M for Mantel | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Wednesday, May 1 2013

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge on the subject of Home.
http://myatozchallenge.com/2012/02/20/welcome-to-my-a-to-z-challenge-2/

Mantel, mantelshelf or mantelpiece are the names used for a type of construction framing the opening of a fireplace and usually covering part of the chimney-breast in a more or less decorative way. It is the focal point of a home and the stage that tells a story.
To display only photographs on a mantel is a bit diminishing for the fireplace itself, since it is an opportunity to make a dreamy display vignette of antique objects found in flea markets, or during traveling. It is a place where colors can have a voice when a monochromatic color dominates the room, or a way to display arts and craft that perhaps you create. Then comes Christmas with endless possibilities and decorating a mantel becomes almost obligatory. In any case a mantel is something to cover, envelop and conceal the black hole of the hearth.

Italian Carrara Marble

Red Iron Stone and Jerusalem Split Face Stone

Italian Carrara Marble and Rosso Verona Marble

Niche over hearth

BHG Outdoor room

Salvage Mantel

Travertine Mantel

Mantels follow the architectural style of the house. I have seen many examples in Gothic, Renaissance, Louis XIV, XV and XVI, Empire, Marie Antoinette and so many more styles, but I think the most popular and pleasing is the Colonial mantel, both in the old and modern style. The Victorian mantel refers to the style created during the long reign of Queen Victoria of United Kingdom, a period stretching from 1837-1901. In Victorian times women sat by the fireplace to read, sipping tea or embroider with women, while men stood by the mantel to talk about important issues with men and various odd objects found their place on the mantel.

Victorian mantels today are standard design with many modern furniture companies and are popular with builders, as this style is linear, not too ornate, but elegant enough to mix with any mélange of décor. In today’s homes, often a huge black plasma T.V. is propped on top of the mantel, disturbing perhaps a beautiful room setting. Not always I win this battle with the youngest clients who like to stick the black monster plasma T.V. over the mantel.  Most people don’t know that when the T.V. is not on, the front black screen is easy concealable with a picture of your liking, remotely controlled to disappear into the T.V. casing made for this purpose. However, I rather see a huge mirror on top of the mantel to reflect the beauty in the room and enjoy the sound of a crackling fire with a book.

If there is no fireplace in the house and you like to create the feeling of it, find an inexpensive mantel at architectural salvage yard and nail it to the wall, as shown in one of my garden photos. Of course, any salvage piece can have a second life as something else and not what was originally intended for. In the bathroom photo, in fact a mantel has been turned into an ornate towel holder, just by adding metal hooks.
Mantels over outdoor fireplaces often will be used to rest your guests drinking glasses.

Get creative with your own mantel vignette, this is an art form.  Anything goes grouped in odd numbers. I am here if you need help, my Skype line is always open. Ciao.
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2013 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul.
She is the author of her book on Colors: Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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Going Up | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Monday, Apr 22 2013

Going Up

►

Sara Rosso at WP came up with the theme UP.  http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/weekly-photo-challenge-up-2
How I can I forget where I grew up and where my roots are so firmly embedded to help me going up?

“You are not going to find it on the floor!” I heard it often from my father. It was his way to teach me to walk proud with my head high.

I wonder often why beautiful architectural details are not at eye level for everybody to enjoy, but up above our heads forcing us to walk with our noses stuck to the sky.
The streets of Italy are an open art class, walking is a real learning experience. Nude statues coexist well with people dressed in the latest fashion. Once in Venice, the windows of my hotel opened onto a beautiful nude of a man sculpted in marble. He was so real, I could see every veins going through his muscles and yet he sat on top of a church looking directly into my window, as sinful as he could possibly appear, almost saying: “I am here, enjoy me!”
Ah, Venice, the only city in the world where pigeons walk, lions fly and sexy men are stones!

In Italy, in one street alone, broken pediments and eyebrows windows, neoclassical and Romanic style, Moorish windows or Baroque style compete for maintaining a place in history and one might wonders what patrician people live there, but often commoners are the lucky ones and don’t even notice it.

Balconies decorate buildings young and old, they are the urban gardens so much sought after today. In reality space in Italy is limited, people live in flats, for centuries balconies have been seen as an escape valve from the four walls surrounding the lives of everyone. Behind those plants, we see, we observe and we keep the secrets of the neighbor’s life unfolding before our eyes.

If ceilings are not made of stones are highly decorated. In modern living often ceilings are the forgotten walls making the room looked unfinished. In Italy we like to eat under art, coves and circular shapes, the geometry of roundness gives vibrations of security and harmony.

In the southern parts of Italy, all the constructions are made with terrace roofs to enjoy eating ‘al fresco’ and soaking the Mediterranean sun without being seen, but in the colder north, the characteristic ‘comignoli’ chimneys line the sky. Many wealthy Californians have embellished their Tuscan style homes with copies of our Italian comignoli and ‘faccioni’ cherub’s faces stuck to walls as garden planters. The sophistication and elegance of those stone faces change any non-descriptive house into a classical villa of the past, however the Italians who are lucky to have an outdoor space, most likely will use walls, beams and stone heaves to dry produce for the winter.

My fashion school in Italy is an ancient building born first as a nunnery, then the state police made it its headquarters until in modern days it became a fashion school. Going up those marble stairs made 400 years ago, warped in the center I felt a great sense of respect towards history. All of us students walked on each side of the stairs to preserve them a little while longer.

I never did find it on the floor, except a few red cents, but mind you, every so often, one must look down. Someone might be paying a visit through the back door when no one is paying attention, as the Diesel advertisement on the wall of Largo Delle Stimmate says “you will eat better”…… I hope to have amused you.  Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2013 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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. Find her books on 

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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F For Furniture – A Movable Thought | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Friday, Feb 1 2013

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge on the subject of HOME

The word furniture comes from the 1570 French word “fournir” (furnish in English). Furniture was the prerogative of the higher levels of society and nobles who lived in castles while the less prosperous sat on benches, stools or on the floor, ate at whatever table available at their disposition and often slept on beds of straw. Furniture had a double purpose: to decorate a room as we intend it today and to be mobile. In fact in many European countries where romantic languages are spoken furniture was also called “mobilia” a Latin word which means mobile. The word is still in use today.

Vacation time of the rich and nobles was like a house moving of today, they took along chairs, tables, trunks and household stuff when they left their castle and went to visit their peers in their castles. Visiting people’s castle was a common custom as today we go on vacation and stay in hotels, except that our hotels are fully furnished and clothes is the only thing we carry around.

Furniture and adornments were meant to convey the wealth of its owner. Rich oak was the preferred wood for container such as trunks and credenza; upholstered chairs in velvet or expensive materials divided rooms elegantly in vignettes; turned legs accented and beautified any boxed furniture; elaborate window treatments kept the cold winter out and gilded and decorated walls lined with expensive art really told the story of how wealthy the family was.

The Dutch were the first to use Turkish rug as table coverings and not as floor covering. They believed furniture was to admire, to use and never to crowd a room, in that it would detract the light and the spirit within. However their reason might have been a more practical one. Dutch people scrubbed and cleaned their homes every day and when entering the house, took their shoes off on the unfurnished and very bare first floor, which was considered an extension of the street. With slippers on their feet, they entered the livable home on the second floor. However, the cleanliness of their homes did not reflect the cleanliness of their bodies. One would think that the same people who scrubbed, cleaned and shined their homes, would take an exceptional effort to keep up with personal care and hygiene as well, but that was not the case. Houses did not have a room for bathing and the multiple layers of clothing that kept them warm during the hard winter months, discouraged bathing and exposure to fresh air: “the bark stays better on the trunk”.

Strangely enough, not much as changed since then, except that furniture are less decorated, more functional, respect the rule of ergonomics, often are very technological with more than one function and we don’t take them on our vacations. In decorating, we like to reproduce past styles to feel a connection to history. The Dutch four-post bed is still in use today, as are alcoves and banquette seating under windows. Family portraits and various art pieces still line our decorated walls. Entering someone’s home it’s hard to remain indifferent one way or the other. Furniture will immediately communicate the status symbol or non-status of the owner and the style will speak about the owner’s personality.

As for cleanliness, I wonder often if people have learned anything or if technology has even helped. It’s not uncommon for me, being a designer, to go into a house for the first time and find a royal mess and stale air. The answer is to be found in the question: “what do people do with their time?”. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2013 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. She is well-known for designing custom furniture. She cares to make spacious and functional pieces, but she doesn’t forget to introduce the element of surprise, sinuous lines, attractive shapes and color in the style fit for each of her special clients.
She is the author of three books all available on

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Friday, Jan 25 2013

I remembered when I lived in Naples, Italy, the metro line that crossed Via Toledo was a dirty place and unpleasant to travelers. It was confusing, noisy and nothing to look at while in transit down in the gut of the earth.
Construction works was always going on and always stopped by delays and lack of funds. The earthquake of the early 1980 struck causing lot of damages and loss of lives, the work had to be stopped again and plans revised to address all the safety issues that could occur in future earthquakes.

(All photos by Andrea Resmini)

Today, it seems the Spanish Bourbons have arrived to dominate Naples again. The new Toledo Metro Station is a jewel of art and functionality by the hand of Catalan Architect Oscar Tusquets Blanca. He designed the new station with art and sea in mind.
The area feels like an underground museum, San Gennaro, the much-loved protector of Naples leads all the classical mythological figures. Going deeper in the belly of the earth, one feels enveloped by blue Tyrrhenian Sea, but it’s an illusion of tile work, the colors become brighter leaving behind the ochre and earth tones.

Beyond the entry at Via Toledo, a bustling shopping street named after Spanish Viceroy of Naples Pedro Alvares de Toledo (1532 – 1552), one can admire the walls covered with Bisazza Mosaics giving the perception of being underwater. The feeling is very pleasant and calming, hoping it will quiet some agitated souls accustomed to the loud living of the Spanish Quarters (area of the city built for the Spanish troops in the 16th century), which is the other side of the station that will be completed by next February 2013.
The Toledo station opened last September 2012, but the renovation is not finished yet. It will take five or more years to complete the line from Piscinola to Capodichino Airport. This is a work in progress of beauty and modernism involving global architects, designers, artists and craftsmen, all with the same goal in mind:  to keep Naples the open art exhibit that has always been since the Spanish Bourbons and beyond. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2013 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Valentina’s design work has been influenced by Classicism and stylish, timeless designs. 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://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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A Trip Not To Forget | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Friday, Nov 16 2012

Here they come, they are landing in a country of warm people, tasty food and free thinkers. The palm trees are showing their majestic leave tops to the people in the plane and the flat land with white terrace roofs might give the impression that my travelers have taken the wrong plane to Africa, but not at all.

The participants to my trips are approaching the foamy coastline of the blue-green Adriatic Sea, where the waves make embroideries with the sky, the air is salty, where the summer heat is sultry and humid, women exude sexuality from every pores and well…the rest of the people are as laid back as in a tropical island.

They have landed in Puglia, a southern region in the East Coast of Italy and this is the view and the perception the participants to my trips will receive when they will land in Bari airport, the largest city in the South. My team and myself will greet them with smiles. You see, each trip will have a theme and will be based on each book I have written.

My second book: “Sins Of A Queen” – just to talk about one of the trip’s themes, gave me the inspiration to take my guests into a lavish living while they are in Italy and experience incredible treatments with the most natural products from this land of olives, fruits and grains. This trip will be called: Let’s Travel Into The Sinful Luxury Of A Queen. Watch the video of the area we will visit.

The Lungomare of Bari, a romantic promenade on the Adriatic Sea will be waiting for us to drive along in vintage cars, dressed in vintage clothes, while soaking the fresh sea salt air, enjoying the view and a “gelato affogato” (literally ice cream drowned in a secret spirit). The promenade stretches to Monopoli and Polignano, two quaint towns perched on the cliffs of the Adriatic Sea. We might reach them in vintage cars, or we might take a boat ride coast-to-coast ending for dinner in a fabulous restaurant built-in the cave on the cliff. It will be magical! Rudolph Valentino is on our route to the stalagmites and stalactites caves, thus we will stop in Castellaneta to visit the museum dedicated to the actor. Did you know Valentino was born in Hollywood as an actor, but his native town was Castellaneta, in Puglia? It was an agricultural and unknown town even to the rest of Italy. He died August 23, 1926 and only a few years ago, his town councils finally dedicated him a statue and a museum.

The Castle in Gioia del Colle will disclose us the intricate romance between Bianca Lancia and Emperor Frederick II, which as most passionate stories, ended up in a tragedy.

In between visits to the most exquisite Baroque architecture, Valentino’s museum and other cultural events, I have planned some fun shopping in local markets for the latest fashion clothes/accessories, where my guests can buy affordably priced items. We will also pay visits to local artists’ shops, where they produce one-of-a-kind high-class handbags, gold jewelry, custom jewelry, or stunning glass lighting, furniture and home accessories. My function as a designer is also to show all the beauty Italian artists are still creating for the world.

Food and wine will also play a large role. Going to Puglia and not enjoying the earthy food, as locals do, would be a crime. It will not be a common restaurant eating, I have used my fantasy. We will have one dinner inside of dismissed wood barrels of wine, where you can still smell the must of wine  impregnated in the wood; on another day, an opera singer will delight our dinner in a different place; we might have a rustic picnic in the country with a donkey ride, or we might cook with a local chef in the kitchen of our farmhouse where we will stay.

How about a massage with the green-gold of the land: olive oil?

My three trips’ aim is to inform and entertain and certainly allow the guests to relax while in Italy with unforgettable experiences. My trips will not be trips in a bus loaded with tourists, packing and unpacking every day and make stops to bathrooms. My goal along with my Italian team’s goal is to take care of our guests, giving them personal attention, while we are still together in a group setting. I want to show a side of Italy not known to tourists, show the heart of Italian life, the immediacy of every day living with a lot of fantasy. The itinerary is outlined, the rooms, of course, will be reserved in advance, but the schedule will be free-flowing, not a severe schedule to respect with a timetable. This is not a tour de force. Our goal is to allow our guests to experience a wheel of emotions they don’t even know exist. We want them to never forget the warmth and hospitality of Puglia people and create a relationship with our travelers for the long haul.

Let’s Travel Into The Sinful Luxury Of A Queen - April 15-25, 2013  duration 10 days, 9 nights and everything included will be $2,800. Plane tickets and insurance are not included.
For further information, please contact me by email, or connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valentinadesigns
I will keep sending various information from now to March 2013 until closing date. Stay tuned.

Just remember, this is not a tour de force, but a trip to realize how short life is and to learn how to enjoy it. This experience will change you! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is a trained
 Interior Designer
 in business since 1990. The latest addition to her design business is the organization of three trips a year to Italy based on her books, with the intention of showing Italy with the eyes of a designer born in those parts and not the commercial Italy of the mass tourism. Valentina will guide the tours through art, architecture, food, shopping and special adventures organized for people who want to live it up! Check out her books on:

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Sunday, Nov 4 2012

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This week theme is perfect for me. The geometry of the Italian architecture has conquered the heart of the world.
In a chaotic country and yet vibrant and artistic as Italy, there is order, tranquility and harmony in all the buildings. They stand erect as a live testimony, that regardless of the state of the economy, or passing of different governments, dictatorship, wars and dominators, Italy has always offered the best examples of beauty. Triangle and semi-circle pediments on top of windows, square top entries and round top entries share the same building façade in a neo-classical order, which is as new today as it was when it was first invented. Colonnades and arcades are perfect to walk under and stay dry for window-shopping, or carrying on a normal day, while outside is raining.

Brunelleschi’s dome, or Palladio style villas have been reproduced everywhere in the world and there has not been yet another architect able to rethink these architectural features. A Dome has been a dome since the Renaissance time; arches have been arches ever since Romans built the first one with the keystone in the center. The White House is one of the many examples of a Palladian villa scattered in the world.

Repetition is the Italian secret to everything. Once we find or create something beautiful, we will repeat it to increase the sensory pleasure. Beautiful quarried stones cover columns, floors and walls of churches, palaces, offices, villas and even simple homes. We walk on luxury every day and we die in luxury carrying with us, on our tombstones, the trait of elegance that distinguishes this small, forever troubled country.

Well, since I come from there, I can proudly say that I can design a mosaic stone floor for any house, small or big. I will be delighted to help designing yours. Ciao,
Valentina

 http://www.Valentinadesigns.com  

http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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.
Author of three books all available on

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9

Barnes&Nobles:http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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Sunday Post: Reflection | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Friday, Sep 7 2012

In my world of design, Reflections are very important, as they can make or break a perfect space.
The placement of objects must communicate with all the elements in the space and be in harmony with the people living in a given space.
Mirrors play a large role in our life, they are supposed to tell the truth about our image and appearance, giving the opportunity to fix whatever is necessary.
Mirrors also reflect beauty and art on its own. The image reflected is often repeated to infinite, especially if the mirror is placed across a window or a light source.

Be careful where you place mirrors in the house, you don’t want to reflect an unpleasant view, a mess, or an habitually dirty home. Be creative.
This is my version of Reflection for Jakesprinter weekly photo competition.
Now, go around your home and pay attention to what your mirrors reflect. Love to hear if you like or not the reflected images you see. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com/
http://valentinaexpressions.com/

Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She is the forthcoming author of her book on Colors: Red-A Voyage Into Colors, which will be released by the end of September 2012. Check her books on

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

18 Responses »

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Sunday, Sep 2 2012

San Francisco is a musical city, quaint, vibrant and modern to a point. The colorful Victorian houses, called ‘Painted Ladies’, recall the ‘Belle Époque’ and the gold rush of the 1800’s. The city distinguishes itself from the rest of the American cities in a sort of quirky way. Everything and anything goes on in San Francisco, from nudity, to impromptu art, from traditional cultural parades to extravagant theatre plays.

The fog rolls in at around 5:00pm, changing the free-spirit atmosphere into a cold and gloomy city. San Franciscans say is magical and feel the mysticism of this grey cotton enveloping the city. Perhaps because San Francisco forms one the points of the esoteric, magic triangle of the world: Turin in Italy, San Francisco in California and Sydney in Australia. I really don’t like the fog, it makes me really sad and damp in the bones.

I like the other face of the city, its colorful houses and colorful people with all their creative arts. One day on a Sunday, walking around the pears, I stumbled in a group of students from the California Film & TV Acting School, playing their mimics roles in the streets.

Their costumes, as you can see from the photographs, are not designed theatre costumes, but their own clothes put together haphazardly. They are colorful, show inventive and suit the actors in their free street roles. The students want to show to the public how cleverly they can stand in one pose without moving for at least 15 minutes, before changing to next pose. Mimicking is not an easy acting to do, but these kids were superb in their free spirit and didn’t care of the passerby. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com/

Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She is the forthcoming author of the book on colors: Red-A Voyage Into Colors, which will be released by the end of September 2012. Check out her two books on

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

12 Responses »

 

Musical Chairs | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Thursday, Jul 12 2012

I was in a deep sleep; nothing was going to disturb that peaceful phase of my rest. Suddenly I heard a sweet melody coming from far away, it was getting closer and closer, finally stopped right in front of my eyes with a curious display of chairs dancing on a music scale, as if the chairs were notes out of a music sheet. I followed the music, smiled and continued dreaming.

That was many moons ago, I was a student in the interior design university. The day after that dream, my class was schedule to have a test on History of Furniture, which included the study of chair styles in each period of history and each period with its sub categories of every possible rulers or short-lived kings and queens and their short-lived customs. It was a load of information I had to retain and the pressure of doing well was high, at least it was for me, as up to that moment, I had received a few high honors already.

I saw dancing in front of me Greek and Roman style, Savonarola chair, Chippendale, Queen Ann, cabriolet legs, Louis XV-XVI and all the Louis, freezes and linen fold, Empire style, Liberty Style, Modernism and post- modern style, Asian style, Italian and Venetian style, French Bergères, fauteuils, racamier, fainting chairs, gossip chairs and slipper chairs, Art Déco and Belle époque style…..blimey, I am out of breath just thinking about it.
That tune was Tea For Two by Nat King Cole played in two versions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCEcDhF2LSo&feature=related

That pleasant and sweet dream remained in my memory. Later in the years I learned one simple thing about chairs, their hidden meaning is POWER. A chair puts in focus leadership, desire of emerging, acquiring or abusing power. At the time my desire was to become the best home designer known and be empowered with knowledge that would help people improve their life with better spaces, colors, furniture and life style.

The chair was invented to distinguish humans from animals, but mainly to distinguish the higher strata of society from the plebs and had a resemblance to thrones than chairs. The rest of the people and servants either sat on their knees (as we still see in Oriental cultures), on stones, or on stools and benches without a back.

The word chair in Greek (the base of all Romantic languages) translates in Kathedra. In Latin the word chair translates in Cathedra as the bishop chair in the cathedral and the word Cattedra in Italian translates in desk from which to teach, thus requiring a chair to sit down and turn the setting into a place of authority.

The expression he/she has arrived often refers to someone who occupies a chair of importance in society, in a political career, as a President of a company, the chair of a University Dean, or the throne of a modern King and Queen, just to name a few. The Pope sits on a beautiful gilded chair.

To dream of being sited on a chair like a throne means the inner self is looking for an exasperated search for power while losing the grip on reality. To dream of being sited in an enveloping chair means to be surrounded by a suffocating female figure, or suffocating family. Interesting? Practically every piece of furniture in dreams has a particular meaning, which always refers to our inner self, searching for something, or emphasizing certain aspects of the dreamer’s character.

Humans first crawled, then learned to walk, soon after felt the need to sit down and invented the chair. The concept of comfort was not always present in the mind of the chair’s inventors and builders, their concern was to produce chairs fit for power. Today, with the long hours all of us spend at the computer we need to think in term of ergonomics postures and sit on chairs that are going to protect our spine and knees. Comfort is of the utmost importance, style matters, price doesn’t. Your back supports your life, nourish it as you nourish your brain.
Like what you read? Sharing is caring. Pass it along to someone who’d benefit. Ciao,
Valentina

Design Website: http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
Books Website: http://valentinaexpressions.com/

Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Her new book on Colors is almost ready to be published. Stay tuned for RED-A Voyage Into Colors.

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

 

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The Power Of An Idea | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Wednesday, May 2 2012

Not too long ago I was 14 years young and I found myself with a bunch of middle school kids going to visit the Pinacoteca, a large museum of my hometown in Bari, Italy. We were somewhat well-mannered kids, but the yearly school trip in a bus, guided by a couple of teachers was more an excuse to be silly for one day and an escape from everyday routine sitting at a school desk than a time to learn something in the fields of life.

The Pinacoteca is a large neo-classical building with large open spaces and so much art on the walls we had never seen before, of course we were only thirteen and fourteen years of age. Each art piece amused us in some ways or another while teachers were making efforts in keeping us attentive to their explanations and comments on the beautiful art pieces. We arrived in front of Lucio Fontana’s paintings and we were abruptly silenced at the view of sliced up canvases, at least that’s what we thought they were.

The Argentine-Italian artist was well-known in Europe for his series of slashed monochrome paintings. Sometimes he embellished the slashed canvases with costume jewelry and glitters. Lucio Fontana, lived between 1899–1968. His art was seen a mixture of avant-garde art under Italian fascism and kitsch painting of the postwar economic miracle. “Fontana attacked the idealism of twentieth-century art by marrying modernist aesthetics to industrialized mass culture” said art critic Anthony White. His art was a reflection of his time and it was perhaps the beginning of pop art.

Lucio Fontana started developing the idea of space-oriented art, renouncing the usage of traditional materials and painting objects with fluorescent colors in dark rooms illuminated by ultraviolet light.

The perforated canvasses marked the starting of a new “Concetto Spaziale” Spatial Concept and did not come until the beginning of 1950. It was this idea that really left a mark in the art world.
Today Fontana’s works can be found in the permanent collections of more than one hundred museums around the world.

Why did I tell this story? I recalled asking one of my teachers on that field trip to the Pinacoteca, if Fontana’s art was really to be considered art. With all my disbelief, I thought anybody could have taken the knife and slash the canvasses. I thought art was supposed to be an extension of what is in our mind, not just an act of a “crazy moment”.
I said to my teacher that I could have done just the same and make a ton of money like him. She responded by saying: “Yes, you could have done the same, but he had the idea first!”

My teacher’s answer was simple, but powerful and stayed with me my entire life. Never underestimate the power of your idea, regardless of how big or small it might be. Ciao,
Valentina

 

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Copyright © 2012 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive art. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She is the forthcoming author of her book on Colors: Red-A Voyage Into Colors, which will be released very soon. Check out her books on

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