Home Designs Master | Valentina Expressions

Autumn Calls | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Oct 2020 7 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #FallColors, #FallDecor, #JewelFallColors, #SeasonalStyle, #WarmColors

My friend, I will call her Delphina, says the colors of Autumn are negging colors. Every Autumn she falls into a self-inflicted melancholy, and low self-esteem. For certain people, Autumn means the end of another year, the natural evolution of life galloping where they don’t want to go.

All my life I have lived in European cities with cement and glass buildings with very little vegetation. I craved nature, its colors, its scents, and the peaceful feeling. In my youth, when my friends went strolling downtown, I went to the country instead, where I could admire the change of seasons, feel part of nature, and being in the company of calmer people. It wasn’t until I came to the USA when I first had the real taste of nature. It was Autumn in Virginia, and for the first time, I saw purple trees, red trees, yellow trees, all aligned as in a painter palette. I remember often taking slow rides on roads not too busy with traffic, just to soak in all those colors, with the sun going in and out of the foliage and chasing me. I felt full of joy, and a great sense of gratitude to have eyes that could see all that beauty.

Every two green trees, there was a colored tree. Later, I learned that all those colored trees weren’t a game of nature. City landscapers plant trees with a color scheme in mind and are positioned at a zig-zag pattern, so when they grow look aligned. The variation of colors is meant to keep drivers awake on the wheel.

I told my friend, Delphina, to think of Autumn’s colors like jewel tones colors, she likes jewelry a lot, just like I do. I would like her to start referring to colors as a ruby red, emerald green, topaz yellow, amethyst purple, it would make her feel abundant, opulent and everything around her would change value. She would not feel like a negging middle-aged woman, as she sounds in the Autumn, she would feel precious and needed instead.
She does not listen. 🙄

I adore the warmth of Autumn colors, and I adore the autumn food available in this season. In my home, I change the season decorations as the seasons revolve. I don’t go overboard, I keep it simple, just a few details change, the rest stays the same.
This is an area in my studio where I allow some display.
The leopard purse is a lamp, its warm color at night gives the room a special glow and it goes with all the golden tones you see around it.

In another area of my studio, under a large “oeil de boeuf” mirror I display small ceramic pumpkins with a collectible Mr. Pumpkin. The room feels happy and warm. This is where I work, I like to feel in tune with each current season, the sensations and emotions they all bring. In the rest of the house, I have seasonal fresh flowers once a week.

Outside my entry door, I might place a pumpkin or two while they are in season and that is all.

Decorating with the seasons doesn’t have to be a chore or difficult and neither expensive. As long as one acknowledges the changes life brings and enjoys them. Celebrate the changes, please. Ciao,
Valentina
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Copyright © 2020 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 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. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Some years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire, and inform, while she is living her passion.
Get a copy of her books here:
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New Life To A Room | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

26 Aug 2020 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ExtraRoomRedesign, #KidsRoomRemake, #RepurposeRooms, #RoomRemake

The kids are gone to college and to live their lives, you are left with either a boy’s or girl’s room without any function anymore.
If you are lucky, the kids will not return to live with mom and dad again as a single young adult. The first feeling that assails you is the emptiness of that room. No more mess, no more noises, and no more friends over. Closing the door behind and leaving it in the past, as the kids were still there is a crime. What do you do with that room then? Your budget will tell you what this extra space can become. It can be all yours, for all those activities you have been wanting to do and didn’t have space or time for it.

Often, I have been hired to redesign the kids’ room who flew away and turn them into a dream room for one of the parents.
It was fun to see the various requests I had. I made a game room, a reading room, a guest room, a craft room, a spacious walking closet, a wine room with controlled temperature (these last two rooms were so fun to remake), a painting studio, a music room, a home office, a dancing room, the choices are endless.

This one below was a boy’s room and became a cozy guest room, redesigned with affordable furniture and soothing colors. It is also used as a reading room when guests are not there. Hopefully, the boy of this house will return to visit their parents with a spouse and then with their own kids. The red daybed is there just for that reason.

Enjoy the Before and After transformation.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

Sitting/Guest Room – View 1

Sitting/Guest Room – View 2

Boy’s Room – Before

Boy’s Room – Before

If you are in the same situation, think of the many possibilities with which you can fill that empty room. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors, and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for finding creative solutions. She offers online design consultations through Skype or Zoom and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of five books.

Amazon and Barnes&Noble

600 Years and Still Standing | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Aug 2020 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BrunelleschiDome, #FlorenceHistory, #RenaissanceArchitecture, #SantaMarieDelFiore

August 19, 1418, Florence announced a competition for anyone to participate with an idea on how to build the dome for Santa Maria Del Fiore Cathedral. Up to that moment, the cathedral had been building for a century already and no one knew how to build a dome on top with a span of 143 feet diameter, thus the construction came to a dead end until a goldsmith and a clockmaker participated with extravagant plans and won the competition. He was Filippo Brunelleschi, forty-one at the time. For the next twenty-eight years, he would be preoccupied with the novelty construction methods he proposed for the dome and occupied building it. Brunelleschi revolutionized architecture with his original plans and designs.

In the Renaissance, the patrons of the arts threw a lot of money around to get the best-looking buildings, the most beautifully decorated rooms, or to acquire paintings made by the most known artists. It should have been easy to build something extravagant, in reality, it was not. Due to the lack of powerful machinery, Brunelleschi felt the need to invent sophisticated pieces of engineering machines and mechanic tools never been seen before to bring his plans to the realization. Some of those types of machinery are still in use today.

Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral – photo by Gabriele Colzi with permission of the author

The city official of Florence needed a large striking cathedral to reflect its political importance in the world of the 1500s Renaissance, a time when every European country was erecting the tallest buildings just to prove how close to God they could be. Brunelleschi’s life as the master of this project was not at all sweet. People tried their best to discredit him, there was gossip, feuds between prominent political Florentine families, intrigues, the fight between city, states, nobles, and all the artists competing, then the plague arrived and decimated Europe.

The dome construction kept going despite all the adversities and it was completed. It is the largest dome still standing since the fifteenth century. No one to these days has made a different form of Brunelleschi’s dome.
Somewhere in the world history is remembered, revered, studied, and not burned down.

Author Ross King wrote a book called Brunelleschi’s Dome, a very informative book about the construction of the dome, the machinery invented on the spot to get the job done, and all the disputes behind the curtains of this massive project. I read the book twice, I was so enthralled, that year I planned a trip to Florence, just to enjoy with my eyes what I read.
I also reviewed the book on Goodreads. Visit me there too, if you can.

Today, scrolling through my Instagram feed I found this beautiful photo by Gabriele Colzi from Florence. He makes pictures with a soft pink/yellowish tone using Huawei P40 Pro. His photographs are so beautiful. Many thanks to Gabriele to let me use his photo. Ciao,
Valentina
Amazon’s Author Page

It’s my hope that through my writing and my stories I am enriching your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style, and inspiring you to live in beauty. I love to encourage my clients to show their personality through their home décor, or the clothes they wear. I have loved my profession as an interior-fashion designer since 1990. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line if you need it. Check out one of my books on the subject of colors, ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition.Amazon:
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Wild Elegance | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

25 Jul 2020 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AnimalierStyle, #AnimalPrint, #AnimalPrintAccessories, #AnimalPrintCoffeeCups, #AnimalPrintHomeDecor

I remember not too long ago, visiting wealthy people’s homes, where the main attraction in the living room was the floor covered with a leopard or a tiger skin, the whole head attached, glass eyes, mouth open and sometimes even the paws were still attached. It was the trophy of their hunting games, the golden glory of past customs. Fortunately, people’s taste has changed, being aware of our natural environment, and caring for the wildlife have raised our conscience to leave nature alone as it was created.

I don’t know when I started to love animalier style, I know it started with fashion, then that attraction got transferred to home goods and home décor. I do find a certain beauty in a home that shows some wild elegance in a more modern, eco-friendly way. I would gladly walk on this rug without the guilt of having killed a beautiful animal. Add a low pile, synthetic zebra rug in a room decorated with white or cream furniture for everything to lose starkness and pick up a little wild effect.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Wayfair Rug

Thinking of making a great impact effect in the room? This 3D wallpaper will do it. I can’t take my eyes off of this photo, it looks so real, the leopard is resting in the water and looks as if he is listening to the conversation.

QDH-Wallpaper

I believe every home needs to have an element of quirkiness. This funky high heel chair comes with useful storage. This type of accessories fills up an empty corner and makes a playful statement.

Overstock-High Heel Storage Chair

These zebras are on a wall decal, they decorate a wall today and gone when one gets tired of them. It’s an easy solution to decorate with whimsy.

Wayfair-Wall Decal

The lion finial holds the curtain and the rod in a fierce way. I will buy myself a pair of this finial for my studio, I think they are so cute and will match my switch plate I already have.

Touch of Class – Lion Finial

Cheetah Print Light Switch-Etsy

Even in the morning, I treat myself with animal print espresso coffee cups and my muffins, strickly made by me with ricotta and espresso coffee.

Muffins Ricotta Espresso Coffee

Animal print is fun when is limited to one or two accents, just don’t overdo it. With this, I leave you to feel a bit of that wild elegance I like so much. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in interiors and fashion. Her extensive training and knowledge in both fields led her in both directions successfully. She is well-known for designing custom furniture and personalized interiors without the “cookie-cutter” look. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, whimsy, sinuous lines, attractive shapes, and colors in the style fit for each of her special clients. She also focuses on color psychology to transform people’s life. She is the author of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition. Check out her books on Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

Summer Lazy Play | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

14 Jul 2020 10 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #GardenDecor, #GardenDesign, #GardenSolutions, #SummerBrightColors, #SummerTravel

Thank goodness for Summer. It is the only season that allows us to be lazy. The middle of summer is a perfect time for humans to slow down and recharge the batteries. We spend most of the spring working long hours, rushing from pillar to posts, facing challenges, raising the stress levels, and pushing our body to perform. Some people don’t or can’t take a vacation and do this grinding year after year without any rest. Europeans are very good at taking a yearly vacation, in fact, workers in any position are guaranteed a paid vacation, at least two weeks per year, some companies, and factories even close the month of August.

I am giving myself permission to be lazy, with or without the virus, Summer is a season to live slowly, go away, hopefully somewhere nice, soak the sun energy, and work smartly. We cannot be productive by working all the time without the proper rest, and I don’t mean the weekend relax.

Since social distance is still required, actually here we are on half lockdown again, most businesses are still closed, people have vanished, matter as well take care of my exercise. I am taking 3-4 miles long walk every day at various parks, where usually I am in total solitude, with occasional ghosts looking like people.

During my walks, I get to think a lot about the design program I am writing for online consumption and the days I am spending in my cozy garden, how I can improve the land to work for me more, and how I can design extra vignettes with cute furniture or accessories. Gardens are supposed to be playful and humorous.

I found at Grandinroad this bistro table and chairs made of weather-resistant teak. The advertisement says: “Beauty for seasons entertaining”. The carved tropical flowers caught my eyes, I think the set is attractive and versatile, I would use it even as a breakfast set in the kitchen, or near a window, after the summer is over.

Merano-Teak-Trestle-Table-Grandinroad

From the same company, I found floral snack bowls and stands in different shapes and colors I would like to add to my collection. There is nothing more I want to see besides colors. They are helping me at this time keeping a high spirit.

Floral Snack Bowls and Stands – Grandinroad

What’s new in your Summer? Are you doing something special? Most of all, are you resting enough to reset your organism? You will be thankful when September comes and have renewed energy to face the rest of the year.

This past half of the year has been very stressful for everybody. Now, more than ever, we need colors, rest, and healthy food. Ciao,
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Positivity Weekly Color Challenge: Diamond | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Jun 2020 13 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorCombinations, #ColorEmotions, #ColorEnergy, #DiamondEnergy, #REDAVoyageIntoColors

The day the book “The Secret” came out, I ran to the bookstore like everybody else. I remember the line to get this book was very long. Ah, yes, bookstores were still around and I was one who spent hours in there, even though I read for free, I always came out with a lot of books in my hands. The Secret revealed many new ideas, many beliefs were foreign to me, and learning about the many laws of the universe really opened up a new way of seeing life. Later, I bought the movie The Secret, and many books to help me searching for the answers to some of life’s questions I had as a result of reading that book.
I gifted a friend in Rome with that book. She searched for years for her ideal man in her dreams that she could not meet no matter what she did. She didn’t know how to use the Law of Attraction until I gave her the book and didn’t know how to use colors to manifest wishes. She read the book and completely changed her views on life’s matters, six months later, she met that man and married him.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Diamond Energy – golden-beige-silver-bluish

Often I pronounced a phrase: “I have so much energy to light up the streets of Paris”. Never really paid attention to this phrase, I said it because my grandmaman said it all the time, to these days I am still repeating the phrases she pronounced. Reading the book The Secret I learned that human beings are made of recycled atoms and we are made of electricity, electricity is energy, energy is a magnet. If we are energized, we pull to us everything we want. At the bottom of our core, there is light. That light can be our colorful aura. To understand this concept, I was told to look at the asphalt on a very hot day. The top of the asphalt sways, because it vibrates with heat. People vibrate their inner energy with colors the same way. Only sensitive people can see the aura of humans, but each one of us feels the energy we carry inside. If we get up in the morning feeling good, we might attribute it to good night sleep, or a healthy breakfast, in reality, we feel the energy of planets circling over our head at that moment. That energy can be positive, thus we feel good, or bad with all that the complaints we will make about not feeling good.

This week my color challenge is about diamond energy. The diamond reflected light is like a prism of colors, yellow, orange, bluish, silver, green, and much more. Looking at a diamond, if you see more yellow, it means you are on the way to transformation, you are setting goals for a newer path; if you are seeing a bluish tone among other colors, you are looking to find the truth in some of your issues; if you see more orange, coral colors, you are looking for balance. Feeling diamond energy is like all the colors in the prism trickle-down on you, making you feel like a million-dollar. The picture above is one corner of my Bathroom. The golden energy is the first thing I see in the morning.

To activate the diamond energy, use for a week, either yellow, gold, beige, and a little silver, or light blue, turquoise, coral and crystals. After one week go to green and pink for peace and self-love.

Diamond Energy – crystals-coral-turquoise. Photo ©Valentina Cirasola

I don’t know of anyone who, at this time, is not adapting to a new situation or looking for a transformation. These colors are the right combinations, especially the golden tone, to help you manifest your dreams and easing you into a new YOU. The transformation will shed the burden we are under and will allow more creativity to come in a peaceful environment.

I am transforming into a new me. I am writing a program to sell online to people who want to be their own interior designers and enable them to learn what I have known in 30 years of career. With my program, they don’t have to go to the university for four or more years, will not be stuck with a huge student loan to repay after graduation, and they don’t have to spend money hiring a designer to beautify their home either.

Sparkle and shine your light, this is the right moment. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Amazon Author’s Page

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer 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. RAI–Italian National TV invited her to appear in “Cara Francesca Show” and she has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of five published books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition.

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Positivity Weekly Color Challenge: Blue | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

27 May 2020 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Color2020, #ColorAtmosphere, #ColorEmotions, #ColorVibrations, #PurpleandBlue

I wanted to write this post at the very beginning of the year 2020 for the power this number represents marking an important year. Events after events started to happen, the vicious coronavirus appeared on the horizon, my work trip to Europe came, and while I was there almost got stuck under a three months lockdown. The frontiers closed down the same day I was on the plane returning back to the States, barely made it. Now, we are almost halfway done to complete the first six months of this, should I say “exciting” year? 😡 Given all we went through, it is still a good time to talk about the color of 2020. Pantone, the Color Institute declared “classic blue” the color of this year for a reason.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Blue Is…

Adding the numbers of 2020, zero is not considered a number, we get 4, which is the number of the truth. Using blue in every expression of life is like we seek truth and knowledge. Exactly, what we want to hear his year. We don’t want to beat around the bushes, we want to hear the truth from people and countries that put the world in this ugly situation. The number 4 in the Eastern civilization represents order, responsibility, manifestation, physical reality, and tested solutions. Being a universal number it also represents peace, home, and family.

The year with a 4 as the total number of all the numbers together, is the year to achieve that one thing a person always wanted to achieve and get it done. It is the year to fully invest in a creative foundation that stands the test of time and reinventing oneself. Most of us by now have experienced some hardship due to new conditions, doing something different is a new necessity.

It has been said that every person has an aura, lucky are those who can see it. A person with a blue aura tends to speak his/her mind, will always express likes and dislikes, will tell it straight to you if you are right or not, even knowing that can ruffle up people’s feathers. The strong vibrational period we are living this year wants us to step into a total true without censorship.

Blue_Composition

These above are the colors for a sitting/meditation room I decorated last year for a businesswoman. Being a spiritual woman, treating her life and her spirituality as one, continuously searching for a dialogue with a higher Supreme Being, she is in tune with these colors and recognizes them as good colors for her wellbeing.

Our color energy lies in the seven body centers called Chakras (from the Sanskrit: spinning wheel). Blue and purple reside on the head area, where thinking and reaching for the Supreme Being happens. Our thoughts start from the blue and purple Chakra and get captured in the universe through strong electromagnetic emanations. Does it sound like fanta-scientific talk? For the non-believers it does. Each chakras point is located at the most important glands in the human body and near the spine, each one releases electromagnetic vibrations and life force happens.

“It is hardly a coincidence that everything on Earth has a color which unconsciously we surround ourselves with. Even when we eat, unconsciously we choose colors of food we feel the need or lack of it in our body.

Every human being transforms the cosmic energy according to his/her biological structure, food is therefore an irreplaceable element to restore and balance our energy. Food cannot be neglected, but unfortunately often, little attention is put on this matter. In addition to simple Chromotherapy techniques, nutrition is indispensable to restore and balance the body’s energy. The colors of the vegetables and fruits we consume are important and must be constantly present in our diet. Even our mood depends on the energy that we generate.”
From my book: ©RED – A Voyage Int Colors, Second Edition.

This purple cabbage originally was green, like all the cabbages. I planted the bottom hardcore in a pot, mixed in coffee ground and eggshells, all from my kitchen, watered it when needed, unknowingly I changed the PH of the ground and voila’ the green cabbage turned purple. It is now a beautiful decorative plant.

Blue Cabbage

I have a little purple and blue in every expression of my life. In my garden, a beautiful patch of blue agapanthus makes me happy when in bloom.

Agapanthus Patch

Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Amazon Author’s Page

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in interiors and fashion. Her extensive training and knowledge in both fields led her in both directions successfully. She is well-known for designing custom furniture and personalized interiors without the “cookie-cutter” look. She cares to make spacious and functional spaces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, sinuous lines, attractive shapes, and colors in the style fit for each of her special clients. She also focuses on color psychology to transform people’s life. She is the author of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition. Check out her books on Amazon and Barnes&Noble

One Day In Napa | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Design

09 May 2020 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ContemporaryDining, #Furnishing, #HomeDecor, #InteriorDesign, #Minimalist, #ModernInteriors

Moving away from the chaotic metropolitan area feels very good, I can already taste the pleasure of wines. Leaving behind the super crowded freeway and slipping down a country road feels even better. Nature starts to feel real and aromatic. The sound of the wine train that takes visitors from one vineyard to another reminds me very much of the local train in Puglia of many years ago with the beautiful round and imposing façade of an old smokey locomotive. The train greets us in the wine valley. Life here starts to appear slower and not marked by time, the only time that really needs to be marked is the harvest of the grapes.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Sattui Winery

Locomotive wine train

It’s so nice to see long stretches of land planted with vineyards, everything is so lush and bucolic. I start to see the Mediterranean style homes the old Italian emigrants preferred, and old Victorian-style homes built before 1887, wrought iron on doors and gates, wine barrels everywhere as decorative items of stores and vineyards.

The air is sultry, of course, it’s a valley away from the sea breeze. Grapes don’t like winds or an abrupt change of weather, they like it hot and calm.

Napa Vineyards

Middle-class people inhabit the outskirt of the wine valley, they are mostly workers of the vineyards, homes are down to earth and convenience stores serve them. The change in lifestyle is immediately noticeable when approaching the fancy vineyard establishments where people go for wine tasting and shopping for high-class or imported food. Here, days go by tasting wines, eating specialty food, and international variety of cheeses. I think that’s the reason people are so relaxed here. Life is easier when it is not stuck in the same groove.

Mid-Day Sultriness

Napa Historic Building

The views are beautiful, no matter what. St.Helena is very posh, art stores, tourist shops, boutiques, and decorating shops cater to sophisticated people. Prices and originality are very high, I love to discover them all, at least I get my eyes filled with creativity.
This Italian original wine press is from around the 1700s, I would love to have it for my garden, next to my Bacchus’s face hanging on the wall.

ItalianWinePress

Home décor stores appeal to me more than anything else. In this store, the atmosphere is dark and minimalist. It displays home items generally a family with kids will not choose to have. The furniture here is theatrical and very playful.

Store Display

What do you do with a metal mannequin dressed in a cotton funky dress or with a rusted bucket and a thick rope spilling out? Nothing, they are nice details that make you wonder. The stone wall behind the bucket gives that natural character, in fact, stones, and metal are two elements found in nature. Between the 1950s-70s a lot of homes had stone interior walls as an accent, then builders got away from using stones and started to build homes without characters, resembling more like shoe boxes.

Ropes-Rusty-Vessel

This table is set for people who like to converse on intelligent topics, while they are sipping a lot of wine and eating small morsels of food, that’s the way I imagine it. It’s dark, minimalist, metal plates, golden tone flatware, glass top table, tall back wicker chairs, but I don’t think a lot of eating is happening here. This décor is suited for single people, high rollers, definitely not for a family with kids.

Table-Setting

I love this swivel chair, it feels like a seed pod.

Flag Swivel Chair

I was intrigued by these bergère chairs, they feel very baroque in style, except the legs are too short and the backs too high. They have been revisited in a modern key.

Napa Store

What I am trying to prove with this post is that an interior décor style must fit your lifestyle, otherwise, as beautiful or posh it might be, you will never feel comfortable in it. I will be happy to help you find your style. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors, and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Valentina is well-known for bringing originality on any project and for thinking outside the box. Her interiors are not made with cookie cutters, they only follow the client’s inspiration, lifestyle, and personality. She offers online design consultations through Skype or Zoom and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of five books.

Amazon – Barnes&Noble

Space and Inspiration | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

24 Apr 2020 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #CeilingDesign, #ColorAtmosphere, #ColorsAndLight, #FantasyRoom, #Inspiration, #InteriorDesign, #WritingRoom

I am so honored I have been featured with my article Space and Inspiration on the site of Author James J. Cudney IV, in the Tips and Advice section, where authors can share their tips on any subject they love. My topics always gravitate around design, style, and colors, that’s what I do the best since I have conducted my design business for three decades and not showing signs of wanting to quit.

In this article, the ceiling is the protagonist. I talk about how the ceilings might play a good role in inspiring writers. Some of my pictures show extravagant ceilings of places I have visited in Europe. I am not saying that to have an inspiration, a writer must have one of those highly decorated and historical ceilings to be able to write.

Inspiration can come from anything, even from a stone, or from a dollop of butter curled in an unusual way. It happened to me a long time ago, when looking at that dollop of butter on my plate, I ended up designing the exterior part of a home in Italy.

It’s easier for me to look up above if I am waiting for something to come to me, a spiritual, artistic, or a fantasy inspiration. That phrase my father pronounced “You are not going to find it on the floor” stuck with me ever since.

Tips-Advice by Valentina Cirasola

Click the graphic above or the link below here to enjoy the article.
I hope you have an inspirational space to write or do your creative work. If you don’t, I am an email or a phone call away.

Tips & Advice: Products & Services – Valentina Designs Space & Inspiration

Permit me just a little shameless promotion of my book on Colors, available in paperback and ebook version on Amazon and Barnes&Noble:
©Red- A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition. It will help to shed a light on all the benefits, including health and wellness, colors will bring into our life.

RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition

Thank you, James, you are a great person with a big heart, I would have never met you without the internet. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire, and inform, while she is living her passion. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Reminiscence | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Apr 2020 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #1950sHomeMagazine, #ColorfulHome, #DesigningWithBoldColors, #InteriorDesign, #SplitFloorHome

I don’t know why suddenly one of my clients came to my mind today, she was the owner of this house. She was a very tall woman, her weight, which was well distributed on her body gave her a powerful presence. She met me at one of my “colors” speaking engagements when I surprise people talking about the emotions colors produce on human beings. She hired me just to fix the grey and beige colors of her home, interiors, and exterior. She gave me permission to go bold with colors but not the furniture. She left all her traditional furniture in place.
The colors I selected required very modern and stylish furniture and although she was very happy about the vibrant colors, I was disappointed to not being able to finish her interiors with great furniture that would have emphasized the colors and made her home an artistic place.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Kitchen Dining Area – Original colors

This home was designed with a split floor, a very popular layout in the ’70s and ’80s. I love this concept of open views from any level while maintaining each area separately. She left this world at age 42 and only enjoyed her colors for a short year. Her sister, who still lives in New York, left me and my realtor in charge of the sale the house and all the contents. It was on the market for only one week, an Indian family fell in love with the colors and bought it.

For some reason, today I was thinking of her. I looked at all the pictures of her project, upstairs, downstairs, the garden patio and I noticed that the style of her furniture would have done very well in a 1950s magazine.
I played with photoshop on a few pictures and turned her colorful home into the mid-century style.

Kitchen-Dining Area – 50’s magazine style

Comparing the mid-century style I created with the original pictures, I must say, I still like the games of colors I put in this house.

Living Area – Original Colors

Living Area – Sepia tone

This is her cute patio, we sat there for coffee many times when I was overseeing this work. All her plants, garden fixtures, statues, and table sets now live in my garden.

Garden Patio View 1

Garden Patio View 2

It felt good to indulge in reminiscence, I heard her voice and the expression of happiness when the paintwork was completed.

Do you want to know how colors affect you emotionally? This is the book you want to get in Kindle or paperback format.

RED-A Voyage Into Colors, Second Edition – Valentina Cirasola

Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Amazon Author’s Page

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Get a copy of her books here:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w