#HomeDecor | Valentina Expressions

Leopard Door

16 Sep 2022 12 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #HomeDecor, #InteriorDesign, #LeopardPrintDoor, #OriginalHomeStyle, #PersonalizedDecor

I have been a salmon swimming up stream all my life, the common thinking has never touched me, and conformism never interested me. Not being like everybody else has not been easy, at times I thought I caused my own challenges. Luckily those thoughts only lasted a few minutes and came to my senses.

I have always lived in original homes with beautiful views and when the architecture wasn’t what I wanted, I created originality with home décor. Here, I present you my new entry door painted in a blue leopard print. I took me one week to paint it but the results gave me a great satisfaction and I feel to have been repaid for all the efforts.

I go in and out that door and feel a huge surprise every time. I can almost hear the screaming of a realtor if one day I will decide to sell this house, rest assured it is not going to happen anytime soon.

To top it all, I marked my territory with my initial on a wrought iron piece. What’s your reaction to the leopard door?

Dan Antion is still offering this Thursday Door Challenge. Please visit with us and discover many stories beyond beautiful doors in the world.
Ciao.
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 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.
Get a copy of her books here: 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

You Are the Glass | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

26 Aug 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulGlass, #GiantGlassFlowers, #GlassArt, #GlassSculptures, #HomeDecor, #InteriorDesign, HomeAccessories

“A pile of sand made you, strong but fragile, soft and malleable, sharp and smooth. You melt under the delicate touch of the forger. You face fire with courage as if nothing happens in that hot furnace, but something does happen. You become sensual, your curves are more sinuous than a curvy woman, you take on brilliant colors for the pleasure of your admirers’ eyes and you come out shaped into a masterpiece. We want to possess you. We want to caress and feel you, we want to shelter your fragility, we want your shapes to embellish our life. You are the GLASS”.

I wrote this thought one day at a client’s house. I was putting the final touches together, beautiful accessories, scented natural candles, shimmering crystals, skillfully decorated ceramic plates by French and Italian artists, colorful lamps and the glass peppers on the kitchen island. I fell in love with them. They looked juicy and appetizing in their glass form just as much as they do in real life. They vibrate healthy energy. It took a bit of an effort with this particular client to show her that colors exude positive energy and she needed so badly in her all-beige home. Now she is totally into colors and even when she gets dressed, she asks herself if Valentina would love the colors she is selecting. If the answer in her mind is NO, she will not put it on. I must have converted another person to colors.

Glass Red Pepper

As an Italian, I grew up appreciating the beauty of Murano glass. The art of Murano is unparallel, colorful, transparent like tissue paper, delicate and precious. It always fascinated me how a pile of sand can be transformed into something so mesmerizing. One moment seems the glass lays there lifeless and as soon as the light goes through, it picks up a totally different dimension, inside the glass every little nuance comes alive.

I was at an art and wine fair this weekend and I fell in love with tall glass flowers, glass teapots, and glass sculptures, I would have brought home everything I saw.

Giant Glass Flowers

Glass Teapots

Glass Sculpture

Picture one of these colorful pieces in each room of modern sleek décor, one of those style with very straight lines, black and grey color combination and very minimalist. Do you see it? One of these art pieces will add color and character to minimalist room décor.

So many artists, so many ideas, so many choices. Going to fairs and art shows is one of the many ways I help clients. I find items they might overlook, or have no access to it.
I hope one of these glass artists will want to appear on one of my TV shows, the invitation has been extended. 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, only follow client’s inspiration, lifestyle, and personality. She offers online design consultations through Skype or Zoom, as well as the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of five books. The two latest published books are ©The Road To Top Of The World – Amazon – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8
and ©Naked Lemons – Amazon – https://amzn.to/33bVRyQ
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Horsefeathers | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

19 Nov 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AccessoriesCoordination, #HomeDecor, #OversizeAccessory, #VisualImpactDecor, #whimsicalDecor

In Europe, I was used to leaving the house, stroll the streets filled with many shops of a different kind, sit at a cafe or do window licking if I didn’t have anything to buy. Go out to walk at leisure, it’s the way of life in Europe. Shopping over there happens when people really need things, discounts come at the end of seasons, not every day, thus window shopping is a pastime. I love the feel and relationship I could create with small shoppe’s owners. However, due to the massive online buying convenience, even the structure of European streets is slowly changing and small stores are capitulating to online giant merchant corporations. A few days ago, in a networking event, I was telling a group of business women that the life of a designer doesn’t stop at 5:00 pm. Designers are in the constant “mode of searching” for clients. Sometimes, not all the accessories and artwork are in place when we finish a major remodeling or decorating. Choosing artwork is a very personal thing, is like choosing perfumes. Usually, at the end of a project, clients want to take care of their artwork selection, but if something is left open, we will keep an eye open for those details left to complete.

I just remembered this episode. I was walking in a small American town, doing window shopping and spending the afternoon of leisure with myself. Horsefeathers, I exclaimed! I spotted a huge wooden horse through the store window display selling Italian ceramics. The horse was placed in a dining area as a suggestion, I couldn’t help noticing it. It would have been perfect for the dining room in a client’s home. She liked horses and was looking for a gigantic one for her dining room, a type of playful horse, very whimsical, an icebreaker and a conversational piece. Why putting a horse in a dining room? Why not? The store must have read my mind. I took a picture, sent it to the client, told her the price and voila’ she got her horse.

(Click on the photo to view it larger)

This is just to say feel free to have an ordinary house, it’s your space, but if you want to have an extravagant, unusual and tasteful décor, the sky is the limit and nothing stops you from showing some personality, or whimsy. 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 my book on the subject of colors ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, or my latest travel narrative: ©The Road To Top Of The World.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Curve | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Jun 2016 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BuiltInDesign, #HomeDecor, #HomeRemodeling, #OldWorldDecor, #PommeleSapeleWood, #RoomAddition, #StoneFloorDesigns

“If it doesn’t exist in the market, I will design and build it”. It has been my mantra and my way to resolve the challenge of filling up spaces with container furniture that are functional and beautiful as well. I will add some pleasant curves to increase the beauty. Built-ins today are very straight and boxy with a lot of opens shelves. If you ask me, I will tell you they are unattractive and whenever possible I will suggest to build your own. If you do have that opportunity, make it a masterpiece.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

The inspiration for this curvy built-in media unit came from the conversation between my clients, a young couple in their 30s, a couple who is into DIY. The room was an addition to the house, an empty box waiting to be beautified.

While I was designing the interior of this family room, I was designing also the landscape outside the window. The wife’s desire was to have an old world European room, with an antique flooring, droopy window treatment with a rich puddle and a faux finish on the wall. They had a very traditional taste, nothing I could not handle. I brought a Renaissance pattern to a tile maker and he reproduced it beautifully on the tiles that now surround the fireplace.

While all the workers looked busy bees, I was searching for the right furniture-accessories and overseeing all the workers. I love when everybody is working in unison and I hear the painter singing at the walls creating his faux finish (painters usually sing while they paint), tile setter creating the floor pattern, the fireplace was in construction mode and the man of the house followed my design to the teeth to produce the built-in with curves. That wood is Pommele Sapele, not extinct, only a precious species. It makes waves and ripples of water pattern, very pretty to look at. Three months later everyone reached the goal and the room came alive.

Curtains were the only thing not done. With the curvy landscape wrapping around the front of the house and framing the family room window so well, there was no need for the curtains anymore. Let the nature in. Ciao, Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am 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. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Featured on Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California, appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., my stories continues. Find copies of my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Detox Yourself and Your Home After Holidays | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

06 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AfterHolidayDetox, #Detox, #HomeDecor, #January2015, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #WinterColors, #WinterWhiteColorScheme

My holiday decorations are gone, everything went to sleep until next Christmas. Do you feel as if your home has lost its spark? All the shimmering lights are turned off, colorful decorations are gone, the glitters are not shining and everything looks opaque. Well it’s January, in most parts of the world is cold and white, why not enjoy the cold season and cooler colors of this month?

(photo: https://holawallpaper.com/wallpaper/hot-chocolate-17186-17186.html)

Let’s start with a cup of hot cocoa in our hands. Ideas come easier with something brown, silky and sweet. We need to fill that space where the Christmas tree was. I suggest a lamp in that corner, something we can borrow from other rooms for the time being, or a rope light disguised into a pot, a glass vase or behind furniture.

Winter colors

Winter color combination

Let’s play with all white color range. Between the cream colors, light beige, warm whites, antique whites and crystals accessories we can edit some rooms with real winter style to make it warm and cozy. Take out the fuzzy throw blanket and the ecologic fur pillows to feel in the mood for a crackling fireplace and a good book for companion.
To balance the white colors bring in some fragrant and colorful plants such as white paper lilies, a bright red Amaryllis, hyacinth, or a winter star plant. It will be like calling spring to hurry to show up.

White paper lilies

Wikimedia – Hyacinth in the formal garden at Anglesey Abbey. Taken Apr 2012

Winter star plant

Clean the interior of kitchen cupboards, get rid of some chipped dishes and bring to the front some glasses or dishes you haven’t use in a while. Add a sachet of dry rosemary, sage, thyme, and orange peel to give your cupboard a fresh smell. Clean the interior of bathroom cabinets and get rid of expired cosmetics, dust off clothes, shoes, and handbags, they also need a renewed energy after the holidays. You want to make everything sparkling again the natural way.

How about you, your person, how will you detox from the holidays?

I started with staying a couple of weeks away from the computer electromagnetism.
I got rid of all the sweets leftovers from the holidays, except chocolate, I need that. It seems as if I am ungrateful and throwing food away, but no, I am saving my body and being good to myself. The leftover good food is already in the freezer.
I am eating a lot of fruit, vegetables, high fiber food, drinking a lot more water and reduced my food portions. Exercising at least 30 minutes a day should help my detox and this is all, nothing strenuous, nothing difficult, everything doable I can do for many months.

I don’t particularly like winter, however, I celebrate it just the same with the things, food, and activities that make these few cold months so worth waiting for the spring. Ciao,

Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Home Couture | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 Feb 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorsAndLight, #FurnitureCoordination, #HomeCouture, #HomeDecor, #homeDesignsMaster, #RedVoyageIntoColors

(Find all these pieces at Joss and Main)

Does it make you feel like a million dollar when you can come home to a stylish place, clean, uncluttered and coutured to your need? I think it does.

Decide the type of person you are: traditional, modern, eclectic, country, the list could be very long.

This will give you the idea of the furniture to buy, or to take from different rooms. Rotating furniture pieces from one room to another will change the energy around the house, just like rotating the tires of the car will not wear them on one side only.

Select the colors to reflect your spirit and consider the light exposure. Color contrast sharpens everything and puts in focus one piece at a time. If a few pieces of furniture are superb in style and character, all pieces will go automatically together and give the room harmony of form and coordination. Don’t be afraid to be imaginative! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Copyright © 2014 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces to add that feeling of peace and relaxation everywhere. Find copies of my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Décor and Comfort | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

04 Nov 2013 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BelleÉpoqueStyle, #BuiltInFurniture, #HomeComfort, #HomeDecor, #LibraryRoom, #MyPersonalAToZChallenge, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SmokingRoom

Welcome to my personal A to Z Challenge on the subject of Home. The goal, in a year time, is to elaborate and dissect topics regarding the Home not as containers of stuff, but as a cocoon for the soul, mind, and heart.
I will touch on decorations, style, trends, history of home and sometimes technical information.

**********

One of the fundamental human needs that must be satisfied is feeling good at home. History gave us plenty of examples of how people found domestic well-being through comfortable, multifunctional furniture and decorations, but comfort and décor are not the same things. Décor is the result of what fashion dictates from one year to another or from decade to decade. We are still using Queen Ann style chairs with cabriolet legs because this style chair falls into the classic style, but when fashion dictated to leave the straight legs behind for the curvy and more feminine chairs, it was a fashion fad that was well received and though to last for only a few years, in reality, it has lasted more than a century.

Titanic Reproduction Smoking Room – Courtesy Blue Star Line

Horchow Tub Chair Ottoman

Trône de Pauline, Claude Lalanne -1990

1920-Dining Set

Valentina’s Original Suede and Cow Skin

A smoking room is no longer in fashion because it’s not a good custom to smoke in people’s face or fill the rooms with smoke smell, therefore there are no smoking rooms in today’s homes. The same is for library rooms, people still read today but they read on-line and mostly with reading devices, thus there is no more need to keep shelves full of books, or design a reading room around books, magical lights, and comfortable seats. I really miss designing library rooms!
Smoking room and library rooms represented the comfort of behavior in a particular era, the content of these rooms, colors, and style of a décor followed the fashion of the time.

In architecture or in-home décor, often we see the return of a style that we call revival, such as Tudor revival, Neo Classic revival or Gothic revival, just to name a few. Revival style is pretentious and artificial. It is only limited to the style of architectural details or the style of furniture. It has nothing to do with the behavior that characterized those historic periods. Every era has seen modern improvement in domesticity comfort with the technology available at any given moment.
We went from candlelight to electric light, from sleeping the entire family in one room with no privacy and often sleeping in one large bed, to kids’ rooms and parents’ rooms each with its own bathroom. Once the comfort of a home has been improved with modern technologies it is no possible to go back in time to sit on hard chairs without padding, washing clothes by hand or sleeping all in one room.

The reason for reviving a style perhaps is the lack of traditions and the desire to experience a nostalgic time. I like the Belle Époque style, but I would not like to live in that time when women swept the streets with their long dresses and horse & carriage was the only transportation for those who could afford it, the rest of the people went on foot. We cannot copy the past and transfer it to our life of today, we can only appreciate it by surrounding ourselves with a few traditional ornaments as an acceptable alternative.

Domestic comfort is found in the feeling of privacy, intimacy, an atmosphere of coziness and accommodating furniture. What we have adopted from the past is the concept of privacy when rooms were small, appropriately sized windows, built-in-furniture, and natural material. In early 1900 with the advent of industrialization, the incorporation of home appliances and modern devices made life more convenient without sacrificing a beautiful décor. This practice goes on today with more advanced sophisticated electronics hidden in strategic places. Most homes of today don’t look industrialized at all and we feel very comfortable using a remote control to lower curtains, turn lights off and get the movie started all with one click.

However, the comfort and coziness of a home don’t come from today’s fashion of making oversize spaces, open floor plans, and super high ceilings. The human soul gets lost in these impersonal spaces. To coordinate all the activities of a family to work in harmony in large spaces is a real challenge and it takes a lot more energy to keep large spaces warm. Kitchen and bath counters should be made in different heights to accommodate the average height of people living in the house and laundry machines should not be placed in the bathroom.
Cooking is intense and tiring work, kitchens should have a minimal walking space between the stove and the rest of the appliances with comfortable flooring.
Bathrooms are rooms for relaxation through experiencing a soothing bath with music, suffused lights, scents, and books without seen dirty clothes and clutter in plain view. Undressing room, once called boudoir serves the purpose of taking off clothes, eliminating the need for a large bathroom floor plan and while one person is bathing, the other person can do small ablutions in the undressing room without waiting.
These are some examples that will provide personal comfort.

Comfort is a very subjective thought. It really involves human physiology and how we perceive our comfort. Ergonomic chairs, versus artistic chairs, bright light versus ambient light, natural material versus man-made inexpensive and easy to care material, oversize furniture versus human-size furniture, the list can go on forever. Comfort doesn’t mean the same thing for all the people. Once we have abolished the feeling of discomfort, then we have achieved Comfort and only a person who knows his/her needs will know how to produce real comfort, not following the style of today that dictates to decorate our home in a certain way.

Should you need a technical eye to pull together a comfortable décor, I am here to help. Ciao.
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Classicism, stylish and timeless designs have influenced Valentina’s design work. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away your comfort. She loves to restore old homes, historic dwellings and she focuses on remodeling. Author of three books, all available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Tempus Fugit | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Dec 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AccessoriesCoordination, #AntiqueClocks, #Clocks, #DecoratingTips, #DecoratingWithClocks, #HomeDecor

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

(Ballard Designs photos)

Tempus fugit is a Latin expression first recorded by Roman poet Virgil. The translation from Latin says:
“Time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail”.

Tempus fugit inscription was first seen on a sundial, today is found often on clocks. Up until the Babylonian invented the sundial, later perfected by the Greeks, people measured time with the raising and fall of the sun; with the change of weather they could tell what season they were in.

The need to have a device that would measure time rose in the Middle Age, around the 1300s when people’s life started to revolve around the concept “time is money” and if they could measure time they would know in a precise way how to dedicate the best time of the day to a productive work, when to stop for eating, when to return to work and when the day was over. Before the advent of clocks these tasks were measured by feelings, if they felt hungry they ate and if they felt tired they stopped.

The first clocks, mostly made of iron and very heavy in weight ended up on church towers to mark the church functions, the monks’ performances at different hours and to call in the faithful to take part of the religious life. The mechanical clocks came about three centuries later along with the pendulum and grandfather clocks, which we still enjoy in home décor today.

Many European countries invented each their own style of clocks, some were incased in beautiful wood species, furniture, or metal, some hung on the wall, some were made as table clock or fireplace mantel clock, some were lantern clocks surmounted over a large bell and some were even portable. One example of a portable clock, the musk-ball watch, struck me in particular. It had the shape of a ball with many holes pierced to let out the scent of herbs contained inside. The belief was that carrying herbs on the body would fight infection and certainly some stench, I agree with the latter, but why attach it to women’s girdle and not on top of the dress? It would have been easier to hear and see the time when the musk-ball watch would strike the hour with a sound. Curious, spicy episodes fill history and I am curious to learn them all.

Going back to Tempus Fugit, our perception tells us time flies, but time is space doesn’t exist. Often people waste time with nothing in particular, importance or urgency at any given moment. We know that time wasted is not recyclable and we feel guilt when we do waste it. However, I think that to allow some “nothing” time it is beneficial for our well-being and mind health, but only if we know how to balance nothing time with working time and achievements of the day.

I read this fascinating article on “What is Time?” http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/what-is-time/
Physicist Sean Carroll in explaining his theory of what time is, talks about the idea of entropy, a measure of how disorderly things are in the Universe, which started 13.7 billion years ago in a state of a perfect order, in a very low entropy and now looks like a giant mess in a high state of entropy.
We record time by recording the past, that’s our memory of time, today is still in the making, thus time really doesn’t matter yet and tomorrow doesn’t exist.
As Deepak Chopra says: “Today is a gift that’s why is called Present”.

We cannot trap time even if we try to measure it with clocks that can only mark the passing of our days and our activities. We can only follow time and be happy to live it, hopefully in full.

If we ought to decorate with clocks, how would we use them? In my house I have clocks everywhere, not because I am worried about time passing, but because I like to collect them. Each marks a different time, that’s my way of fooling time, or fooling myself, either way works for me.

A large clock in a small entry will definitively make a statement; a clock in a studio room will remind you to get up from the desk every seventy-five minutes and do office stretches; a mud room space with a clock will send a message that it is time to neatly tidy it up; a bedroom with clocks hanging from the ceiling speaks playtime, but what I really like is to fill up a wall with all bunch of clocks without any rule, in a high entropy just like the state of the Universe today. This would be a composition of clocks that doesn’t really tell time, but it reminds you it is time to be playful and to keep up with what matters the most in life.

I thought you might enjoy the Clocks by Coldplay: http://youtu.be/XbI1FpLd4Vk

As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your holiday needs, whether it will decorating, designing, or remodeling. Let me know by leaving your name down below, in which area you would like me to help you. Ciao,
Valentina
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 on consultation and produces design concepts for remodeling, upgrading, new homes, décor restyling and home fashion. “Vogue Italy” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15.

She is the author of three books available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Elegance | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

24 Jul 2010 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #Elegance, #HomeDecor, #HomeFashion, #HomePersonalStyle, #HomeStyle, Avaliving

In a world of an exulted cult of the appearances, people tend to live in vanity, exaggerations and in the desire to impress others at all costs. Often people’s aim is to overdo and to over say, not only in fashion but in every expression of life.

Elegance is not showy. Elegance is style, awareness, and moderation.
Elegance is a balanced mix of good taste and precise choices. It translates in the right search for substance and attention to details. Elegance is sober and sobriety is elegant. Both are pleasing and comfortable, functional and beautiful.
Sobriety is not a sacrifice. I would describe it as the ability to choose only what is needed, especially when it comes to fashion as an interpretation of self, other than home fashion.

Some people think elegance is a gift and others think it is an innate talent. It could be somewhat true. There are people who know how to express and communicate with their look better than others. On the other hand, nobody is condemned to be vulgar, bulky and annoying, or just trust his/her own instinct. Elegance, sobriety, and simplicity are all things we can learn and cultivate and once we learn them, they can simplify our lives.

Einstein said: “To be simple, is to be brilliant” e someone else said: “Simplicity is the key of elegance”. Totally agree, in fact, I am the queen of simplicity.

Style and elegance are not easy to define. Style refers to forms, appearances, and character. Everyone has a style that can be beautiful or not pleasing at all, according to what our eyes project.
Let’s talk about home style, just to take an example. Baroque style is an elegant style, but ancient and not practical for the times we live in. If we mix Baroque style in the simplicity of contemporary furnishing, it can result in a dynamic décor and it will describe a person with a variegated and polyhedral character. But not everybody can make combinations of this sort, well thought out that looks good too.
(Photo Baroque chair below: http://foter.com/explore/baroque-living-room-furniture)

Elegance never goes out of style, that is if we don’t follow trends to the letter.
Another example can be the European fascination with the color black as a screaming trend in kitchen design. Come on! How would you like to eat tasty mussels (black shells) in a pasta specialty served on black plates, with a black drinking glass set, surrounded by black kitchen cabinetry?

As a designer, my goal is to accentuate the personality of the people living in the house I am contracted to design, making sure their spaces serve their needs and have an originality too. My spaces are not made with a cookie cutter. My spaces are timeless, they cannot be recognized as made in 2008 or 1998 and yet I am a person very much projected in the future, but I don’t feel I must follow trends dictated by any industry.
I take only the best part of the trends, the rest I invent it myself and that is “my trend”.

How can you, in a few simple words, explain this concept? Any home can be simply elegant and stylish, I am here just for that. My help is simply available to style your home in a livable elegance.
Please forward this article to someone you think might be interested in reading it, or in receiving the same tips. Comments are welcomed. Thank you.
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As seen on Affluent Living:

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Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer since 1990 and a former Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She blends well fashion and interior in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles. Fashion designing has been the first career choice that made her happy in her own fashion company for fifteen years before settling in the interior designing business. Find her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w