#2016ColorTrends | Valentina Expressions

Elements Of Surprise | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

15 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #2016FallColors, #Anthropologie, #AnthropologieWindowDisplay, #FlowerArrangement, #PaperFlowers, #StoreDisplay

It’s one of those days in California, the sun is high, the air is fizzy, mid-morning coffee in a fashionable area with business associates. Women of leisure are out shopping and carrying shopping bags bigger than their size.
Window shopping is one of my favorite activities when I am in those parts, but I am always moving fast from window to window, perhaps because merchandise is the same everywhere and not much out there interests me.

Here fashion is all about black clothes. We can still feel the influence of Steve Jobs, dressed in his uniform: jeans, black t-shirt and black sneakers. It feels to me as everyone is mourning their own life.
I am sorry to complain about black all the time, but it isn’t the only color available and I will not allow anyone to tell me I need to wear the “black California uniform” 24/7. If it makes them happy, black is the color for them.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Flowers Made With Vegetable Twist Tie)

(Flowers Made With Paper Price Tags)

I was walking mindlessly, suddenly something struck me in Anthropologie.
To attract people’s attention, the visual department has designed these flowers all made with paper price tags, muffins paper cups and vegetable twist ties, you know the type we use at grocery stores to seal a plastic bag full of fruit or vegetable.
The “wow” effect was there and the curiosity too.

I entered the store and spent an hour studying store display, flowers arrangements and roaming around merchandise. This store is ready with new colors, as it is always attentive to market demand.

(Flowers Made With Paper Cups For Muffins)

(Photos taken in Anthropologie store with permission granted)

The paper roses made with price tags reflect the warm mood and emotional feeling of 2016 fall. We just need new vibrations in new color combinations, which are visible in the paper price tags’ treatment.
All those subtle and powdery colors is an indication of what we will wear in the next fall and winter.
Human creativity has no limits. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior-fashion designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. Valentina needs your story to design the home of your dream and add elements of surprise. She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Fall In Love With Fall | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

31 Aug 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #2016FallColors, #AiryBlueBodacious, #MusatardAiryBlue, #Pantone2016FallColors, #RedVoyageIntoColors

This fall there is a new, fresh way to combine colors we have already seen before. Spicy Mustard with Airy Blue or Airy Blue with Bodacious (a type of magenta) are a very new pair. Blues are leading the pack of colors this coming fall mixed with warm heart tones. Dusty Cedar is a real welcomed revelation for its brilliancy and the capacity to mix well with all the fall colors planned for this year. Airy Blue has an intrinsic light, it is weightless and it means serenity. It pairs well with all the fall colors. Let’s see how I have combined it. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Airy Blue, Spicy Mustard and Potter Clay – Color Combination – Concept One

If you are remaking a living room, for instance, here I have a couple of suggestions for you. My idea of a living room, provided that the size of the room allows it, is a playful space made up of various seating arrangements.

I have never liked the “large sofa” against the wall, two chairs on each side of the sofa, side tables and coffee table in front. I find this arrangement very boring.
My ideal living room is a space well designed for conversation or reading with various vignettes consisting of chairs for two or three people, a few tables between each seats or just one small table in the middle to serve everyone.

Airy Blue, Spicy Mustard, Shark Gray and Bodacious – Color Combination – Concept Two

(Furniture in my concept boards are from Grandinroad and Wayfair)

Besides central lighting in the ceiling, I like to add a source of light in each vignette, to create the rhythm of shadows and light. This type of arrangement facilitate conversations at a deeper level, allows to get to know a person closely, especially in parties, where nobody sits on the large sofa next to a person just met and everybody engage in meaningless small talks.

If you had a fireplace in a living room in needs of restyle, which main color or color combination would you choose? I am here to help. Ciao,
Valentina
ww.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. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15 and on RAI – Italian National TV. Author of three published books, the latest ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors is on the subject of colors.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Quartz In The Sky | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

25 May 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #InteriorColors, #Pantone2016Colors, #QuartsandSerenityCombination, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #RoseQuartzColor, #SerenityColor

It would be nice if designers have new clients to propose new color trends every time Pantone comes out with new colors, but that’s not always the case and not always clients like the new trends.

(Pantone 2016 – Rose Quartz – Serenity)

Rose Quartz and Serenity are the new colors for 2016. They look so retro and so much 1950s. The new colors are soothing, calming and bring peace in this time of so much turmoil. It’s a genderless palette that emphasizes the duality of today’s society.

However beautiful, soft and weightless they might be together, these two colors are not for everybody’s taste or skin. Some men will never live in a pink interior. It happened in one of my projects. The wife liked a lot of pink and peach on the wall, in the upholstery, in pictures and accessories, but her husband didn’t. They argued and discussed incessantly, I had to play a lot of my magic to quiet them down and bring the project to an end. I was able to add various shades of grey and earth tones to make most pink items disappear. In the kitchen he got his dark slate floor and beige cabinets with a lighter color contrast panels and she got her peach walls.

This year I have experimented with pastel color combinations in my clothes not in my interior and I am starting to like them. Knowing myself, it isn’t just enough to follow Pantone’s suggestions, my soft color combination will always have a splash of vibrant color. Let’s see how the rest of the world is treating Rose Quartz and Serenity colors.

I think quartz and serenity (light blue) color scheme looks good with white or natural distressed wood and exposed beams, any copper textured items with quartz color feels very natural.

(Ceramics-Amaï-Saigon)

If Rose Quartz and Serenity color combination is not for you, there are eight additional colors to choose from. Make it colorful and exciting.
Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in 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.
She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15 and on RAI – Italian National TV.
Author of three published books, the latest ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors is on the subject of colors.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Home Trends In 2016 | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

09 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2016ColorTrends, #2016HomeTrends, #CologneInteriorDesignShow, #DynamicLighting, #ErgonomicFurniture, #InteriorDesignHomeShow, #SmartFurniture

Some people go on vacation to relax and to get lost, I go on vacation to live in someone else’s culture for a while and to learn as much as I can. During my latest trip to Europe I learned about new home trends, living customs of new generations and novelties in the design world.

At Cologne, Germany interior design trade show I saw homes designed for the Millennial generation. The show dedicated to home interiors presented trends that will shape furniture, furniture functions and interiors sector with unique ideas for every room, every style and requirements, from the basics all the way to designer items and luxury furnishings.

As homes are becoming smaller due to high-priced real estate, the millennial need self-assembly furniture, furniture with multiple functions and ergonomic functions. The preferred material, believe or not is natural wood. I was so happy to see that versus furniture made of pressed sawdust put together with poisonous glues as we have seen up to now. Wood represents warmth, stability and sustainability.
“Smart” furniture with the addition of technical functionality will perform highly in various tasks for a high-speed modern lifestyle . However the “affordable furniture” by being fashionable, practical and versatile offer expressions of individuality.

The millennial want natural material in terms of fabrics, curtains, bath/bedding products and any home fabrics made of grasses and wood fibers. Well-being and visual appearance is a consideration of the new generation, in other words, they want to sustain the environment and still be able to have something beautiful in their homes. In the Sleep segment, the show presented highly functional mattresses designed with new scientific knowledge that will give relief and ease good sleep. “Holistic” is the definition of a home for new generations.

Formal living and dining rooms will disappear in favor of friendlier great room where family and friends can relax, eat and drink together seated on comfortable sofas and chairs. To minimize cleaning time and devolve that time to comfort, home spas and relaxation is one of the areas this young generation looks to get help with gadgets and smart solutions, don’t we all?

(All photos by IMM)

Dynamic lighting, which changes brightness, coloration and temperatures tones is a big revelation. Depending on the tasks performed at any given time, dynamic lighting will be brighter to stay attentive, dull and warm for relaxing, or soft for falling asleep. Of course there are many colors for bathing in chromotherapy.

Home gardens might disappear altogether in place of wood decks. The millennial want to entertain in intimate outdoor spaces, but don’t want the maintenance of grass and temperamental plants. The exterior will be an integral part of the interior without the barrier of walls and glass, at least in good weather, thus we will see more retractable glass walls, made of foldable doors and smaller backyards designed into vignettes, versus gigantic field of grassy lawn.
Colors, colors and more colors will fill the interiors of the future. This make me super happy. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She especially loves to design all those rooms with a “make me feel good” tag attached, such as kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. She is a public speaker and a mentor. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books and a book on colors, all-available here in this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w