Sette Design

Frescos from the 1400's Inspiration

Today I'm going to try not to talk too much and just let you look and be inspired. This is part of Palazzo Trinci. It is now a museum here in our main Piazza in Foligno. It was originally a palace of the Trinci family build in the 1400's. The story goes that at one point the Pope did not like how powerful the Trinci's were becoming and sent his men to kill the whole family within one night, 80 people were killed including all the servants and guards, one boy of the family was spared because he was away in the country The Medieval times were brutal.

Now try to look at all this from a design point. Dissect each motif and imagine how gorgeous it could look simple on a piece of furniture. I love the leafy design inside the tiny diamond shape. The octagon shape has the cool perspective from afar, because four sides are outlined in white, four sides are outlined in black, the same is true of the diamonds.

You can't help wondering what it looked like in the 1400's. I love this arched wall, with the rich parchment color, brown and blood red.

Imagine these designs on a long wooden plank table.

The mocha brown ceiling could be really modern as one wall in a living room with the dark star asterisks, even sporadically painted, not hard to paint at all.

Isn't this wall just crazy? What were they thinking? You can hardly notice the window, it's so cool.

Was that interesting? Does it make you feel like we as people now want instant gratification, our patience level is so low. Back in the 1400's life was fragile and short, but patience for art and process was long. Think how long people were willing to wait for love and when they found it they cherished it because maybe they knew it might not come around again. I believe I could just work on my own patience. And you?

Happy Weekend dear readers.
Natalie

Antique Finish on a Chair

this hyacinth is sitting on english and latin dictionary
think how intellectual she feels

I found this chair on the street, much in need of love. Aside from the seat problem, it is solid.

before

First I cleaned it with vinegar and water and left it to dry out a couple of days (10 parts water, 2 parts vinegar).

glued and nailed

Then I glued and nailed the seat down covering it with plastic and then heavy books. Another couple of days there, ahh patience is not my thing. I may upholster it later to hide the nails. Yet later when I put the finish they actually look good - country style.

getting pretty now

I painted it gray.

don't put too much you can always add more

rub off as you like

When it was dry, I mixed in a little bit turpentine with Raw Umber oil paint (just a tube from the art store). I painted it on messy with a paintbrush, then I smoothed it around with a cloth and put it on heavier with a small brush on the angles of the chair. Oil paint takes about 5 days to dry well. You can mix in a dryer (I like Japan Dryer available in America, in Europe I use a drying gel medium) into the paint, this will help the drying process but is not needed. If you want to protect it more you can put a clear coat on at the end.

the flower pot has a pearl finish (again!!) with a bronze boarder

This process comes out really nice if done on a piece that has detailing or moldings you can antique . Try it on a dresser or armoire it will be so pretty.

this antique finish is lovely over color too!

Natalie

I am linking to:

Romantic Home
Between Naps On The Porch
Redoux Interiors
Miss Mustard Seed

A Gorgeous White Interior

I have a treat for you. Here is a beautiful Italian home the house is Liberty period on three levels., with even a little roof terrace. It is my client and friend Laura who has done it up in this calm simple perfect way. She has created so many tiny little scenes that are so simple, to me there is a touch of art.

What is interesting about this story is that she is giving it all up to move to Zanzibar Tanzania, start a new life, opening a store in a vacation spot for tourists. She has never lived anywhere but Foligno, Italy. Her children are all grown up, the crisis is hitting Italy, big time and she has the guts and joy to start a new chapter in her life.

That said, man does she have style. You should see how she dresses. I personally could not live in a house without tons of color, but I must say that to be in this environment is to feel a visual and an internal peace.

For this project I restored all the doors in the house 9 of them plus the front interior doors, plus the arch in the living room. I scraped them down to the wood and then put a glaze over them. They may look white but really the color had a hint of gray- lavender in it. I also painted some mirror, small furniture all white, of course.

A few secrets: I painted the banister with a metallic silver gray it was black before, this really improved the whole look of the house. I also painted all the hardware to the windows and doors the same metallic silver and it made the windows look cleaned up and modern. The carpet on the stairs was a low-end solution, almost felt like, the curtains are from Ikea and only cost 4 euros a set, they let all the light in and Laura sure saved a lot of money there. The bathrooms had gross brown terrible motif from the 60's Laura just put solid white contact paper over it. Not easy to do, but great idea.

Isn't this house an inspiration? Do you like it? I know all you out there with children are thinking - if only. We all arrive at different phases of our lives. This is the beauty of life to embrace each phase.

Natalie

Link Party
Linked to:

http://www.redouxinteriors.com
http://romantichome.blogspot.com

Happy Valentines

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

-William Shakespeare

Linked to: www.soulemama.com

Something Funny

Blue Man

I love it when life is funny and unexpected and obscure. So in my travels around my own city of Foligno I came across this blue man. I stopped to look in wonder and of course to take a photo for YOU my darling.

Then I saw Maria the old lady who lives below us in our Palazzo.

I said, “Maria look up there”.

Just then another old lady, a friend of Maria’s pasted by, Maria said.

“Who’s that? Who’s that?”

Her friend without missing a beat responded, “It’s someone who is sitting”. Then the two old ladies gave each other a little hug as we laughed all together, there on the cold street.

To me it is even funnier in Italian.

Maria Guarda la

Chi e’

E’ uno seduto .

That’s what it is, an obscure blue man sitting in the window. That finger held up to his mouth. I don’t believe he is reprimanding anyone. I think he is saying, Shhhhhh, listen to the silence.

Natalie

Pearl Finish on Walls An Assisi Cafe

pearl finish on sage green

Here is a project I did in Assisi.

It is a chocolate store and bar/cafe Cafe Santa Monica right in the heart of down town Assisi down from the Main Piazza if you ever get to tromping around Umbria everyone wants to go to Assisi because they associate the city with Saint Francis.

nice with the gray marble cafe tables

I'll tell you a really quick cool story about St. Francis. It was actually here in our main Piazza della Republica in Foligno that St. Francis got in a big fight with his father about his life and what he wanted to do with his life. His father was a rich textile merchant and St. Francis took off all his beautiful clothes and walked through the piazza, away from his father and denounced the rich life of materialism.

the cafe is set on two levels since all of Assisi is a hill

I had so much fun doing this project because you can’t park in the center of Assisi so I would wake up early drives the back roads from Foligno and park outside Assisi and hike in, looking at views of Medieval towers and walking a long road columned by tall cypress trees. At the bar there were always cappuccino and ice cream available so it made going to work a holiday.

the owner Paola is a joy to be around

Here we wanted to update the space and make it cleaner looking. We decided to use cool tones greens and blues and then a pearl finish on one main wall. This was a nice contrast to all the other stores nearby done in the classic yellows and oranges.

i love blue and green together

For the pearl finish all I did was paint the wall the sage green a couple times and then later I dragged a wide paintbrush in diagonal brush strokes down the wall. I used a long extension pole that the brush connected on to and a tall ladder at times. The only hard part was making sure the brush strokes were straight and blended evenly. Up close it is a really pretty finish, looking a little like silk from Thailand. On another job I did one wall in a kitchen the same pearl finish but over white and it came out subtle and a soft vanilla colored really looking like raw silk. Here the same acrylic paint over green looks more platinum more of a contrast.

high ceilings and the smell of chocolate - heaven

Does it make you want a cappuccino or a chunk of chocolate?

Natalie

A Fun Valentine

love

Valentines

I love a craft project to be easy.

I guess when I paint interiors I work so hard physically that when it comes to crafts I want them done in a moment.

Here’s what you need for this project, but you can take the idea and simplify it or change the materials easily.

I used:

Wire, paper, ribbon, paint, chocolate and aluminum foil.

no wire - a coat hanger bent up can work

I formed a wire heart, tying the middle of it together with a ribbon, then extending that ribbon to hang it.

red paint watered down and then some pearl high light

I painted a piece of paper with a love note.

To be honest first I tried rubbing a tea bag on a piece paper to antique it, it looked so dirty and bad you would have laughed at me. Even my daughter Lucia said, “What’s that?”