Home Designs Master | Valentina Expressions

Why Humans Make Art? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Jul 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArtandInteriors, #ArtisticDecorating, #ArtisticInteriors, #ColorsandArt, #InteriorDesign, #InteriorsAsArt

Last week I appeared on KMVT 15 TV in the show Why Human Make Art. Producer Adek Anukai sees my interior design profession as art and art as an expression of life. This is is very true. Each one of us makes art every day, whether we procreate, we design a home or a garden, whether we cook exceptional meals or the way we build cities and illuminate stores, whether we create fashion or extravagantly wear clothes, whether we learn ballet, play a musical instrument, or to drive creatively like Italians. I don’t believe people who say they are not creative. Every one of us makes some artistic expression.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

©Sunglasses Mirror by Valentina Cirasola

Prologue by Producer Adek Anukai:
The psychologist Nathan Lents, believes that “throughout history, much artwork was made for no other explicit purpose than the production of beauty.”
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines art as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.”
It seems that the common drive in making art is to produce “beauty”.
Even at the dawn of mankind, humans drew pictures, danced, and sung. From the cave paintings to the breathtaking works of Leonardo Da Vinci, was the motivation the same? We paint, compose, sing, dance, write. We design beautiful dresses, jewelry, and decorate houses. We create new ways of expressing ourselves through the creation of “beauty”.

Remembering one of Dostoevsky’s affirmation: “Beauty Will Save the World.” And it will. In beauty there is harmony, in harmony there is peace, in peace there is prosperity and in prosperity, there is a good healthy life.

During the show, the producer asked me: “Art does not seem to be critical for our survival and in most cases has not been financially rewarding. Actually, for most people, being an artist is a lifetime uphill battle, but it does not stop anyone. Why not?”

Most of us have the desire to leave something to posterity. Often artists make art to prolong life into the future, even when they are recognized as great artists only after their death.

©Natura Morta by Valentina Cirasola

Art is a kind of rebellion. Nobody stops producing art even when is not profitable. Through art, people express their anger, anxiety, contentment, happiness, social events, or just memories.
I remember when I returned from Africa the first time I went there, the only thing I wanted to paint was the mesmerizing sunset I saw, bold and colorful. I wanted to immortalize a spectacle I had never seen before, a sky at dusk with purple, red, yellow, orange streaks, sometimes all mixed together. To these days I can’t forget those bold colors in the sky and even though the canvases I painted are no longer with me, those sunsets are sculpted in my mind.

Venice Masks

People making art keep pushing even when nature creates impossible barriers. Deafness does not stop composers and blindness does not stop painters from creating their artworks. Artists want to defy destiny and prove that anything is possible because “beauty” is the only thing humans want to be surrounded.

©Guest Bath – Concept Two

©Guest Bath – Concept One

The producer/host of the talk show went on comparing my interior design work to modern art. He wondered how challenging must be to interpret everybody’s taste and creating spaces where people feel their lives have improved. Yes, it is very challenging, but that’s what I chose to do.
The show will air in September 2019. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.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. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, 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 theory and psychology to transform people’s life.
She is the author of ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors – Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Check out her latest books, a travel narrative
The Road to Top Of The World –
https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Straddling A Bidet | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

03 Jul 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Bidet, #BidetFunctions, #HistoricalBidetNotes, #HowToUseABidet, #TechnologicBidet

Just a week ago I had an encounter with a client who years ago inherited from a previous homeowner a bidet in her master bedroom and had it removed at once. A hole in the floor covered with a metal cap reminded her of that “thing” she referred to as “a dirty and offensive object”. Then, she proceeded to ask me what would I do with such an object if I had one in my bathroom. She was much surprised and much appalled to find out I do have one in my bathroom. With her hands covering her face 😱, she kept repeating the same phrase for a few minutes: “OMG, what a nasty thing….”. I asked her what she used the bidet when she had it. To rinse the mop in it, was her answer. At that moment my eyes went out of the orbits 😳. She didn’t know the bidet is used to clean private parts after any intimate moments.

The conversation with her reminded me of a few episodes I lived in Italy when I saw what foreign people did to their bidets. One woman grew a plant in it but forgot to put a plug in the bidet. After a few years, the roots of the plant grew in the plumbing of the building she lived and caused huge damages to the building. The law stepped in and forced her to pay all the damages caused to five apartments below her.
One other person washed her infant and the dog in the bidet but never used it herself. Someone else I met, used it as a urinal and couldn’t understand the reason in Europe people had a toilet and a urinal, that’s what he thought was the function of the bidet. It’s baffling how people move overseas without gaining minimal knowledge of what to expect or without the willingness to learn a new culture.

I am not here to criticize anyone, it just puzzles me that I am still faced with horrid comments from people who claim to have traveled all over the world and can’t accept different ways of doing things. That’s all.

Storybook of Dreams and Beauty

(Source: Found on Facebook). Thanks to Storybook of Dreams and Beauty for posting this beautiful picture. I wished a similar decorated example would occupy space in my bathroom.

19th Century French Bidet

The first bidet appeared in France in 1600 when taking a full bath was a rare activity. Only nobles and riches bathed once or twice a month, with the introduction of the bidet at least feet and private parts were cleaned every day, especially after love encounters, body function daily needs, and horse riding. The shape of the basin evoked the straddling on the horse, faucets face the user, not the other way around. Since the last century, the shape hasn’t changed much. The material did change from the rudimentary wood box with a lid to the high decorate porcelain of the 19th century to a minimalist style of today. The use of the bidet is still the same. Let’s say one works in the garden and gets only the feet dirty, that’s when the bidet comes handy. Think of it as a water conservation device, no need to take a full shower if only the feet are dirty. However, it is not a device that substitutes a full shower or bath.

(Boilly, La Toilette Intime ou la Rose Effeuille. Image @Wikimedia Commons)

Today, we can select bidets from the most modern and pleasant technology to assure us a healthy, clean life.
https://www.brondell.com/healthy-living-blog/what-are-bidets-and-bidet-toilet-seats/

In fact, in Japan, I have experienced a toilet with heated seat and enhanced bidet capabilities. Here is a funny video of a Japanese woman explaining the washlet.
https://youtu.be/L8ndLz4SGmU

For a less expensive solution, here it is a removable device. https://bit.ly/2FOuD7o

Valentina
www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer. She blends fashion and interior well in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual, as much as she likes to restyle people’s images. She is a storyteller and finds inspirations everywhere to write her stories. She needs your story to design your dream home or your dream look. She is also a public speaker, a mentor, and author of 4 books. Check out her books on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Special Status Of Number 3 | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

23 Jun 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #RuleOf3, #ThePowerOf3, #ThreeAsPerfectNumber

For centuries, in many cultures and for some inexplicable reason, number 3 has been considered the perfect number.
Tesla the most influential scientist was obsessed with the number 3 and created everything in multiple of 3.
Followers of magic and esoteric, think the number 3 has a magical power, in fact, the word Magic itself has 3 consonants.
3 represents the alignment of brain, heart, and body or the triangle in geometry with three sides.
Shamrock, the three leaves clover weed is the Irish lucky symbol, used in the 5th Century Ireland to explain the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to people converting to Christianity.
The Resurrection of Christ happened on the third day of his crucifixion.

In decorating is where we see the full expression of the number 3. We can decide to make a vignette by grouping 3 items, tall, medium, and small. This arrangement is pleasing to the eyes, shows harmony, rhythm, and style, or we can decide to create a gallery by grouping odd numbers together, 3-5-7-9 and so on.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Tiles-Lamp-Vignette

I created a gallery wall with antique mirrors, a ceramic ball, and an antique candle holder. It’s funny how the subject in my picture is about two people dancing and a street lampost behind them. It’s also curious to see the reflections in the small mirrors doubling the effect of the gallery.

Small-Antique-Mirrors-Gallery

I love to put colored glass objects near a widow. The reverberation of sun rays on the glass is amazing, colors change in different hours of the days.

Glass_Balls

In photography, the law of a 3 works well for a composition. This is my calla lilies studies grouping.

3 Calla Lilies Vignette

In various cuisines of the world, the trittico, a base for many sauces, is made of carrot, celery, and onion.
Food plated in odd numbers 1-3-5 always look better than 2 or 4 food items, sauces or dollops.

I experienced this tasty apricot dessert at the Culinary Academy, designed with 3 elements: a cake, a friable cookie, and apricot sauce.

Apricot Dessert

Human beings attach meaning to colors in 3 particular ways: nature, culture, and personal feelings.
In Nature – Red represents fire. Green is associated with plants, forest, and vegetation. Blue is associated with the ocean, seas, and lakes. Yellow is the sun which energizes us, a little daily exposure to the sun gives us a healthy life, bones and good vitamins; without a yellow sun, we would not exist.
In various cultures, colors pick up many meanings: white is a mourning color in India, black is either a mourning color in western civilization or the elegant color for parties and galas. Red in China is a fortune color, often used in weddings. Earthy colors define a South-Western civilization, bright and bold colors are for tropical areas.
On personal feelings – Often, we speak in colors and we don’t even notice it. Colors are abstract, they are electromagnetic waves, but one color expression can in an instant show our character. By using certain expressions related to colors, we vibrate the same way colors do, emanating sensations of temperature, feelings of love and anger, fear and joy, attention and caution, mood, state of mind and much more. Here are some fun expressions: “green with envy” – “bolt from the blue” – “red carpet treatment” – “yellow fever” – “green belt” – “yellow press” – “as brown as a berry” – “golden opportunity” – “silver screen” – “grey matter” (…) Except from my book:
© Red-A Voyage Into Colors – http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Ceramic Eggs

There you have it, number 3 seems to be the perfect number in any situation. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. 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 four published books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors. Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book ©The Road to Top Of The World
is available in paperback and kindle. https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

A Conversation On Black Color | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

08 May 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BlackDinneware, #BlackTableSetting, #ColorBlack, #EffectOfColorBlack

Recently I dealt with a client, a young bride whose husband likes a monochromatic color tone of black, grey, little white and no other colors. He is a high-tech engineer, apparently sees his world in greyish tones from his clothes to home décor. She writes:
“Dear Valentina, it is a common belief among youngsters that if we do not dress in black, we are not trendy, therefore those people like me who don’t overdo with black are considered outsiders. Furthermore, another common belief is that colors are a bit precarious and those who wear colors are unstable and insecure.”
I really don’t know where this one comes from. colors are LIFE and that’s a fact!!!

I told her: “Think about the blue of the sky and the sea, the yellow of the sun, the green of the woods … the color of every single flower…. colors are the nature that surrounds us. I believe that adopting the “all black effect” will make us move away from nature and wean us from all-natural things.”
In her note, my young client seems unhappy about not being able to express herself in her new home with the colors she likes.

The secret to creating harmony in a home depends on a few elements:
1. adapt the colors for interiors and accessories to reflect the characters of the people living in the house;
2. understand how people will use and live that space;
3. know how to compromise by mixing each desire for items or colors both people like. A pink bedroom with ducks, doilies, and ruffles is out of the question when a man who likes streamlines. modern and graphic colors sleep in the same bedroom. The same way it is not appropriate to eat in black dishes, just because only one likes it.

Canvas Home.com

Following trends to the letter, as trends dictate, is not that good of thing either. For a while it has been fashionable to design black kitchens, to have a table set with black dishes, black cutlery, and black glasses. Youngster under thirty, are going nuts for this trend, my young client’s husband is one of them. Yes, it might be chic to see it in a shop’s window, however, serving food in a black dish….
Just imagine this picture:
you are sitting in a restaurant in Positano waiting for your plate of spaghetti and seafood to arrive. You are already anticipating tasting the sea. The plate arrives with an incredible aroma in a riot of colors that bombards you. There is the black of mussels’ shells against the orange of the mussels’ flesh, then shades of ochre and red in the clams, the red of the shrimps, finally a handful of green parsley all over. Imagining this specialty being served on a white porcelain plate is one thing, imagining the same specialty being served on a black plate is a totally different thing!!!
I already know which of the two my young client would prefer: the white plate and I would too.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Impepata Cozze

How can these trendy people drink a glass of red wine in a black glass? It is a crime, I am thinking to myself, and yet her husband does.
Drinking red wine in a crystal glass will confuse me just by looking at all the rays of colors reflected in the light. A crystal glass will also emphasize the jewel tones of the red wine and enhance the pleasure of tasting.

A goblet of red wine

I do not know if this obvious and simple example of the spaghetti with seafood in Positano or drinking red wine out of crystal glass and not in a black glass amazed my young client, but since she is on my same colorful wavelength, I suggested to describe this scene to her husband and watch his reaction. Eating colorful food in the right colored dishes is healthy for the brain/eye activity and it is a thankful celebration of each time we eat.

She tells me: “I know you love your food to be presented on the right plate, with the right shape, with the right colors and the right tablecloth. I don’t blame you for being so fussy, but precise. In the end, your way adds beauty and pleasure to the table”.

It was easy for me to interpret her thoughts and doubts about being in black all day long. Sincerely, I have the impression people surrounded by black clothes and black interiors mourn their lives. With all my heart, I hope to have converted my client’s husband to a bit of color.
This is a part of a short excerpt from a conversation that took place online between myself and my young client in Europe, a lover of colors and architecture, who lives in Switzerland and I have only met through Skype, never in person. Our professional exchange of ideas brought a beautiful friendship, one that doesn’t feel the distance, nor the oceans. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. 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 four published books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors.
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book ©The Road to Top Of The World
paperback – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
Kindle – https://amzn.to/2H7ipGE

Garden For The Soul | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 May 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #GardenArt, #GardenDecor, #GardenDesign, #GardenForTheKitchen, #GardenIllumination

In most American homes, usually one must enter the home through the garden. Some people like it beautiful, manicured and structured, some like it a bit natural, low maintenance and some like it made into vignettes (me). I adore going through gardens and find many elements of surprise and various sceneries. A well-designed garden is based on elements of designs or elements of architecture, then textures, forms, colors and clearly marked pathway.

Plants variety enhance the garden and make beautiful sceneries. Follow the rule of sizes for the best look, tall plants go in the back (wall, fence or island), they are the sentinels of the garden, short plants go in the front and then ground cover to finish.
It’s important to study the rotation of the sun around the house. The area with the most sun during the day takes plants that can stand full sun.
Use container planters and potted plants to move around and change the scene. Today, conserving water is of the utmost importance. Consider an easy maintenance xeriscape made of plants that are not temperamental and don’t need much of anything, only water, and seldom nutrients. I sing at my plants.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Corner Vegetation

Colors. Can we ever do anything without thinking of colors? Absolutely not. Have you ever noticed when driving on highways, traveling miles after miles, that the colors of trees change from light to dark, and from monochromatic to complementary colors? The change of colors assures a harmonious drive to avoids boredom and to keep the drivers attentive. Color schemes in the garden are just as important for a great composition of light and dark, soft and bold, cool and warm, they just add pleasure in our eyes.

Succulent making pink flowers when in bloom

Style of the garden – classic with symmetry or free form?
In a classic garden, it’s important to create symmetry. If you look at buildings in Italy, you will see a row of windows with a triangle pediment, and a row with arched windows. Then look down and will see two columns of the same size framing the entry of the building. In classic architecture, details are symmetrical to infuse peace in the eyes of the viewers. It is the same when creating a classic garden. The position and the cut of plants must be symmetrical. Curves are the details of a classically designed garden, which is usually an area with flower beds all around the curves to make us feel embraced. Most often in the center of a curvy area, there is a water source, a fountain, a pond with colorful fish, or a small pool.

Allied Art Round Area Garden

A free form garden is made of whatever you want, just don’t mix the styles. For example, in a Japanese style garden, there will be a small bridge, stone lanterns, maybe a Buddha, stones of different shapes, and some sandy area. In a fantasy garden, there might be fairies and gnomes, whimsical metal sculptures, funky statues and everything that strikes your fancy.

Garden Fairies

Plant an orchard. If space allows it, in between flowers, you might want to cultivate some of the food you eat. We know how effective color blocking is in fashion and in interiors, use the same method to create a color blocking for products in the same family, for instance, red and green romaine lettuce, purple and green cauliflowers, green and purple cabbage, yellow and multicolor corn. You get the idea.

My orchard with funky characters

Lighting – I can’t stress enough how important lighting is for the garden, mainly for security purpose and to beautify. The entry landing should be always well illuminated, that’s where we greet people, the light should feel welcoming. The light around bushes under windows will keep unwanted people away and pathways must be clearly defined. Led lights are the best solutions today – https://bit.ly/2LDa4zU.

Led Solar Light

Following these simple criteria will help to conceive a beautiful garden. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina is an Italian Interior Designer since 1990 designing for the USA and Europe’s markets. She loves to remodel homes and gardens. With her many years of experience, she is able to cover a wide range of design solutions. Often her clients ask to design the landscape concept complete with lighting to complement the interiors she restyles. She creates “exterior rooms” as she calls them and limits the garden design only to vignettes, no structural work. She offers design consultations online anywhere in the world through Skype and Zoom. Valentina is the author of four books available on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Sculpting With The Light | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

03 Apr 2019 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #LightingEffect, #lightingGames, #LightingLayering, #LightingSculpting, Lighting

Is the sparkle of a chandelier the only light you imagine yourself being enveloped in?
Fortunately, a central light mounted in the middle of the ceiling as the only fixture that illuminates the entire room is passé and so are all the track light systems. These fixtures attract attention to themselves and detract attention from people, often-casting shadows on people’s faces.

Modern lighting is a visual phenomenon, it’s made inviting and creates a mood. Light is life and people congregate in rooms well-lit. In fact, the eyes need highlights and shadows to rest. A bright blasting light only blinds people, gives headache and leaves everything flat with no dimension.

In planning an efficient lighting system, we must first think of people and how good they will feel in our home when the light is right. We don’t want our family members or guests to look sick with bags under their eyes.
We should think of the type of tasks we do daily. These areas will receive a brighter light to fulfill our tasks.
We must create ambient light, which is perfect for conversing, for the comfort of the soul and to relax the mind.
Finally, we must accent everything of value, artworks, sculptures, glass art, photographs and interesting piece of furniture.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Sculpting with lights

I see a good lighting system as a “layering effect”, sort of like painting and sculpting with lighting. The fixtures come in the second order and the light plays the main role. Don’t get me wrong, fixtures add style to a room, and we can admire their beauty during the day when the lights are turned off. However, lighting is one of the elements of design that must agree with human eyes, colors and shapes and the one element that visually enlarges or shrinks spaces. As in a theatre performance we never see the light source, we see highlighted only people and the important details of the plays, the same principle applies to home lighting.

A light effect from a lamp

Have a corner you can call yours, a place just for you and layer lights for harmony and coziness.

Cozy light ambiance for a private corner

I like to create silhouettes, contrasts of shadows and light for different areas of the same space. I will never leave a corner in the dark and often I put lights behind furniture to create a glow on the wall. If I have an empty vase, most likely I will fill it with a light and if I decorate with flowers, artificial or not, somehow I will illuminate that arrangement indirectly.

I hope these small examples help you to look at your spaces in a different “light”. I do offer online consultations via Skype or Zoom. The world has become smaller and distances do not exist anymore. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

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. Check out one of my books on the subject of colors, ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, the third in line of my book collection
Barnes&Nobles: https://bit.ly/2FLyp0q

Some Like It Grey | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

23 Mar 2019 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #CombiningColorsWithGrey, #DesigningWithGrey, #Grey, #GreyExteriors, #GreyInteriors, #GreyTalk

I see a grey color and immediately feel down and sad. I could not live in an area without sunshine, where most of the year is grey, foggy or rainy, my soul would cry. I can honestly say to have never liked grey, or couche’ (dormant) colors in homes, thus I would never propose something I don’t like for my clients’ homes unless they absolutely demand it. I want my client to live in cheerful homes with vibrant colors and not necessarily bold. I want all the colors to suit their personality which produce a smile when they come home.

However, I admit, in fashion grey is an elegant, classy, sexy and very neutral color. I use it often in the winter with brown, red, yellow, pink, purple and green. In home décor, grey becomes muddy, and dull if it is not paired with the right colors. Here I list a few things one should know when playing with grey.

Playing with light – Grey becomes interesting with a great amount of natural light in the daytime and with a lot of layered light effects sculpting walls and furniture at night.

Playing with furniture – Grey is not a pure chroma, it is the result of black and white mixed. It reacts differently near white or black. A white cabinet next to a grey wall will add vibrancy to the wall, and a black piece of furniture will turn the grey lifeless. That’s the reason we see white wood trims around windows and doors with grey walls. Take a hint from the horse white skin and dark hair.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

Annie Spratt-unsplash

I love interesting contrasts; with grey walls, I would like all trims in warm brown with a red or golden undertone, as in the photo of the leaves.

Annie-Spratt-unsplash

Playing with mood. The mood is not that thing we feel when we get up in the morning, it has a lot to do with the location we live in the world.
In Northern countries, the natural light has a bluish tone and unless you purposely want a blue tone in the room, avoid all the greys turning blue and avoid all the blue colors. In the Southern countries, natural light has a warm golden tone. These rooms are a delight to decorate because they can take both warm and cool tone colors.
In Eastern countries, natural light has a warm tone at sunrise and in the Western countries, natural light is very warm at sunset. Where in the world are you? If you know your geographical position, selecting colors will never be a problem.
Those color palettes we get at a paint store, are laid out to help customers selecting the mood. Vertically, the darkest or warmest hues are on the bottom and the lighter or coolest hues are at the top. Horizontally, every hue shows a different value until it changes and becomes another color.

In this photo below, the light blue of the ice gives almost the feeling of a coastal color palette, fresh and cool.

Marquardt-unsplash

Playing with combinations – Many are the colors that look good with grey:
Lavender for a feminine look.
White for a crispy look (best for corridor, entry, study rooms, bedrooms).
Brown is the best combination, especially if brown has a red undertone.
Green, light and dark for a neutral look. In the photo below, the sky is grey, the green hills make the sky look a lot less sad.

Stephen Arnold-unsplash

In my photo, the grey silky flowers look so beautiful next to the green silk leaves. They give light to each other. The pale green or yellow-green is best combined with grey.
Keep in mind that dark green at night looks muddy.

Grey Silk Flower

Grey and warm yellow, or ochre are spectacular.

Mike Scaturo – Unsplash

Introduce pink, purple, magenta and orange to give any grey beautiful energy.

Annie Spratt-unsplash

Playing with the home exterior – Most people seem to favor grey color for the exterior of the home and that’s fine. To make an attractive exterior color combination, I suggest a trio of grey, high, medium and low value. Use the low grey on the side of the house not exposed to the sun. To make it even more interesting, add the color of surprise, grey and yellow, grey and green, just to name a few. The accent color will substitute the light missing in the darker part of the exterior. I am here if you need to discuss grey. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in interior and exterior, color analysis, kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. RAI–Italian National TV invited her to appear in “Cara Francesca Show” and she has made many appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of four published books, one of which is on the subject of colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors.
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book – ©The Road to Top Of The World – is on
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Valentina Expressions

Why Humans Make Art? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

Straddling A Bidet | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

The Special Status Of Number 3 | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

A Conversation On Black Color | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

Garden For The Soul | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

Sculpting With The Light | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

Some Like It Grey | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

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My third published book: ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors

My second published book: ©Sins Of A Queen – Italian Appetizers and Desserts

My first published book: ©Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity

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Valentina Expressions Blogs

Valentina Author & Designer

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My fifth published book: ©Naked Lemons

My fourth published book: ©The Road To Top Of The World

My third published book: ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors

My second published book: ©Sins Of A Queen – Italian Appetizers and Desserts

My first published book: ©Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity

Visit My Interior Design Work

Home Designs Master Blog

The Good Life Blog

Friday Fashion Blog

Trips To Puglia, Italy

Instagram

My Blog Awards Collection, All In One Page – Click on the picture frame to see them all. Thanks to all the bloggers for the awards I received

Some Of My Blog Community

© Copyright Notice