My Walk to Work

The Simple Life

Recently while working in California I have been getting jobs where I need drive out of Napa Valley and into San Francisco or the county before.  It takes about an hour and a half and there is often bumper to bumper traffic.  Leaving the Valley early in the morning I drive through the vineyards and feast my eyes on spectacular views of the valley floor, sometimes I will even see a fleet of hot air balloons. I don’t mind the time driving because it is alone time when I can be in my own mind….ahhh. 

Red Walls

Probably all of you at some point have considered painting a room in your home RED.  Maybe you already have… congratulations!  I have not, shameful as it may be.  Right now I’m obsessed with the right shade of blue.

I believe that there are many ways to make a red room work.  Here is what made it work in my opinion in this space that I painted in San Francisco.

Paint It White - Add Color

The power of white is grand.

If you read this blog you know by now that I love color!

White always looks modern and fresh.  I adore interior spaces with white floors and walls and then color added in the furniture rugs, art and flowers.

Here are a few before shots.

I also believe that it is a good exercise in design to paint a few items from your life WHITE and then just add COLOR as you choose.

This little side table I’m creating a special process for my E-Course on Painting Techniques and as you see it here, it is in the white primer phase.  Doesn’t it look so pretty?

Go around your house and grab a few items and paint them all white.  I took a lamp, a cigar box, perfume bottle, side table, basket and a jar.

Sette Design White makes color pop!

My kiwi-green floor is still holding up Click Here for is the post on how I painted it.  I think the key here was I used an anti –scrap finish at the end.  The green floor is doing far better then the floors painted without the anti-scrape varnish.

Sette Design

Next post I’ll share how I made the lampshade, it was so fun and easy.  Do you like it?  There are some people in my life I won't mention who, they sarcastically question my sanity after seeing that lamp creation.

Tomorrow is a big summer holiday in Italy.

Buon Ferragosto a tutti.

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with these fun parties:
French Country Cottage
Romantic Home
Miss Mustard Seed
Between Naps on the Porch
Mod Vintage Lif

California Cottage - Gothic Italian Palazzo

My heart is in two places at all times in Italy and in California.  Like a nagging mother I need to remind myself one is not better then the other- both are stupendous.  As for architecture here are some photos I took this morning of our Gothic Italian Palazzo, you can take special note that the chaos and mess of our lives is hidden from these photos and yes it has been a crazy week, but I have been able to work on my Feel Good Homework from the previous post (Here is the Link) if you want to feel good about yourself.  I wanted you to get an idea of the doors and windows and the thickness of the walls.  This is what makes the space so Gothic and Italian.

Paint Studio- Design Studio

I’m pretty excited because I actually cleaned and organized my Studio.

Now I call my friends and even my daughter’s friends (when they come over, I’m not stalking them on the phone yet…) and I say want to see what my paint studio?   Of course everyone says yes, not only out of courtesy, but out of sheer joy and curiosity!

So wanna see my studio?

I'll start with the before shot.

Here it is cleaned up.

I feel very inspired to make this next year kick!

Lucia my 14 year old says,  “Hey 2014 equals 7”.

2 + 0 PLUSone +4 = Sette Design 7.

zero is a start 2 is a pair seven is heaven
or a place to keep paint brushes and paints

Do you dashing ones out there have a good space to work or play or create something that makes your heart go thump? 

do you think this sign functions?

Isn’t it funny about us in world of design, how our hearts go thump just to see a pretty space.

My studio cleaned up and organized and filled with candles and pink roses and white tables gets my heart thumping and leaping.

And here we are on the eve of the eve of the new year.

 

buon anno from sette design

Wishing you some cheer swirling in and out of your studio.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

Nancherrow
Mod Vintage Life

I love Christmas in Italy

Il Vischio- Mistletoe

I love Christmas in Italy.

Today is the day after the Winter Solstice, from now on in our hemisphere the days are getting longer, brighter.

I think this will be our tenth Christmas in Italy and I must say I love it.

Alfredo my park ranger boyfriend found Mistletoe (Il Vischio) in the forest and brought it home to me.  If he had hung it in our short Medieval doorways we would have to crawl under it.  Now we have a chair for kissing under.  Italians believe it brings good fortune.

It rarely snows in our valley in Umbria, as it does in the mountains around us.  We always are hoping for snow.

Hope brings joy.

 

downtown

A foggy Christmas is lovely too.

It makes everything blurry and the colors soft and bright.

 

Christmas in Italy

Here is proof we really do live the simple life.  Just bliss pushing the tree home on the bike with gloves on and sucking on candy canes.  Ellie my little one refused to let them rope it up, as they like to do here in Italy.

 

Medieval wall, bike and Christmas tree

Since our living room is my paint studio this means the Christmas tree is in my bedroom. It’s pretty fantastic to snuggle in bed with the Christmas tree a glow.

Christmas in Umbria

I saved a baby sock from when Lucia was a baby

some of our ornaments are from my childhood
MANY years ago they are antique now!

I recommend it.

This year we had a party with Elisa and her-ten-year old girlfriends.  They made cookies with mashed up candy canes inside.  The hammering part was fun!

mashed candy canes and dough from
a chocolate chip cookie recipe -YUMMM

Pink roses and a red candle.

crazy yellow ring on the candle

The girls seem to check on an hourly basis to see if more presents are put under the tree.

Art in progress, books to read, cyclamen and vintage Christmas balls.

art in progress

I hope you are all happy and warm and savoring every moment.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:
Between Naps on the Porch

Colorful Cities

Juzcar, Spain gorgeous blue!

If you follow this blog at all you know that I love color.  I have this wonderful friend, whom I will call Jo, he has an original and creative mind and he knows I go crazy for color.  Jo sent me this article on Juzar in Andalusia Spain.  They painted the whole town a light shade of blue, for the Smurf movie and the town’s people loved it so much that they voted and decided to keep it blue.  The mayor Fernandez  said,  it has given a "Boost to the local economy, it’s increased our happiness, our dreams and our levels of employment. " 

Juzcar, Spain from a distance plus 4,000 litres of paint

here's the before shot

Man, I just love that!

The uniformity of the color makes the design splendid.

"La Bocca" Buenos Aires, Argentina
immigrated by Italians and modeled after Genoa

When I was in Art School at Pratt in NYC, it was deep in the ghetto of Brooklyn at that point and I wanted to get involved in painting something that would help the community.  My roommate who was a tough, reality type girl from the South Bronx said, “If you do that the people will just go and pee on it”.  I was pretty deluded about her comment at the time, but now looking back I think well they might pee on it happily and then eventually they might stop peeing on it.  Back then I wanted to do something small.  These cities show, do the whole town in color and it will have an impact.

When I first went to Lucca, Italy, I remember being so impressed that the whole town could agree to paint their shutters green.

Lucca, Italy ahh such tranquility

Lucca, Italy

Bo-Kaap Cape Town South Africa
this shows all colors can work together
British and Dutch influenced architecture

Williamstad, Netherlands

Williamstad, Netherlands

Guanjuato, Mexico

Lima, Peru
Spanish Baroque, French Neoclassism, Art Nouveau Buildings

 Here’s a great quote.

“Reform the environment, stop trying to reform the people.  They will reform themselves if the environment is right.”  Buckminster Fuller

Izamal, Mexico in the Yucatan "The Yellow City"

I have a Norwegian stepfather and from the moment he came into our lives he started painting the rooms in our house, soft shades of blue and pale green, lavender.  Of course, I had already painted my room by myself by the time I was 10!  Our house was very open and you could see all the varying colors through archways and doorways, it brought such peace and joy to our family.

Longyearbyen, Norway

color works in the cold and the hot climates

Bryggen, Norway
I love all the shades of red

Now, I believe that color can be felt and have an influence on the tiny personal scale of life and on the larger environment of a town that leads to confidence, a strong sense of identity, pride and happiness.

Jodhper, India in the barren Thar desert
known as the "Blue City"

Wroclaw, Poland
Gothic Architecture and a Roman Catholic affiliation

Riomaggiore, Italy
The Italians put color everywhere they can

Isn’t that just simple and lovely!

Chefchaoen, Morocco
a refuge for Jews during the Spanish Reconquista
and my favoirte cornflower blue

With affection.

Natalie

P.S. Note to grammar freakers, I don't seem to have an accent mark on my keyboard, thus accents are left out.