For many years I was asking to get a client with a non-traditional taste, someone who would care less about the “resale value” of the house and care more to create spaces suited for his/her living, where function, art and whimsy would marry well. At one point, even us designers, get tired of producing same designs over and over, the same white or beige kitchens, decorating with traditional furniture, or worst, have to find inexpensive modern furniture, often made from sawdust, to keep expenses down.
My “prayers” were heard. Someone reached out to me, after silently had studied me online, followed my blogs, saw my posts on social media without commenting one word and finally one days, she called. Her husky voice made me think of a very demanding person…and she was. She is an antiquarian by trade with a clinic eye trained to see only beauty.
She asked me to design her open space, kitchen-dining-living in an urban modern style with prominent traces of antiquity. This woman is not a common person who gets content with a maple kitchen. This woman demands a full stainless steel kitchen, including cabinets and she envisions a color palette ranging from silver, gray, powdery bluish, gold and a hint of white. I am so lucky, I thought. Finally, I had the opportunity to run wild !!! I placed myself in that empty space and I saw the effect in my imagination. What a beautiful spaces it will be when completed! This is what I came up. (Click on the image to view it larger).
Stainless steel needs contrasts, otherwise looks very cold and industrial. The contrast here are the burnished bronze door handles, same treatment repeated on the backsplash.
The house faces a beautiful city view, framed by arched French doors, it will reflect, as I see it, onto a large antiqued wall-to-wall mirror, placed opposite to the city view. It is quite expensive to do an antiquing treatment on a mirror, but it is the necessary element for this urban interior with a patina of antiquity. Grisailles treatment in a grayish tone will enclose this large mirror and it will not look stark and naked.
(Photo Grisaille: http://montanarosepainter.tumblr.com/post/143901271457/lapagedenine-via)
This silver iron with a hint of blue is the wall treatment. (Photo: lured2stock.deviantart.com_silver_iron)
Bluish-green draperies in my board are not to beautify the French doors, the view needed not to be concealed. The photo of the drapery below is an example of how I see Venetians style draperies with silk tassels to function as a decorative divider element between the kitchen-living-dining open space and the corridor leading to the entry.
(Above: interiorsbycolor.com)
(Photo antiqued mirror in my board: AntiqueMirrorGlass-roselawnlutheran.org)
A white and rough stone floor will unite all the texture and bring light to the common spaces. Work will start in the new year.
Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com
Copyright © 2017 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
Valentina is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens, cooking and extensive knowledge of food. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms. Check out her books available on
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
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