#ValentinaBookOnColors | Valentina Expressions

A New Book Is On The Horizon | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

08 Oct 2019 5 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #BooksByValentinaCirasola, #ColorTalk, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaBookOnColors, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

RED-A Voyage Into Colors

The second version of my book on the subject of colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors (2019) will be republished and on the market very soon.

My previous publisher with whom I published the first version of this book in 2012 has asked me to raise his earning percentage on my sales to 50%. This is an absurd request, it would double the price of the book, making it unsellable. I refused to comply and as a result of it, the book was made “temporarily not available” on Amazon for many months.
I got discouraged for a while and tried to find a solution to return my book back on the market quickly, but books are not fritters and life gets in the way.

Today, with all the online opportunities, I thought it would be better to republish it on my own, as I have done already with a couple of books. I decided to divorce my previous publisher and place the ball in my court. I have worked on the second edition of ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors for a few months, added better information, better photographs, and eliminated what was not current anymore.

The first version was a hardcover, 135 pages, filled with my photographs. I thought of reducing the number of photos to lower the price, but then I remembered how hard it was to read a couple of books by other authors on the subject of colors and no photos to stop and ponder. It was hard to take. My new second version of this book will be softcover, smaller in size, with almost the same amount of pages and still filled with my photos. It will be available in paper format, and shortly after its publication will be available also as a Kindle and audio versions.

Right now, I am finishing up a few details, it is a matter of a few days and the new version will be out. Stay tuned.
“Creativity is the greatest form of rebellion.”

Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books so far, a blogger of many years and a storyteller. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. A couple of years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host and she produces shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Find Valentina Design Universe TV here: https://valentinadesignuniverse.com
Get a copy of her books here:
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Colors Around Food | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 Aug 2018 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorsandFood, #ReastaurantColors, #RestaurantDesigns, #ValentinaBookOnColors, #WallArt

Doing colors for a restaurant is not the same as doing colors for the home. A restaurant is a place people spend money to eat, want to be jovial, want to be treated right and feel good in the environment they are paying for.
Colors must be inviting, pleasant, easy on the eye and meet everybody’s taste. In the home we can get away with blue and grey, not in a restaurant, unless the décor of the restaurant is done purposely in high-tech, contemporary, with exposed steel beams, glass, then it calls for cool industrial colors. If that is the case, lighting will be extraordinary to counter balance the office-type colors.

If food is good but people leave reviews about the lack of ambience, most likely it has to do with colors and décor. It was the case of this restaurant. The owner painted walls/ceiling grey and black, added black tables and grey chairs thinking the modern, clean look, linear design would be suiting to people, but the space originally was not planned to be an industrial style. Apparently, their customers did not like it a bit, thus the owner called me, the Queen of colors, to find solutions for this place that looks more an office for geeks, than a restaurant.

The first thing I want to git rid of is the black fascia at the ceiling line, it makes the place really heavy like a hood. I substituted it with a view of a street lined up with restaurants scene. At least it is a colorful and happy scene, people sitting across from that wall, will have something interesting to look at, instead of a black wall.

Colors of the entire establishment will change to sunny colors. I think eating in a public place is an experience that engages all the senses, not just the papillæ buds. One wants to look at beautiful décor, soak in the ambience to feel relaxed, enjoy the fire if there is one, taste wines that will encourage conversation, be under a beautiful lighting that enhances the food and gives a glow to people’s faces. A successful restaurant must think of all these elements as one more thing to offer with good food. Why people would spend money to go out to eat, if the restaurant is less attractive than the ambience at home?

Below is the previous black wall, now decorated with a scene on panel printed digitally.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

This is the previous black wall and grey ceiling as it was.

These are the colors I have chosen, with other décor to beautify the place. The look I am trying to achieve is a shimmering effect of seeing and not seeing through mirrors and transparencies. I want mirrors on the walls with colorful mosaic frames. Illuminated glass turtle for a funky décor, will appear as if the turtles are walking the walls. Travertino stacked stones and glass blocks will decorate an area to hide workers in the kitchen. Wood panels (in my drawing) with mirror insets will divide a few areas in the dining room. The holes with the mirrors are large, medium, small for a playful game and will reflect various areas and not just faces.

The work will be done in stages, due to the foot traffic the restaurant has every day. I hope to see the work finished in no time. 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 on-line design consultations through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge anywhere in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Marrying Painted Furniture | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

12 Feb 2013 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColoredFurniture, #ColorTheory, #DecoratingTips, #EcoFriendlyDesigns, #FurnitureCoordination, #FurnitureDesigns, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaBookOnColors

You have a tired piece of furniture, you like it so much, perhaps it has been in the family for a long time or you just care for the environment and don’t want to dispose of it. The solution is to repaint it.

It is fun to let the imagination run free when repainting furniture. You are imagining the new piece in a particular corner, you found the right color or pattern you like so much and get equipped with all that is needed to do the paint job, but then you might realize that particular color or pattern will not fit with the décor of your room. Before you get innamorate of a certain design, the first think to do is to ask yourself if color and pattern will go with your room décor. When you are absolutely sure, purchase all the material needed. A couple of times it happened to me. I was totally taken by a certain design that I ended up changing the rest of the room to fit the painted piece.

Green Tones with a touch of Wine

Mixed Tones

Golden Tones with a touch of Brown

Tropical

Mixed Colors

Black & White with a touch of RED

If you are restyling a room based on the new color of your painted furniture, remember that nothing transforms a room better than colors do. Colors in nature work just as you see them, bring them in the room, they will work just as good. A room exposed to South can take bold and rich colors on walls, furniture and accessories. For rooms exposed to North, you might want to use bold colors only in accessories.
Take one or two colors from your painted furniture and use them as your color scheme for the room. Then the fun part comes. Select one color that doesn’t even exist in your painted furniture piece and make it the accent color to help the room stand out. Note what I did in my color schemes:

First colors scheme: The green tones came from the green lines of the dresser, by introducing a raspberry color the room become vibrant. Although green is a calming color, it might not be suitable for everyone, especially for those people who have a low value skin tone.

Second colors scheme: the grounding color is black found in the chair legs, coffee table and credenza top. In the next slide, notice how the same piece of furniture looks so different with different colors around.

Third color scheme: I picked up the brownish tones from the same credenza with diamond designs, changing the feeling of the room completely. Have you noticed the rug has the same diamond pattern of the credenza? It just happened by chance.

Fourth color scheme: I chose to play with the brown tone of the colorful chest of drawers. The yellow in the drawers was my inspiration for a yellow tone floral chair. Floral chairs offer many colors to mix and match other chairs in solid colors.

Fifth color scheme: painted golden and silver stripes characterize this dresser drawer, to which anything can be matched. I chose the golden tones, bright, warm colors and added texture with the accessories. The feel is sunny and natural.

Sixth color scheme: In alternative to paint a piece of furniture, you might want to consider covering that piece with faux leather, or wallpaper. Color black grounds a room, but also, as a graphic color, lends itself to many color combinations from classical to modern.

Today’ s wise designer must know how to romance a room and how to dance around client’s budget.

If a client needs guidance in painting a piece of furniture that can say “I am an original” , I will gladly do that, it is part of my services and color is my expertise. 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. She is the author of three books, the latest is a book on colors RED-A Voyage Into Colors. Find them on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Set The Mood With Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

07 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ColorfulHomes, #DecoratingWithColors, #HomeInteriorsColors, #ValentinaBookOnColors, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, Avaliving

“Let me out of the grays and beiges please!” My client was screaming.
She managed a computer software company. For 10-12 hours a day she lived in a boring environment. She was longing to see a colorful home upon her return in her cocoon to balance her day. She requested bold colors and being single, she only had to please herself. As a designer many times defined “a colorist” I was in my perfect spot with this client.

To really understand her needs, I went through a long list of questions to find the right colors for her personality and her life style. We all know colors are easy for designers, but not for all the clients. Sometimes a color they like very much might not be of their liking anymore after the house is painted.
Colors can either break or make a space and I did not want the result to be a failure.

This client liked the warm and vibrant colors of the buildings in Italy. She had never been to Italy, but saw enough photographs and films to make her dream about it. Good enough, I am Italian born, I know what she wants exactly, so I dared. She was astonished about all the color palettes I could come up, but not overwhelmed. In all the palettes I coupled cold colors with warm colors and added some texture samples for the areas of her liking. She chose to texturize kitchen walls and lightly antiquing the green color areas of the family/living room.

Living View From Upstairs Photo ©Valentina Cirasola

She studied the color palettes for a few days, then we passed to the action: painting! The house came alive from the white walls you see here to all the colors. Emphasizing many architectural features was also my goal, in fact they looked so much better with the games of colors playing with each others.

I recall the painter singing while he was working, he really liked to apply those vibrant colors. The client was so happy and enjoyed the colors for a few years until her work moved her to another city and she was compelled to sell the house.

Now you would think it is hard to sell a house with all those colors. I must admit that it is not true. Selling homes painted in beige and neutral colors might take forever. The boring homes dressed in beige, must offer other strong features in order to sell fast, such as price, location, square footage etc. But when the market is soft, economy is not so friendly, location is not the best of the best, is easier to sell homes with colors. Paint the walls in soft yellow and the front door in a golden tone of yellow or dark red and the house will sell immediately.
People feel attracted towards yellow because is the color of the sun and towards red because is the color of many food. These are inviting colors and mean family.

After this house was posted for sale, it sold in three days, just because of the interior colors. The next buyers told me later that everyday “she baths in colors”.

Let me know if I can do the same for you. I offer design consultations on-line. Leave your name and email in the box below, so I can give you details on how to contact me and I love to hear your comments too, thank you.

Avaliving is a site for designer helping consumers. My colorful project was selected to be featured for one week Feb.7-Feb.14, 2011 among many beautiful projects of other designers. It is an honor to be part of Avaliving’s community. Thank you Ava for featuring my project again and to the wonderful team who puts everything together. 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 interiors and colors the world of her clients. She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual. ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors is her third book, now in the making and coming soon. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w