Home Designs Master | Valentina Expressions

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

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

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

Art Nouveau Door in Barcelona

30 Sep 2022 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArtNouveauDoor, #BarcelonaDoor, #EuropeanArtNouveau, #ThursdayDoorChallenge, #TravelBarcelona

Barcelona is a spectacular display of original art. Architect Antoni Gaudi has left a beautiful heritage to the world of a type of architecture that will never be repeated again. Living in such beauty can only affect the inhabitant and multiply itself. In Barcelona there is no place or small corner that is not well designed and decorated. Art Nouveau pervades the entire city. The style inspired by nature flourished in most parts of Europe and Western World from the end of 1800s to 1915. The scope of this style was to turn ordinary objects, chairs, windows, doors and simple buildings into works of art. The results are all the harmonious architectures and various décor items we are still admiring today after more than a century.

During my visit to Barcelona, I discovered myself walking and looking up all the time to try to catch everything that was not on my eye level and looking down, as even the street pavement in some area is well designed.
The top photo is the original building, the below photo is my interpretation of the same building. Sometimes I have fun manipulating colors of my photos.

Dan Antion is offering a series on doors Thursday Door Challenge. Come visit with us, enjoy learning about doors in the world and its history. Ciao.
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Carolus De Mari – Acquavive Princeps

23 Sep 2022 10 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AdelfiaDoor, #DecoratedCeiling, #NeoClassicArchitecture, #NeoclassicStoneDoor, #PugliaHistory, #TravelPuglia

Door of the City Hall – Acquaviva delle Fonti, Puglia (Italy)

A few years ago I led a group of Americans traveling to Puglia, Italy with me. I took them off the beaten tourist path for a surprising glimpse in the Italian living style of the locals.

“Driving through the countryside of Bari in early afternoon is such a pleasant activity. Nobody is on the two-lanes provincial road, we don’t have to wait for the herd of sheep to complete their outing, and neither we have to stay behind a car waiting to make a move until the incoming traffic on the other side has passed, as we would in a different time of the day. The road is all ours and “Mimmo Lovely” (tour manager) wants to amuse us while driving. He can make music using only his lips, I mean he can be the musical instrument himself, or a full orchestra. He has an exceptional talent in imitating a trombone, a saxophone or a violin and I am sure, if sometimes he feels alone, he can start his own music just by using those vibrating lips. It is after lunch and he is trying to keep us awake while we are reaching our next destination.
At this hour in the afternoon sleepy feeling will attack easily, after all, we had a two hours lunch, good wines, and the sun is low in the sky, beating on us in the car. We are being cradled gently.

It seems we have arrived. The town is Acquaviva delle Fonti and a food demonstration is going on in the courtyard of the City Hall. Oh no, I believe we will eat again! I am a bread lover, there is a crusty home-made bread on display, how can I resist a sample of that huge country bread I see on the table, yellow inside and crusty outside? The dipping olive oil to taste is green and stings the tongue, it is peppery at the right point without having any presence of chili pepper.

The food demonstration is happening in the atrium of the City Hall designed in a neoclassical architecture. My attention’s focus is now switched to architectural details, stairs, heave, walls and a beautiful mosaic floor.

The name Acquaviva delle Fonti comes from the union of two words Acqua (water) and Viva (live), it refers to the abundance of spring water running in the sub terrain that made the land a very fertile valley. The town is known for the production of the sweetest red-purple onion, celebrated every July with a country festival during which vendors show off varieties of their onion pies.

The ceiling in the Mayor’s office decorated in the 1700s is incredibly beautiful and the mosaic design on the floor looks like an area rug. What a privilege to work here every day, breathing antiquity and art!” (excerpt from my book: “The Road To Top Of The World“).

The building of Adelfia’s City Hall goes back many centuries, the door is an elegant neoclassic example of entry to a noble home and here is just part of the ceiling in the Mayor’s office.

San Antion is offering a Thursday Door Challenge, come on over and learn stories behind doors in the world. Ciao.
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Leopard Door

16 Sep 2022 12 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HomeDecor, #InteriorDesign, #LeopardPrintDoor, #OriginalHomeStyle, #PersonalizedDecor

I have been a salmon swimming up stream all my life, the common thinking has never touched me, and conformism never interested me. Not being like everybody else has not been easy, at times I thought I caused my own challenges. Luckily those thoughts only lasted a few minutes and came to my senses.

I have always lived in original homes with beautiful views and when the architecture wasn’t what I wanted, I created originality with home décor. Here, I present you my new entry door painted in a blue leopard print. I took me one week to paint it but the results gave me a great satisfaction and I feel to have been repaid for all the efforts.

I go in and out that door and feel a huge surprise every time. I can almost hear the screaming of a realtor if one day I will decide to sell this house, rest assured it is not going to happen anytime soon.

To top it all, I marked my territory with my initial on a wrought iron piece. What’s your reaction to the leopard door?

Dan Antion is still offering this Thursday Door Challenge. Please visit with us and discover many stories beyond beautiful doors in the world.
Ciao.
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page