#WallArt | Valentina Expressions

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

From Messy To Sleek | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

27 May 2017 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratedWalls, #MetallicWallFinishes, #WallArt, #WallDécor, #WallDécorSolutions, #WallFauxFinish

I have my theory about Harmony in the home, it doesn’t come from any particular science, only common sense. Three words starting with the letter D will block a good energy: Dust, Dirt and Disorder. Often, I go into homes where the mess is made of bad habits, lack of cleaning knowledge system and lack of organizational skills. As a designer, from time to time, I find myself teaching how to stay organized, how to create a method and good habits that will keep my design visible six months after the renovation is completed. It takes a long time to tech people how to live in clean spaces in order to have a clean state of mind. It takes efforts and disciplines to break out of bad habits. Living in a mess could make your life feel upside down. This picture below says it all and even though this home is not usually this bad, it gives a sense of disordered life. This house is one of those restyling projects that keep growing, it has been a domino effect. In open spaces, the floor is common to all the rooms in the major area of the house, which means, without any doubts, that restyling one room requires restyling the next one, thus getting rid of useless stuff has been one of the main needs to allow the design to flow, to communicate with furniture, colors and finally for harmony to take over.

Back in August 2016, I wrote about this fireplace wall to remodel – https://valentinaexpressions.com/2016/08/09/your-fire-is-an-element-valentina-cirasola-interior-designer – and how I was thinking of changing it from this traditional and anonymous look to a modern and sleek look.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

It finally happened. I choose this metallic look (below), with much of my surprise, it was well received.

(sample wall finish: Gyorgy Sofalvi)

The mess is gone, the room starts to look decent. The new furniture are not there yet and I can’t show the rest of the room. A new stain went on the hardwood floor, which now doesn’t look like a butcher block anymore. Followed a new, modern, LED lighting in the ceiling and the walls have new warm colors. I choose a palette of three colors, tone on tone, from light, medium to dark, which create a beautiful warm rhythm in he room. This living room looks so much larger and inviting and this is the result.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In the next projects, I will convince my next client to get this same metallic finish in different colors, perhaps a Tuscan rustic, a watercolor effect, or even a space effect, as shown below.

©Valentina Cirasola – Tuscan Effect

©Valentina Cirasola – Watercolors

Wall treatments such as these are work of art and nothing else is needed, only a striking piece of furniture, or a super theatrical light. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

I Saw A Zebra At The Bar | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

12 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DebbieBakker, #GameRoom, #KidsRoom, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #WallArt, Illustrations

How would you like to go to someone’s house and see a zebra comfortably standing at the bar having a happy beer in the game room?

I loved this image when I saw it at the art gallery I visited last weekend. I thought the zebra in cowboy clothes is an amusing creature and it would be an interesting décor for a boy’s room. To tell you the truth, I would like to have it as a mural on one of my walls in the kitchen.

Not knowing if the artist Debbie Bakker at http://www.debbiebakker.com produces murals I was prompted to call her and found out. We had a nice conversation over the phone during which she told me a bit about herself and how she decided to become an illustrator.

Her latest achievement was to study art at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, where she had to decide what kind of art field she wanted to land in. Being interested in children books, she decided to become an illustrator. One of her first illustrations was a dinosaur, which one of her sons wished to have when he was young. Pushed by her husband, her children and the beauty of her illustrations, Debbie decided to reproduce her dinosaurs on wall plates and t-shirts that now she sells on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/DebbieBakkerArt Pretty soon Debbie Bakker will produce posters and perhaps after my suggestions even murals.

Pen, ink and watercolors make her illustrations. http://www.debbiebakker.com/illustrations.html
Debbie’s illustrations struck me as kid’s rooms décor. Other than the usual cars, planes and boats for boys, flowers, butterflies and shoes for girls, there is not much on the market for kids’ rooms. I am always on the look out for new ideas and adventures, I am sure if I brought in one of these pictures, any kids would love it on the walls of their room.

Later, taking a better look of her illustrations, I thought there are plenty “young at heart” like me, who like to play with their décor, those people who like to have a house with character, without following any rules, a house not made with cookie cutters that doesn’t resemble everybody’s style. How about the man’s cave as it is called, a billiard room, or a music room illustrated with these life-size animals with human attitude? I can almost hear them gossiping about us humans.

Let me be your chosen designer who can put star-dust in your décor. I can help you with any style. Your comment is appreciated and I will answer you within 24 hours. 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 line and in 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 interviewed on various Blog Talk Radios. Author of three books all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w