Warming our hearts of the Holidays



I love December and the Holidays, it warms my heart.  Tomorrow we leave to go back to Umbria for Natale in Italy with my darling Alfredo and all our friends.  I still haven't packed!  It would be lovely to return dressed elegantly, instead of the painters whites that I usually bicycled around the city in.

San Francisco Colored Houses




Recently I finished painting an apartment in San Francisco.  It is a space I have worked on before, twice actually traveled from Italy to work on the interior.  Every time I return to the neighborhood of Pacific Heights, I find myself in dreamland, architectural wonder, full on cloud nine o.k. !  It is amazing. On the top of the hill with views of the Bay, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then I fall in love with every single house.  Watch and see if you don’t do the same.

Pretty Festive Photos




I’m feeling excited for the festivities and to be home in America for Thanksgiving, everyone is heading out to the beach house, the whole big family together.

I have been working so hard and just finished painting an apartment in San Francisco.  Soon I’m going to show you all the amazing houses in the neighborhood I was working in, each one looking like a jewel.  

Happy Third Anniversary Sette Design Blog




Happy Anniversary Sette Design Blog

#3

To tell you the truth.  I forgot and I got the date wrong.  I'm that bad.  I actually love this blog and so I should have remembered her day. To be honest I just have too much going on right now.  It was November 5th 2012 when I took the leap and started it up.  I was living in Umbria, Italy then.  Click Here if you want to flash back and view my very first blog post.

Pendant Pomegranate



I can’t believe it is raining right now in California as I write to you.  The ground is quenching its thirst from months and years of disappointment.  It is November first and it is raining!  Happy November everyone.

These photos I took earlier in the week.  I wanted to pay tribute to this pendant pomegranate.  I have been tentatively watching it remain, consistently hanging low for weeks.  To me here at Sette Design it is poetry.

Charcoal-Grey Painted Dresser and a Bunya Cone






Here we go another week beginning.  At least it is starting to act a little Autumnal here in the Wine Country.  A few leaves have fallen.  The valley looks amazing with vivid green vineyards, ochre and yellow and golden light spotted with the shadows of the deep clouds above.

Display Empty Frame and Flowers







Oh it is almost the weekend… and today for your pleasure I have a simple display of just a single empty frame and flowers.

2 Houses I Love





Do you ever find yourself driving to work or walking around your neighborhood and falling in love with certain houses, maybe you pass a certain way just for the joy of seeing your special house.

This is how I carry on my days here at Sette Design.  

Living in the Wine Country



Sometimes in the fall in Umbria, I would make the girls stop in their tracks and smell the air of pungent fermenting grapes.  I would say that is the smell of the crush, the smell of home.  Elisa and Lucia would undoubtedly respond, “but Mama it’s GROSS”.

Love Wins






I’m sorry that I have been away for more than a hiatus.
What is more than a hiatus anyway?
My daughter recently told me that in medieval times a moment was measured as 90 seconds.

The dictionary describes a hiatus as:
 1.  A break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.
 2.  A missing part; gap or lacuna.
I like it that a hiatus refers to space and action.

Small Spaces





The Simple Life

Now since we live in our little California cottage I need to force myself to think small and organized.  The days of rambling around our huge Gothic Italian apartment are gone. Guests used to actually get lost and not find the way out.  There were a lot of doors!

I like to play with scale and so I set up this pretty scene just for YOU.

A little chest of drawers, a silly tiny ice cream swirl chair and a bunch of flowers.

A big rosemary topiary.

A Starting Place


Hello Sette Design readers,

I found this phrase the other day and it humbled me.  It is so simple and perfect.

Start where you are
Use what you have
Do what you can


I'm sure it has been said before and should be said again.  Wouldn't you just feel better if you followed that advice?

Natalie 

Painting Furniture




Happy Weekend Everyone

For Inspiration

Today I’ll show you some of the furniture I have been painting.

I always want to keep all the pieces for myself.  This is silly because it is supposed to be my job not a hobby, but it is like they are my babies.  This little five drawer dresser I really could have put anywhere in our cottage here in the wine country.  It would have even fit up on my loft bed right below the eves.

Bohemian Loft




Here is the loft I finished painting a while back.  Everyone who walked into this space wanted to move in.  I called this loft the House of Doors.  There are five doors exiting the bottom of the loft and no inner doors at all, except one going to the bathroom.  All the doors lead to the huge garden and courtyard area.  To me this is a Bohemian Loft because of the mix of elements in the design and also because I know the people who own it will fill it with books, art, wine and unmade beds.  The Bohemian life we all want.

Oak Tree Galls a Creative Display




The Simple Life
Hi everyone!

I’ve finished the loft I was painting a while back.  I call it the Californian Bohemian Loft. I plan to show you it in the next post. Today some strange and splendid inspiration, Oak Tree Galls and garden flowers.  

Ukrainian Egg Dying




Buona Pasqua

Around this family compound there is lots of Ukrainian Egg Dying going on.  Since this is the wine country, I can also say that friends bring over bottles of precious wine and then sit down and let their creativity go.  It is interesting how good people are at it.  Everyone wants to dye eggs!

Springtime and The Nashberry Cocktail




The Simple Life

Oh do I have a special treat for you.  It is COCKTAIL TIME, now here in California (and the U.S.) we have change our clocks forward to save daylight time.

Spring forward
Fall back

March Already



The Simple Life

I’ve lost my grip on The Simple Life.  I don’t have my calm.  It’s funny because I changed the heading on this blog to The Simple Life in California but it isn’t true at all at this point.  We moved into a tiny little cottage but honestly it is a mess most of the time and not simple.  I don’t make bread anymore either.  I’ll tell you there is a lot that goes on and down when one moves across the world even if it is to a world that you think you know.  I don’t know this life in Cali, I’m learning it all over again.

Crazy for Camellias




I go crazy for Camellias they bring vivid color to any environment in the winter, in Umbria and where we live now in the Wine Country of California they are abundant.  To me they always seemed like a Valentines flower because of all the varying shades of pink, red and white.

This post I have for you today is just a few ideas about displaying Camellias, it is filled with pretty photos, some silliness and always nice design.

Two Houses I Love




If you read this blog a tiny bit, you know that I love houses, tiny houses, rambling big houses, colored houses.  As I wander through my days I fall in love with so many houses.

Today I have for you a couple of houses that I LOVE.

One is a playhouse covered in brambles and winter leafless wonder.


Sette Design
This other house is just gorgeous perfection.  It gives black and white a good name.  Some days I think houses should be white where ever they are in the world, white is always the right color choice.  A perfect iconic white house is always good design.

http://settedesign7.blogspot.com
I understand I am contradicting myself because the playhouse is not white and yes it is just lovely, wood mixed with growing natural wood.

Anyone interested in taking my Online Painting Class for Interiors, Art and Furniture --click the link below.  It is inspirational!




Cheers,
Natalie

Credenza and Table





Today as promised I’m going to show you the last job I did in Italy.  The last job before I left.  There will still be other jobs in Italy in the future, “Salve Italia”.

I hope this will be inspiring.  As you know I love grey, this was a taupe-grey.  Here I did the credenza a shade lighter than the table.  Distressed both the pieces.  Then on the table I sanded the edges irregularly and added bronze.

A New Year 2015




I can hear the train whistling in the distance.
I’m drinking a Ruby Red Grapefruit Margarita
Why because I’m in Cali not Italy, it is still so shocking.
It was 68 degrees today- unprecedented!
The sky was deep blue, now it is black.
At night I look up in the sky and there are so many stars I know I’m home and this is my big sky.
I’m sorry I disappeared for a bit there I took an unannounced hiatus.
I did just move across the world.  There may be more hiatuses to come.
I’m back now and I want to wish you
Happy New Year.