#BohemianStyle | Valentina Expressions

Settling In Your Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

13 Jan 2019 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BohemianColors, #BohemianDecor, #BohemianHomeFashion, #BohemianStyle, #MosaicFloor

I am so very pleased to see colorful home interiors circulating on my social platform pages these days. For a long time, I have wondered why people want to live in mortally boring beige homes when we live under a blue sky filled with the light of a yellow sun, surrounded by brown mountain, green grass, thousands of colorful flowers and food available everywhere (so I said in my book: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors).

Listening to realtors who want your home in a beige or white tone is deleterious to your spirit. A few times I have been indirectly involved in the selling process of homes. One time a client passed away and I had to take care of all her stuff. She surrounded herself in colors and not for one minute I thought it was going to be difficult to sell all those colors. Another time a client moved quickly to a new work in a faraway city leaving me and the realtor in the selling seat. The realtor preoccupied herself with the notion next buyer wouldn’t accept all her colors and she was so wrong. The third time I added colors in a totally white home I staged for sale. In all three cases, the houses sold in a week time.

(Click on each photo to view it larger)

My new-found Facebook friend posted this colorful, vibrant, imaginative set of her homes, and I jolted for joy. This is a person with courage, I thought. The feel is Bohemian style, it is a playful style, not a matchy-matchy style, and difficult for some people to live in. Bohemian style is a mixture of textures, colors, shapes, and style. It is the style hippies of the ’60s adopted for their free-living concept and before them, it was the style of poor gypsies roaming around in the Bohemian area of today Czechoslovakian Republic. The chair, in particular, struck me. I remember reading her post, this is a chair remade from upcycled fabric, trims and decorative pieces found in vintage or second-hand shops.

Photo: Robbie Coole

Why does the Bohemian style still attracts many people today, including me? It’s a free-form style, it has no boundaries, no rules, and no constrictions. Most of all, it is a very personal style, a reflection of creative people who like to express themselves through colors. So, well done Robbie! I know the rest of your home is as colorful as this room.

Photo: Robbie Coole

Another true shocker this week was this stunning mosaic floor. Although many people commented positively and added so many likes on this post, I doubt many of them would do it in their homes. It takes a lot of courage to cover in mosaic the entire floor and three walls of a room, in this case, a bathroom. I can already hear someone says: “I don’t want to clean all that grout!”.

Decorating a home is fun, but then comes the challenge of cleanliness.
Who will dust all the items in a Bohemian style? Can you keep the Bohemian style orderly and organized in its “designed chaos”?
Who will clean this beautiful mosaic floor? Can you live carefully enough not to break this delicate work?

If you want to be yourself these questions should not discourage you from pursuing your dream home. Hire a cleaning person to help you or be diligent to do it yourself. This style will make it easier to accumulate items and will put you out of control in no time. 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.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The newly published book is ©The Road to Top Of The World –

https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8

Ambiance | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

19 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Ambiance, #BohemianStyle, #VenetianBlownGlass, #VenetianDécor, #VenetianHomeDecor, #WarmColors, #WordPressPhotoChallengeAmbience, https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/ambience/

Can we define “Ambiance” as the character and atmosphere of a place? We certainly can. It all starts with the front door, your business card. People visiting your home will know what’s inside by the way the front door greets them. Is the front door landing clean, are plants manicured, is the landing well-lit, is there a functioning doorbell or door knocker, is there a welcoming bench outside the door, is the pathway leading to the front door curvy or straight, is the landscape matching the exterior colors of the home? These are some of the questions we should answer to give a good first impression and to create a positive aura around the home. Inside the home, your spirit should be noticeable as soon as one steps in. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

This is what to do if you are creating your ambiance, or need inspiration. The first thing is to compose a visual board (photo above) with pictures of images that strike your fancy. Once you have them all together, you can edit the composition by subtracting or adding the way you like. The board will help to visualize colors, textures, natural material, finishes, lines, shapes and where the light should hit to create feelings, backdrop, or set the tone for a dreamy ambiance.

My inspiration for my living room ambiance came from a hand-made golden Venetian wine set I bought centuries ago in Venice, Italy. That wine set, in my imagination, called for capricious living room items, not too modern and not too traditional either, with a bit of fantasy, showing opulence and warmth. In Venetian interiors is common to find some mixed items from Asian and European countries, as wealthy Venice of the 1700s (The Serenissima) traded with the Orient and the Middle East.

Music is a big part of my life. I wanted a miniature musical instrument on my entry door that played music every time I opened the door. I found a small harp made in Scotland. Now, a sweet sound welcomes people when they come to my house.

Door Harp (©Valentina Cirasola)

Continuing with music, Venice and Bohème theme, I wanted a lyre side table for the sofa in the style of Biedermeier. I found something similar and contemporary, which I keep illuminated from the bottom and from the top. The slipper chair next to it is a real treasure, it’s a Jacobean style. It came from an antique store in the Gold Country in California, the owner didn’t know its value. I re-upholstered with mystical fabric, I thought music and constellation play the same tune.

To find a Venetian chair was a challenge, but not for long. I found a chair with the right shape and price, but beauty wasn’t there. A skillful painter, using only Chartreuse and gold paint, turned the chair into a Venetian style. Re-upholstered with a double face fabric: Chartreuse color fabric with Venetian shoes printed on, paired with a purple-chartreuse polka dots fabric, made this chair an original, whimsical Venetian idea. It is now in my reading, breakfast corner.

(Above: reading-breakfast corner)

From these few items, creating the ambiance I was looking for, was easy. The aubergine wall is dark and sexy. A colorful lamp découpaged with Florentine fabric details sits on a glass top with an Italian amphora underneath, which I keep illuminated inside and now fills an empty corner. This colorful lamp adds mystery to the wall, which at night picks up different tones according to the lights I turn on and what I want to illuminate.

Warm colors, candlelight, posh pillows, glass accessories and mirrors reflecting light, all make the perfect Venetian-Bohemian style space for me. Does this style exist? Who cares, it exists in my fantasy. ❤️ ❤️❤️

As I said earlier, light has an important role when creating ambiance. In spaces where no task is required, I like to create suffuse lighting effects coming from any corner even from inconspicuous places such as behind furniture.

The home is your cocoon, create the ambiance that makes your soul sing. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian designer in business since 1990, interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. She is always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces she designs. Colors are the focus of her business today, changing people’s energy and life force just by introducing them to colors they would have never imagined. Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California featured her work. She appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., nonetheless her story continues. Find copies of her book on colors ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors and all her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Romance And Luxury | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BohemianStyle, #FarmHouseStyle, #HomeWellness, #NapaStyle, #ReclaimedWoodDoors, #RusticLuxuryStyle, #RusticStyle

I am finding that some of the clients I am getting lately, high rollers and high-profile with demanding professions want to come home to empty spaces, minimally decorated and not necessarily done with expensive items, but surely functional that also assure comfort. Up to here nothing new, or nothing out of the ordinary, people who liked minimalism have always existed. What I noticed is something else. Wellness and peaceful home décor are the few elements they want to find after a hectic day at work and tedious hours spent in traffic. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Courtesy photo: Traditional Home)

They want to fantasize and romanticize a room with a little echo in the past, the past they have not lived in person and might have heard about from parents and grandparents and long for. They want a Bohemian style mixed with retro style, a bit of farmhouse mixed with urban style, repurposed wood for new style wall paneling and repurposed barn doors as interior doors. There is a resurgent desire for items corroded by time with a more current look of natural eco-friendly fabrics. These to me are signs of nostalgia for a gone by era. I am only an observer of customs, a curious person and wondering why this new millennium borrows style from past times and doesn’t have its own style to which later people would refer to as the Millennium style ….

(https://www.3senstock.top/ProductDetail.aspx?iid=206541067&pr=84.99)

(Courtesy photo: Napa Style) – I placed this coffee table in one of my client’s family room. She is very happy her two kids can use it as a table to eat dinner while watching TV.

The new clients might want a butcher block with benches as a dining table set with a large farmhouse old and rusted chandelier overhead, a sofa perfectly new-made today with an old consumed leather patina combined with lush pillows and a great big TV screen from wall to wall.

(Mongolian Lamb Pillows – West Elm)

(Grandiroad) – I placed this chair and ottoman in another clients’ home, she is very happy of the choice.
Muted colors and simple window treatments without frills and straight forward panels contribute to the calmness of the new luxury-rustic spaces.

Romance and luxury go hand in hand these days. Luxury today is intended as practical and less formal style, it must dress a room to ensure the usual comfort, the usual esthetics, the usual warm and inviting atmosphere.

(West Elm)

Industrial, vintage, mid-century and Deco are the styles of repeating history. Perhaps in 20-30 more years we will go back to Victorian Era. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola, is the principal designer and owner of Valentina Interiors & Designs. She is a trained designer and has been in business since 1990. She works all over the world via Skype and with the traditional in-home consultations producing concepts for remodeling, restoration of historical dwelling, upgrading, décor restyling and home fashion. Vogue magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15 and has been interviewed on various Blog Talk Radios. Author of three books all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Bohemian Wedding | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

21 Feb 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BeachWedding, #BohemianStyle, #BohemianWedding, #BohemianWeddingDress, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Welcome to my usual Friday Fashion, this blog will be about a wedding.
It all started when this woman, we will call her Possum, started to frequent my home. She could not pinpoint what was about my style that she liked so much, until one day I told her it was a Bohemian Valentina’s style, not just any hippy Bohemian from the ‘60s. In my décor there is modern Italian with country French, Venetian 1700s style with American classics, found pieces mixed with hand-painted pieces, travel memorabilia and personal memories. All and all is a style which suits my personality and it feels just comfortable for me.

Fast forward a few years later Possum found the right man she wants to marry. Influenced by my style, she started redecorating her home in the Bohemian style and now she wants to marry in the same style.

Preparations have begun with a delicious brunch prepared by him (a chef) for us the girls of the wedding including myself. I will be officiating the ceremony for the very first time in my life, the other girls will be the bride’s maids.

Nothing in this wedding will be ordinary, nor conventional. Possum decided to get married on the beach bare feet somewhere on California coast. She will hire a party bus to take us to the beach, then to the reception place and back to her home at night.

(Possum will wear these anklets – Source: https://www.ebay.com/p/swarovski-foot-jewelry-beach-wedding-anklet-destination-bridal-bridesmaids-gift/1177730856)

Our brunch was full of ideas and full of flavors, her man cooked delicious food for us. Possum started with a Bohemian tablecloth and two seahorses as table centerpieces. You might have imagined already, the theme of the wedding is the beach with its beautiful calming colors.

At the end of the brunch, she gave us a surprise: champagne color bracelets for us to wear at the wedding, shells, a small glitzy jewelry box and chocolates to remember how we started it. It was presented to us as a treasure chest as if she found it floating at the shore. Guess who in the photo is wearing the blue polish with a large shell ring?

I designed her Bohemian dress already. The day we were going to the seamstress to share our idea, Possum almost fainted when she saw my drawing, could not believe it was exactly how she had imagined. The seamstress will make her ensemble, which we will not call a wedding dress. The look, the colors, and the design do not scream wedding, this is a dress for a day on the beach with loved friends, free of conventions made for a free spirit like Possum and if she wants to wear each piece separately later with the jeans she can.

My inspiration is complete and all together, my ideas are clear, from some of my beach photos I will extrapolate the colors for the reception decorations and for the bride ensemble. The bride’s maids will wear whatever they want, hopefully, they will choose wisely and not black. I will have something bluish-turquoise-aqua to match my eyes. The wedding will be the first week of June. Time is of the essence. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Decorating With Pink Flambe’ | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

18 Dec 2012 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #2013ColorTrend, #BohemianStyle, #ColorTheory, #DecorantingWithPinkFlambe', #DesigningWithColors, #PinkFlmbe'

Pink Flambe' Color Board by ©Valentina Cirasola

Pink Flambe’ and Orange- from https://wanelo.co

Pantone Colors 2013

You might be wondering how top industries come up every year with different colors that will more or less dictate our choices of items we want to include in our life. The answer is simple.
The industry spy do exist, they are people with a fun job. They are among us, they sit in restaurants, café’ and any public places to observe and record how we dress, what colors we wear, how we combine our clothes, what new expressions we use, they follow food and wine trends and anything that goes on in the street. Then they report their findings to the decision makers and from there they elaborate our taste. Fun is it not? I wished I had that job. What’s up with the colors in 2013?

Funky and strong colors have dominated this new millennium so far, 2013 will continue in that path with a new hot color: Pink Flambé.
Flambé is a French word that means flamed. It is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The color flambé is just as flamed and hot.
Flambe’ a bit hard color to work with, but when combined with other decisive colors, it can be striking and tasty just like a flambé dessert.

We can mix it in our clothes and our homes indifferently. The new Pink Flambé likes Chartreuse green, golden-yellow, white, grey, orange, or black. Fabrics will be natural and man-made even for apparel, animal prints, stripes and floral, much dyed denim, crocheted and embroidered fabrics, as well as a broad selection of trims and accessories. Take out all your knitting and crochet equipment and let your fantasy go wild.

The themes for next year are quite characteristic. They embrace minimalist shapes, collection of botanical fabric prints, reminiscent of Victorian naturalist collections, tribal influences from all over the world mixing together mismatching floral prints, geometrics, block prints and a lot of Bohemian retro style.
The new philosophy is not about saving as much money as possible on home décor and get it done on a shoe string budget, as it has been for the last four-year of economy in recession, but it is about the day-to-day reflection of their life and personality, as it should be not matter what. I am happy people are coming around to please their needs.

Have fun next year. The “anything goes” philosophy has been a long time trend already, just a different twist every year. We can still have a flicker of luxury with various finishes if we want. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer and former Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe since 1990. She blends well fashion with interior and colors the world of her clients. She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual. Check out her latest book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors, available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

I Prescribe Bohemian Style | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Jan 2011 9 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BohemianColors, #BohemianHomeFashion, #BohemianStyle, #DecoratingBohemianStyle, #HomeTrends

In my second book, Sins Of A Queen, I wrote that “Salt is the spice of food, attitude is the spice of life”, but in my designing business colors and fabrics are the spices of a home.
We have entered a new decade of a young millennium with a new gentle attitude when approaching style. We are freer than ever to decorate or even to dress as it is most pleasurable to our eyes and without following made-up rules any more. Yet every 40-50 years we take inspirations from past time décor or fashion, turn it around and make it new again. That is because looking back in the past is nostalgic for those who have lived it and refreshing for those who have not yet. Who would have imagined that the hippies ‘70s era would have brought inspiration to copy today!? Well, not really copy it, but remake it into a new sophistication.

Today looking at the ’70s means to take the psychedelic patterns, the bold colors, the vivid floral fabrics of that era and mix them with the contemporary style or even with traditional furniture. The objective is to incorporate without falling into the matchy-matchy syndrome.
I say, feel free to mix paisley with geometric lines, fringes with appliquéd designs or rich velvet, quilted pieces with leather pieces, masculine with feminine, but do it with a conscious style and taste.

The Bohemian style of this decade has a well researched look, sophisticated, soft, gentle and vintage versus the jumble of colors and patterns of the ‘70s that went hand in hand with scruffy, casual and untidy fashion look. The Bohemian style is totally different from Shabby Chic style, you might find vintage items and vintage colors and fabrics, but you will not find distressed and worn out items, only suggestions to the past.

Furniture of the Bohemian style are well-preserved even if they are from the ’70s, no chipping in the wood and in the varnishes, leucite, bakelite materials and flowers in every colors and shapes for accessories. In homes a striking Bohemian color palette allows the browns, grey/silver and Prussian blues to live together in a combination of velvets, tapestries and 16th century French prints. Opposite to this autumnal colors, the new Bohemian style allows to decorate interiors in a more young dynamic way with pinks, oranges and dark blues or purples in an attempt to revive the hippies fashion’s vibrancy and rebellious colors.

natalie_quilt_company_store (Photo: Natalie Quilt – The Company Store)

In a bedroom, bring a patchwork floral quilt with mixed floral prints pillows and set it against a heavy textured wall for a new chic. We will see beautiful and interesting stones on the walls again, such as bricks. I absolutely adore any natural stones! In the living room, add a bundle of colorful flowers pillows to that beige tired sofa and watch life come back to the room!

(Photo: the Company Store)

I prescribe Bohemian style in your home, because it is comfortable, unpretentious, yet chic and refined. Walking down the street in a Bohemian fashion is a head turning. Whatever ideas you have, I can help you put it all together, I am only an email away. From there is easy to develop a project through various communication channels that will not break your bank. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as a designer since 1990. She has helped a variegated group of fun people realizing their dreams with homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She is a designer well-known to bring originality to people’s homes. As an Italian designer and true to her origins, she provides only the best workmanship and design solutions.
Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w