Renaissance Canopy Bed | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Tuesday, Sep 27 2011

It is a pleasant surprise to start the week with a project featured on Avaliving.
Thank you Avaliving for choosing my projects among all the very talented designers hosted on this site. Avaliving is a site for experienced designers who want to showcase their work to consumers and help them decorating or restyling their homes through on-line consultations.
This week’s theme was a timeless canopy bed. I presented my Renaissance Canopy Bed, which I designed for a teenager who enjoyed the room until it was time to leave the nest to go to college. This is still her room when she returns home and she is still enjoying the timeless décor.

Four-poster beds became very popular around the early 1600. They usually had side curtains, which afforded a great measure of warmth, as well as privacy to their occupants, although personal privacy concept was taking off as an idea, it was relatively unimportant at that time. Small kids still slept in the same room with the parents, as they did in the Middle Age time, while the older kids slept in one room all together. A desire for a greater measure of privacy was evidenced by the separation of the masters from their servants, who usually had beds in the smaller adjacent rooms, or near the kitchen.

Furniture was to be admired and to convey the wealth of its owners, but the primary function was to be used, just like today. Tables, chairs, containers furniture such as credenza and cupboards, curtained four-poster beds were of oak or walnut with elegantly turned legs and often hand painted with the application of gold or silver foil. Canopy beds, when they were very ornate, found their place in the middle of the bedroom as a focal point just to add style and character, or against the largest wall in the bedroom.

Today we have kept the same custom. In my room featured on Avaliving (top photo) the canopy bed takes the center stage in a very colorful room. It was custom designed accordingly to the girl’s taste. The frame at the feet of the bed was hand-painted on wood in the style of a Renaissance bucolic theme. A local metal worker, who executed my design, forged the metal posts beautifully. (BH&G photos)
http://www.valentinadesigns.com/ResidentialProjects/PaloAlto/PaloAltoGirlRoom.html

A canopy bed can fit in any style décor, even in a contemporary style with straight lines, dark wood and neutral colors.
I like the spicy colors in this photo (below). I find it very relaxing and vibrant.
Vintage pillows on the coral velvet settee that sits at the base of this bed bring a splash of colors, while bringing life to a neutral color bedroom.

Have fun with a canopy bed, take inspiration from the past, or look around in stores to adapt elements that might be used for something else and make it your own. Not everything we see is meant to have one function only.

As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your needs, whether it will be decorating, designing, or remodeling. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

A Design Success Story Video:
http://youtu.be/pOKI6LkOkkA

Copyright © 2011 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.
She is also the author of two books. Visit her books website: http://valentinaexpressions.com

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

 

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Diva, Complacent, Or Expert Designer? | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Saturday, Jul 23 2011

It is not very uncommon as a designer to work with overly extravagant people, or people who like all the possible décor photographed in magazines, regardless if it fits their personality or not.

What if one day a designer is facing a client’s request to cover the entire floor of a large home with leopard print wall-to-wall carpet? The designer’s blood pressure would go up at once.

This absurd request after about three weeks would push people living in the house to either hide in a closet to avoid contact with that sort of carpet, or throw themselves in the pool. Too much to look at!

But the client likes that idea and nothing is going to take her away from that print.
A skillful designer should know how to compromise and stir the client toward the right decision.
The overly extravagant leopard print carpet will take on a stunning effect if used in small quantity to exalt the beauty of an area that might not have any interest. For example, one of those areas could be a short and straight staircase that connects to an empty corridor upstairs.

Reviewing the design list, the client might come up with the idea of covering all the walls with various faux finishes and murals in each space. In her wish list there is Venetian plaster, old world textured walls, each ceiling painted in Renaissance scene with cherubs, tropical view, Tuscan view, garden climbing plants and on and on. Then there will be a mixture of metal finishes and the story doesn’t finish here. Does it sound like another pain to cure? A skillful designer likes to grab these challenges and turn them into doable ideas.

Another issue to consider is the large open space of the main floor. That is where the client wants to fit dining, living, family, kitchen, foyer, library, painting room, did I forget anything?
Any skillful designer will find a common denominator that will work seamlessly in this large open space where each area will turn into an activity space. To assure a great success the common denominator would be either colors, textures, or style of décor.

The chosen texture on the wall around the staircase has faint blue lines in it. This the perfect place to hang a hand blown Venetian chandelier with a blue tone in the clear glass.

Venetian style and blue tone are two key words to start the sequence of many selections.

Let’s bring some bluish-purple tones into the family room. The fireplace surrounding area gets painted in purple and some of the seating are accented in bluish-purple velvet fabric.
Large windows in the family room allow the view of the lush vegetation in the garden.
Why not bringing some of that green into the furnishing of the family room? Bluish and green are both in cool spectrum of colors.

A perfect green antique Venetian vetrine will fill a corner and some of the seating with a faint green geometric fabrics will echo that lush vegetation outside.

As you see Venetian is the key word that is giving a load of ideas. Embracing but not closing the family room with two heavy columns of Rosso Verona marble is just a perfect accent, along with a couple of red velvet side chairs, while a representation of climbing vines in the sky gives the ceiling an ethereal feeling that everything is OK.

This beautiful home has been featured on Avaliving for the entire week July 18-25, 2011 and will be in my design show series I am filming for an Italian T.V. station in Italy, called California Living.

Is your designer a pushy diva, the type of person to decorate your home only with what she/he likes? Will she/he give you everything you want, regardless if it fits or not just to keep you happy?
Perhaps you should think of hiring one designer with the magic wand I call expertise, knowledge, good taste and common sense to take you into the design world, allow you to design right along, give you the power to choose and leave you with affordable luxury in a comfortable living.

That’s the description that fits me as a designer. After 21 years of business I can say that without feeling self-congratulatory. Please leave your name down in box, should you need my help. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 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. She is the author of three books available on 

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

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Mirrors And The Opera Singer | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Wednesday, Jul 6 2011

A maze of garden vignettes and strategically placed pathways hide a series of beautiful condos each with its own personality and mostly inhabited by couple without kids, or well to do retired people.
From downstairs in the garden a faint opera music resounds in my ears and as I get closer to the entry door, the voice of Pavarotti singing an aria fills the air.
This is Josephine‘s home, a retired widow, a traveler, artist painter, and a social butterfly, involved with many committees, social gathering and charitable events. Did I forget dancer?

Josephine’s home is a theatre, at the turning of each corner there is a new scene, my eyes keep staying attentive, there is so much to capture. Nothing matches in her décor, but everything fits together well. Amazing how some people try to do the matchy-matchy dance and end up with a boring décor.

Josephine likes to be surrounded by her travel memories, her art, which she paints like a pro and color, lot of colors.

The first thing a visitor will notice is the Italian kitchen made by Scavolini, shiny, Ferrari red, young looking, but Josephine is a vibrant lady in her 70s. She refuses to act her age, to dress for her age, or accepting a tranquil home in all beige tones.

The Ferrari red kitchen hits you like a sudden rush of blood to the brain and all the notes of an Italian ‘farsa’ appear to be written all over it.

The black granite counter is jagged, never seen before, with three Murano glass pendants playing a diagonal line of light over the counter. Josephine doesn’t like “common” and doesn’t like to follow other people’s taste. She has been the perfect client!

Unlike many people, she is at ease with mirrors and likes them scattered in her décor, in unusual places.

She has one mirror artistically placed in a living room over a slipper chair and a Venetian mask peeping from the top. Then I see another mirror in the studio’s bathroom into which a grouping of more Venetian masks reflects from the opposite wall.

It’s like theatre curtains opening up for a new act, I go through a corridor and I spot another mirror, enter a new space and see myself in a French mirror set around some Oriental vases.

A shimmering is also coming out from an umbrella stand full of umbrellas decorated with edges of roses and mirrors. Fun, whimsy, feminine!

Earlier, I said Josephine feels at ease with so many mirrors, but the real reason is that she likes to sing opera’s arias while she is taking care of house business or paper work and watch herself reflected in all the mirrors.

Her home is her stage and her play. She has a young soul.
Amazing woman!

Thank you Avaliving for having selected this project to feature in your theme week:
Designing with mirrors.

As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your needs, whether it will be decorating, designing, or remodeling.

I offer design consultation on-line.
Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U
http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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 available on

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

 

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Heavenly Farmhouse | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Wednesday, Apr 13 2011

What an amazing farmhouse!
The 18th century Masseria Cimino located in the region of Puglia, Italy is an ancient dwelling built a few feet away from the blue Adriatic sea. This elegant dwelling enjoys the vicinity to the archeological site where the Ancient Roman city of Egnatia ruins, 6th century B.C., were discovered. Some of the walls of the farmhouse Cimino are the same walls of the town Egnatia carrying the signs of ancient Rome.

Masseria Cimino as it is called in Italian was the house of workers and occasionally the residence of the landowner. It is set on a rough land surrounded by century old olive trees and vegetable orchards, but inside I found an ensemble of elegant finesse.

A sense of tranquility envelops the bedrooms cocooned in ancient white stucco tuff stones. At night, the flicker of scented candles changes the mood. Every nooks and cranny assumes a warm glow, the walls show the crinkle and the imperfections of the stones, the perfume of lemons comes in the rooms through the soft blow of a Mediterranean wind.

There is a bold simplicity in the interior of this Masseria, many contrasts of texture, wood, wrought iron, brass and wicker become docile next to the softness of pure cotton, linens and organza fabrics. It amazes me to see old pliers, wagon wheels, cow bells, flour sieve, all reminiscence of agriculture, hanging on the walls and how good they feel at home in elegance.

All the interiors are rigorously cream color, even linens, bedding and tablecloths in the restaurant are cream/white colors, the green of the aloe plants scattered around and the rusty metals of the accessories ground the rooms to a perfection. I absolutely adore the heavy thick stone sinks in bathrooms, the old transparent glass bottles with a rubber seal and the washboard in lieu of towel hangers. What a plunge in the past!

This is a true Mediterranean style without pretence, kept natural in the usage of stones and material that have recreated the inviting atmosphere of a slower life of the past and where I tasted the most earthy and satisfying food from the surrounding orchards presented with a beautiful artistry.

In 2001, on the land surrounding the Masseria, the San Domenico Golf Club was built, with spectacular 18 hole professional golf course overlooking the sea.

I will return here with pleasure, to decompress in simplicity.
Lot of care went into the preservation of original architectural features, building materials and colors of this old farmhouse. A great care went into my wellbeing while I was their guest. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 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. She is the author of three books available on
Amazon http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes & Nobles http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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A Versatile Corner | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Friday, Mar 25 2011

As featured on Avaliving, a site for designers directed to consumers. Thank you Avaliving for choosing my project among many others. Offering design consultations on-line any where in the world without leaving my office is a new addition to my business, resulting in a huge savings for the consumers.

The Story:
Any unused corner in the house is a good opportunity to turn it into a chatting, reading, or breakfast area. Sometimes is just enough to have a bistro table, a couple of wrought iron chairs and real flower on the table to create an inviting scene.

My Client had an empty corner in a large room she didn’t know what to do with it, especially because the room was a mismatch of eclectic furniture.
My goal was to create an “out of the ordinary” corner, a bit on the Bohemian French style and create vignettes in the rest of her large room that would communicate with each others while keeping each its own identity.

Each vignette would offer a certain activity: a game area, a reading area near a built-in bookshelf, a T.V. area with comfortable divans and club chairs and a conversation area.

I wanted the transformation of the space to be cohesive with these activities, I wanted to be comfortable for all the family members of all ages (family made of many women and a husband) and harmonious with all the shapes and colors.
The Client wanted to keep the majority of the mismatched furniture. That was my challenge! Some of them remained in the large room and some got relocated in other rooms. Floating furniture is something I do when I am engaged to stage a home for sale.

My inspiration for the breakfast corner came from a couple of pictures I have in my library, one of which, a 1940 Hotel, particularly struck my fancy.
The room came out a colorful one, a bit nostalgic and very Bohemian in the style of romantic French. The mood is a combination of comfortable, feminine, and quirky. To some of the painted furniture I added custom jewelery as door knobs.

Colors had to be vibrant! Plum, Chartreuse and golden beige, warm and cold palette always result in a playful role.

The unused corner turned out to be a versatile corner, breakfast in the morning, reading or music listening in the evening, extra seating when there is company. The unused corner is now very busy.

Do you have an unused corner in your home you don’t know what to do with it? Ask me, I have many solutions, even using the same furniture you already own, if they are in good condition. Repurposing something old becomes very new in a different space of the house and in a different light.
Leave your name in the box below and tell me how I can help you. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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 a book author, find her on 

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

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Set The Mood With Colors | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Monday, Feb 7 2011

“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.

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 thing 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

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U
http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

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. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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Sawdust Or Stardust | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Thursday, Jan 27 2011

Spring is almost at our door, it is time to refresh the look of interior spaces and to buy furniture. Those of you who have just finished a home remodeling, after such a big sacrifice and hardship, now is the moment to make the new areas shine, sit back, relax and enjoy the new spaces with comfortable furniture.

Before rushing to furniture stores with a renewed excitement (remember last time you bought furniture?) is important to know the shifts that have occurred in the market with supply and demand, the shift in consumer thinking or choices and to know about imported or locally produced furniture.

The annual world market furniture show at High Point in North Carolina will happen April 2-7, 2011. It is the world runway for home fashions and it happens one month after the New York’s Fashion Week. There you will find an enormous selection of furniture and accessories of all styles and historic periods. The show is overwhelming and super stuffed with beautiful furniture, but all of that will reach stores at some point during the year, so we can all enjoy and finally make a purchase.

This is basically what you need to keep in mind. Decide how much you want to spend and the quality you want in your home, then look at the product you are buying.
The most common furniture are made of melamine material, veneer, laminate, solid wood and a lot more. I will just talk about a few.

The majority of furniture are made of sawdust pushed together with various resins with the exterior surface made of plastic derivates printed and colored as wood. When the resins are not treated at a high temperature (this is an information never disclosed to consumers) they emanate a formaldehyde gas which is carcinogenic and irritating for the lungs. The odor is not pleasant and emission can last many years. To reduce the emission, these kind of furniture are covered with an exterior layer of melamine.

Furniture with veneer and honeycomb: the exterior face has a layer of about one millimeter thick of real wood, the interior is made with a honeycomb structure which doesn’t allow doors and drawers to bow with time. Furniture with veneer exterior are good lasting furniture and priced affordably.

Real wood furniture are the stars of any interiors, they have all the characteristics of elegance, beauty, style, durability and they are pricey. Real wood furniture fall in the category of luxury, but knowing the right ebonist (artistic furniture maker) real wood furniture can be produced locally at a better price than the market.

Let me be your chosen designer who can put star…dust in your décor. I can help you with any style. Put your name in the box, leave a comment and I will answer you within 24 hours. Ciao
Valentina
www.valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U>

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2011 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. She also designes furniture and has been successful in producing them locally with local artists craftsmen. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

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A Fabulous Space For Bacchus | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Wednesday, Dec 29 2010

Brazilian Cherry and Pecan wood inlay. This is the kitchen among many of my designs that Avaliving selected to feature this week. The area where the refrigerator used to be became a space for wines and an area where to taste cheeses, slicing prosciutto, basically an area where to prepare aperitif. The tall floor to ceiling cabinet hosts sixty bottles of red wines on roll-out shelves. Clients did not really require a temperature controlled room for the red wines, as they use them every day with friends and family visiting often. A small refrigerator for white wines under the granite counter top was necessary to free the space in the family refrigerator, already bursting with food serving two growing boys and the family entertainments.

I strategically placed this wine area between the new door to the dining room and the chef pantry. The supplies such as crackers, toothpicks, dried nuts, fruits and stuff for aperitif are now kept close by the wines and the wines have easy access to the dining area with a new passageway, saving the owner a trip around the wall.
Planning a well-functioning kitchen is not just about designing cabinetry to stuff the walls, but it’s about letting all the spaces communicating with each others and their function.

The “anticato” tile floor I added really suited the clients who are Italians and like me, they don’t care that the floor or counters show a little ring of wines here and there, the signs of a good time and the sign of a lived home. Natural stones will leave with us and will become beautiful when they start showing the sign of life, just like our stones in Europe are living through centuries and everyone admires thier beauty.

 

This wine area was part of the entire kitchen remodeling with family and dining rooms included.
There you have it, another example of how I can change a kitchen from an ugly 1970 cooking area into a contemporary dining, cooking and entertainment showcase. Thanks to Avaliving featuring it this week, more people will have the chance to admire it.

I am available to consult with the wine lovers out there and to design a fabulous space fit for Bacchus. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U
http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

Copyright © 2010 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She has been operating in the USA and Europe since 1990. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos. She is also the author of two Italian regional cookbooks:

Come Mia Nonnna – A Return To Simplicity http://outskirtspress.com/ComeMiaNonna
Sins Of A Queen http://outskirtspress.com/SinsOfAQueen

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

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

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Hot Fireplace | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Tuesday, Dec 7 2010

I am so happy to start my Monday with the news that one of my project is featured on Ava until next Monday, a site where designers can interact and connect with potential clients anywhere in the world without having to travel. Ava’s site is a place where anyone looking for home solutions can find it there and learn from the experts. Every week AvaLiving has a theme and based on that it features the best submitted designs.
This week theme is: Hot Fireplaces.

I presented my project in Foster City, California of an interested fireplace in the living room with attached built-in unit.
This room was part of the entire home remodeling. Clients had no preconceived idea of any style, or decor. They were open to any suggestions. The only request was that the T.V. would not be on top of the mantel, as it is usually seen in most homes. A fireplace is for enjoying fire, while reading a good book, or sipping wines in company of friends. A crackling fire should be a cozy background for watching T.V.

In designing this fireplace I had a few challenges: two windows on both sides of the fireplace and not enough clean walls to place a larger plasma T.V. as the client requested.
The result of my studies of the room was to design a built-in unit attached to the mantel to make it visually looking as one continuous wall. The built-in unit would include a short bookcase, a smaller plasma T.V., storage for DVD/CDs and the fireplace itself.
The fireplace’s stones came from the work done in other areas of the house. Being budget conscious I make sure no material goes to waste, as usual in all my projects. The iron stone was very expensive, it was a good thinking to use the left over for the hearth application. As the professional who is always ready, I shall be prompt and ready to help you with any of your design needs, whether it will be decorating, designing, or remodeling.

I am honored to be featured on AvaLiving, thank you Ava for your support. Life is good at Valentina Interiors & Designs. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com
http://valentinaexpressions.com

Copyright © 2010 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. Check out her books on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9
Barnes&Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/valentina-cirasola

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/2/eC2LVXANG5U

http://www.youtube.com/user/affluentliving#p/u/0/kWuB7I8uJjg

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Custom and Traditions Of An Italian Christmas Dinner | By: Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer Monday, Dec 6 2010

In Italy, in the province of Pavia, Christmas Eve dinner starts with a soup of lasagna mixed with mushrooms sauté in oil and garlic. In old times in Italy newborn babies were wrapped in bands of white cloth to keep their tender legs very straight and prevent them from growing bowed. In the fantasy of the local people this dish represents those bands, it is made in honor of baby Jesus being born on Christmas Eve.

Many specialties follow this first dish: marinated eel, salted stockfish and escargot. The small horns of the escargot allude to discord and disagreement between people, therefore they need to be hidden in the stomach of the guests to properly prepare themselves to a peaceful Christmas, as the legend says.
Other fundamental specialties are risotto cooked in any style, roasted turkey, boiled capon dressed with mustard. In the same province of Pavia, going more toward the inland towns and villages, included in the typical menu of the holidays, after a risotto plate, one finds stuffed onions with meat and focaccia bread.

A must have dessert for the end of the dinner is the Sbrisolona Torte, a typical dessert of that area. It is a crisp and friable torte, which accompanies Torrone, Panettone and Pâte Brisee’ all hand-made specialties found in each home. The Sbrisolona Torte doesn’t really mark the end of the dinner, there are still all the fruits of the season parading on the table: citrus, grapes and dry nuts. Apples, even though are fruits of Christmas season, they are not eaten because they represent the fruit with which Adam and Eve committed the original sin.

Women bake hand-made breads for Christmas holidays. The portion to use for every meal is cut and reserved, then all Christmas breads are placed on the center of the table and everyone in turn must take a piece every day from Christmas Eve until the 31st of December. It is a belief that Christmas breads do not go bad, do not grow mold and therefore they are good to cure bellyache.

Every region in Italy has different customs and traditions. In the South, the main item on everybody’s table is fish, cooked any way possible, in addition to the delicacy of raw fish and shell-fish and it doesn’t matter how much its price sky-rockets in this time of the year, it is a must have! Christmas dinners last many hours, they could go on for 5 or 6 hours. Italians people spend a lot of money for a Christmas dinner and cook for days to make it ready, but the only important thing is the togetherness of the family, the love for one another and that in itself is priceless. Ciao.
Valentina

 

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com
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This is an excerpt from my second book: “Sins Of A Queen”, due to be released in a few days.

Copyright © 2010 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as an interior designer since 1990. Her life is a continuous evolvement of colorful events. She will not only design your home, build it and decorate it, but she will also design your palate with her new productions of Italian regional cookbooks. She is the author of:
Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity http://outskirtspress.com/ComeMiaNonna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnq8baaAq0M

and Sins Of A Queen,  both books are on
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9

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

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