cocoon, inside of which the work problems vanish behind the door and where we create a soothing atmosphere that will allow us to relax. One element that will help to create that atmosphere is the salt lamp, it glows pleasantly and diffuses a warm light in any room we place it.

I have a few salt lamps scattered in my home and each one contributes to making each room clean, healthy and nicely decorated.

There are a few things we need to keep in consideration about the salt lamps:
how they function and the benefits that will give us.

Some salt lamps have a great theatrical look due to the change of colours; they might range from yellow to pink, red, blue and even purple. Those colourful types have an LED bulb inside that makes all the phantasmagoric colours but doesn’t do anything for us other than having a deceptive appearance as a dream created by our imagination.

The typical bulb we must use is the classic incandescent small Christmas light that once inserted in the salt vessel will diffuse the amber colour we love so much and will give chromotherapeutic benefits as well.

The most important benefits we can draw from salt lamps come from the ions the salt emits. Salt is a crystal, the negative ions are emitted only if an incandescent bulb warms up the salt. The negative ions are then dispersed in the room to provide well-being and harmony, reduce anxieties, alleviate stress, clean the heavy air, fight bacteria and viruses.

One way to know if the room holds too much humidity is to place a salt lamp in a room and watch the lamp sweat. If it does, you have the proof that the room is humid. In this case, it is time to open all windows and refresh the air. The salt lamp is not a dehumidifier, it will only tell us if the air we breathe is humid. Placing the lamp turned off for a couple of hours outdoors is the way to prevent the lamp from sweating and outdoors it will purify itself from what it has absorbed in the house including negative energy.

I am learning about holistic health and natural remedies from an Italian alchemist who has a page on Facebook called “La Terra Delle Streghe”. I find his teaching stimulating and I am “enchanted” with a new world of information that is opening to me. This is an extract from one of his videos spoken in Italian. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Incense Moments

04 Apr 2024 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Alchemy, #Incense, #IncensePower, #IncensePurificaton, #IncenseVibrations, #NaturalIncense, meditation, prayer, tabernacle, worship

Let’s talk about the incense, that nice fragrance most of us like to turn on for meditating, praying and especially at the end of the day to create an ambience for a relaxation moment.

Incense has been used since the dawn of time. The three Kings travelled a long way to bring baby Jesus the gift of gold, incense and myrr. In the Catholic and Orthodox Churches incense is burned during the Mass. In Buddhist Temples, the followers burn incense every time they visit their deity.

Other than having a nice scent in the room, incense has a beneficial effect on the human being, its vibrations work on the body and spirit. However, the sceptics will argue that all incense is bad and toxic for our health. This is only partially true. The low-priced incense made of chemical material is dangerous to breathe and can cause harm to our health.

The incense we want to consider for our living and working environment is made with natural products, such as essential oils, tree bark, dried herbs, lavender and various plants, these are not harmful to humans or pets.
Each incense has its function. If we want to clean the air, a burned white or blue salvia is a perfect anti-bacterial and it is used to purify a house from low energy vibrations, those vibrations that make us feel uneasy and weighted down. Artemisia or Copal work the same way. Copal is a powerful incense for meditation as it is linked with the crown chakra and encourages pure thoughts during meditation.

I purchased incense to purify the chakras, one colour a day to go with the colour of each chakra.
I learned about incense from an alchemist I listen to every day who opened up a new world for me. Ciao.
Valentina

Persimmon

24 Feb 2024 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2024 Colors, #Art, #Decorating with Persimmon, #InteriorDesign, #Persimmon Color

Aahh, Persimmon, nature’s sweet and delicious dessert! The soft kind that I can eat with a spoon for me it’s the best.
The predicted colours for 2024 are earthy and nature-inspired tones, Persimmon is one of them.

Persimmon colour is less strong and less attention-grabbing than orange, although it is part of warm colours, it is calmer and more relaxing than orange. It’s often used to celebrate transformation like the New Year in Hawaiian and Japanese cultures. On holidays and Christmas tables in Italy, persimmons are always present, it has been said to bring good luck and longevity.

Persimmon fruit ripens in the Fall, however, the energy of this colour, ranging from yellow to light orange, can be used to brighten any room in Winter and Spring as well.

You might want to pair a Persimmon colour with a Blue Nova recamier for a classic look or with a leather chair for a modern look. BTW, I love the shell chair almost Persimmon colour.

It seems most people would tone down Persimmon’s colour with neutral colours. My photos of the hanging persimmons above are very eloquent. Nature gives the inspiration with green leaves, brown stems and yellow blooms. Adding a light grey wall, a beige carpet or some light yellow pillows are all great combinations to complete the picture for a vibrant and balanced environment. Sometimes to look at a photo and study the details is enough to find inspiration. Ciao.

Hang It Pretty

22 Mar 2023 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HangingPlants, #MacrameArt, #MacrameFibers, #MacrameRevival, #MacrameWallArt

A long time ago, was fashionable to hang plants, big and small, in an intricate macrame work. Macrame is a technique of crafting a textile that will become wall hangings, plant holders, hammocks, hats, area rugs and many other decorative items. Several knots, each with its own name, forms the shape of each piece, some knots are very complicated and some are basic. Jute, twine, yarn, hemp, or leather are the fibers used for knotting. In the past, I have even cut up the fabric of some of my discarded dresses, made it into long strips and used it for knotting.

The art of knotting macrame was not born in the ’60s and ’70s, it is a very old art originated in the Arabic countries that used to trade products and food with the western world.

Women worked with the macrame art to pass time and sailors, being masters of nautical knots, enjoyed making items they could sell once had touched shores.

I am happy this art is coming back again, homes will not look so sterile any more. Greenery and plants in homes purify the air providing a good exchange of oxygen. They also make a good sound barrier against city noice and excellent room dividers. Ciao,

Valentina

My books on Amazon

Bees, Birds and Bunnies On Plates

10 Mar 2023 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChampagneCoupeGlass, #CreativeDinnerTable, #DiningInStyle, #MissMatchedDinnerPlates, #NatureDesignedDinnerPlates, #OldFashionDinnerPlates

Are you tired of these traditional patterns? Maybe you have inherited these plates from your grandmother and have lived in your China cabinet forever? Do you want to get rid of them for something more modern? I would say stop! These old fashion plates are coming back in vogue and are quite expensive.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

One of my friends gave them away to charity shops, then one day while browsing in stores, she saw these plates that resembled much what she had from her mother and kind of regretted to have given them away. She saw the different way the store visual display people composed a table setting and liked how they mixed patterns and colors without matching them to the teeth.

I told my friend that I don’t like to match my table setting, actually I like it quite miss matched and somehow all the items come together nicely and attractive. I could never convince her, she is the matchy-matchy type and gets surprised when she comes for dinner at my home on how things look orderly without any order. It takes a bit of fantasy, that’s all.

I would have used a golden tone flatware to add more luminosity to the table setting, it is the only thing I would have done different. The etched glasses look perfect with these antique and country patterns. The coupe champagne glass reminds me of films in costumes of different eras when champagne was served only in coup glasses. Marie Antoinette dreamt of a type of round glass large enough to contain one of her breasts with the intention of reminding men of it every time they drank champagne, thus she found a master glass blower and had them made in Venice. From that moment on, the coupe glass was mass produced as the champagne glass par excellence until the flute glass replace it.

Bees, birds and bunnies on plates are the new bucolic style for a dinner in the nature. Everything old is always new, think about it before giving items away and how you can revamp them. Ciao.

Valentina

Valentina
My books on Amazon

Copyright © 2022 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Modern Doors

18 Nov 2022 9 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #GlassPanelDoors, #MahoganyDoors, #ModernDoors, #ModernInteriorDoors, #ThursdayDoorChallenge

Modern doors don’t have much interest, often are hollow inside, they are very linear to suit the minimalist style, they are made of fiberglass or man made material and the hardware is functional, visually have nothing special to communicate. Sometimes, I do find a client who appreciates wood, glass and some details in modern doors, that’s when my wheels spins with creativity. There is a lot of studying going into searching for something out of the ordinary and in some case finding a craftsman who can reproduce a modern style with attention to details could be a really challenge.

Today’s challenge is about a mixture of some modern interior and exterior doors.

I saw this door at a pasta making factory in the administrative office, it divides the foyer from the office.

I painted the red doors with yellow ovals. In contemporary homes I like to have one door different than others, it kills the boredom of all white doors and it adds some fun.

In this client’s home all interior doors were made of mahogany wood. This one in particular is a linen closet in one of the bathrooms with marbleized glass panel, a real chic choice.

The colorful circle in this large entry door makes an unusual design. The floor of the foyer is white marble and when the sun shines on that design, the floor becomes a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors.

One of the many exterior doors I have designed for clients with particular and interesting tastes. It was painted in a verdigris finish to make it look the door was bronze and had the same patina of bronze statues.

The Thursday Door Challenge organized by Dan Antion continues. Come and visit with us. I hope you have enjoyed this challenge as much as I have. Ciao,

Valentina
My books on Amazon

Copyright © 2022 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Gate Doors of Italy

11 Nov 2022 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianDoors, #ItalianDoorsGates, #ItalianLife, #StairsOfItaly

If you have ever visited Italy, you must have noticed a lot of gates in front of any entry, any doors and also windows.
Some are very pretty, elegant and go with the style of the building, but many times gates are functional and low key. The reason for the gates is a custom that in Italy started about thirty some years ago. Too many tourists wonder aimlessly everywhere even in private spaces and boats loaded with immigrants drop their human cargo every day on the coasts of Italy in search of a new life or fortune. I could get very political about this, but I will leave it for another forum.

Looking at this stair, I remember the stone steep stair leading to nowhere filled with plants at my grandmother’s exterior of the home. They were built, I guess to add some kind of interest to the outside with no other function, unless someone put the set of stairs there to give us kids an opportunity to bust our heads as often happened when we played and fell of of them. I was one of the kids who ended up in the hospital after a plunge in the empty space.

Doors in this part of the world are very simple, linear and often made of a common sturdy wood, but stairs are made of stones, steep, slippery and very treacherous.

One can feel the sense of antiquity in places like this and Italy has plenty of them. Walking on those stones when it rains it’s very tricky and funny, especially for women wearing skirts. It is not so uncommon to find uneven pavement that collects rain water underneath, stepping on one of them means to get cold dirty water squirted up the crotch. That’s when Italian women get creative vocally, a must see spectacle!

Well, if we must have security gates, let them be an oasis of flowers, succulent plants and evergreen bushes.

Even public buildings might have protection gates, but they are open during working hours and closed at night. Who do they protect?

Dan Antion offers an opportunity to learn about doors in the world with his Thursday Door Challenge. This is my participation for today’s challenge. Ciao,
Valentina
My books on Amazon

Patrician Doors

05 Nov 2022 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BariHistory, #ClassicArchitecture, #CornerDoors, #PalazzoMincuzzi, #TravelItaly

This building in Valenzano, in the province of Bari, Italy might have been, long time ago, the home of a wealthy family. A split pediment with a family crest over the balcony is an indication a patrician family lived there. The main entry is a classical Italian “portone” entry with curved top and a pillar on each side with two simple caps. The corner entry was an expensive feature of a building then, just as much as it is today in any country.

This town is quaint and quiet, I visit it every time I go back to Bari my home town and still wonder who lives there.

This is Palazzo Mincuzzi in downtown Bari, Italy. The building is located in Via Sparano, the most expensive shopping street of the city, it is at the same level of Via Margutta in Rome, Via Montenapoleone in Milan or Fifth Ave in New York.

The Mincuzzi Family commissioned the project that the architect Aldo Focignano’ built between 1926 e il 1928 as one of the first commercial architecture of the XX century. Here again, a corner door of an expensive building that became a landmark of the city, makes a grand enty.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, the administrator of the city decided to eliminate all the beautiful palm trees that lined both sidewalks and provided refreshing shades in the heat of the Summer. Via Sparano now in the morning is blinded by the sun, drenched in heat of over 40 C. (100+ F) and is not a friendly place to stroll and window licking.

Dan Antion offers an opportunity to learn about doors in the world with his Thursday Door Challenge. This is my participation for today’s challenge. Ciao,
Valentina
My books on Amazon

Doors To Eternity

27 Oct 2022 3 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorsOfEgypt, #ExibitionRamsesII, #PyramidDrawings, #Pyramids, #RamsesII, #TravelEgypt

I have always wondered how the eternity will be? Will I have as colorful home as I have now where my soul will go to? Will I have the company of people I loved in this life? Will food and wines be part of my eternity? Egyptians resolved these questions when they were alive. As soon Pharaohs were crowned the work for the home of their eternity started, of course that was a privilege for the ruling class, as they were considered the extension of God on Earth.

This past week, I visited the interactive exhibition of Pharaoh Ramses II and his gold at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition was excellent and the interactive show was incredibly interesting as if I was in the streets of Thebes, on the Nile and inside the Pyramids among the Egyptians breathing their culture and lifestyle of millennia ago.
(Click on each photo to see it larger and the beautiful art).

Ramses II built an impressive mortuary temple in Thebes to safeguard his soul.

Drawings and colors of the Temple’s ceiling as well as murals and tombs decorative paintings have been recreated inside the museum.

The Temple Façade (below) is oriented to face the rising sun. Rays illuminate the four colossal statues of Ramses II, the smaller sculpture of Nefertari, his wife, the statue of Isitnofret, his second wife and their children. As the sun moves in, floods the temple interior with light.

Ramses II was a prolific man, he created 100 children with 8 wives.

The photograph below is the entry excavated in the pyramid built for Ramses II.

The Pharaohs’ tomb builders decorated walls and ceilings with painted scenes, they envisioned blue skies with stars and inserted symbols of magic spells from the Egyptian Book od Dead.

The dead Pharaoh was buried across the Nile from Thebes in the Valley of the Kings with everything he needed to continue his afterlife as God.

I would love to show the gold collection of the Pharaoh, but this post is about doors, their functions, history and what they hide behind.

Dan Antion offers an opportunity to learn about doors in the world with his Thursday Door Challenge. This is my participation for today’s challenge. Ciao,
Valentina
My books on Amazon

Arch Entryway To Little Italy

13 Oct 2022 11 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArchLittleItalySanJose, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianHistory, #ItalianMusic, #LittleItalySanJose

A door or an arch are both passages that take us from an exterior to an interior space or even into another space in time and history.
It was not too long ago, March 2015, when I was awarded for my participation in the design concept of the arch for the Little Italy in San Jose, CA.
A team of architect, builder, designer, iron worker, stone fabricator, cement layer, lighting designer, investors and many more people in the committee of the Little Italy city project worked at the unison to make this come true. It was a many years effort from all of us volunteering to build something that was in the hearts of older and younger generations of Italians immigrated to this country for the continuation of our culture and traditions, but also as a bridge between other ethnicities of the area.

It was a beautiful moment when we finally saw the arch raised and illuminated. That day, a huge celebration in the streets defining the Little Italy area was in order. Many people attended the award ceremony and afterwards they danced in the streets at the tunes of mandolins, accordions, guitars and the voice of the Italian tenor Pasquale Esposito.

Full view of the Little Italy Arch, San Jose, CA

The piazzetta is now full of bricks of various sizes with the name of donors to remember them in the posterity. Since then, we organized grand galas to raise money for the future public works in the area, many merchants established shops, an art & craft festival takes place every August, every October people fill the streets dancing to the sounds of Italian music, eat Italian specialties and feel as if they are in Italy for one day. A Museum of Italian culture is currently being built.

Brick from donors layed in the Little Italy’s piazzetta

Bronze plaque installed on the base of the arch with all the names of professionals participating to the design concept.

The plaque I received at the award ceremony

The plaque I received for my contribution in the design concept of this arch is still in my studio, I see it every day and proudly reminds me that I made a difference in my community together with a lot of other generous and professional people.

Myself celebrating with Italian tenor Pasquale Esposito

It’s always a pleasure to be embraced by the handsome Pasquale Esposito, our Italian tenor.
If you ever have the chance to be in this area, stop by the Little Italy, in San Jose, CA.

Dan Antion offers the opportunity to learn about doors in the world with his Thursday Door Challenge, please visit with us, it’s fun to see various interpretations of doors. Ciao,
Valentina
My books on Amazon