A Brillante project

Let's start from the beginning...

 

In this first picture you may notice a blah room with an awful track light and by-fold doors,

 the furnishings look very basic and the fruits very fake.

 

This room actually  could well be a budget hotel room but instead it was an apartment staged at the cost of $ 5,000, freshly painted in the most depressing brownish green and furnished... well... you see it by yourself.

Would you like to see how it changed?

This is the same angle as above, after I moved in and started to decorate it.   The very first thing I did was to  paint the walls in a beautiful Smoky green, by Benjamin Moore.

 

Benjamin Moore Smoky Green CC-700

It is a bit of a funny color because even though it is officially called green it actually "reads" blue when you put it against white, has only green and grey undertones so the name could be deceiving and most of the time, depending on the light of the day, it can become a gorgeous robin's egg blue tone.  As cooler colors expand visually the space I thought it was a great choice for a small apartment and I assure you it is also a very relaxing color.

The bed  was then hidden by two great bookcases, deep enough that I can have books on both sides, designed by Neils Bendstedt for Inform Interiors, Vancouver. As you can see I have created a sort of corridor from the kitchen area to the bedroom even if in fact there is no bedroom, since it is in an open space apartment with a lovely patio which I will show you in another post.

 

At the end of the so called corridor a focal point created by an antique oil painting and an antique secretaire gives the impression of more depth.

Some objects I love to display on the secretaire.

This is Martino, my loyal keeper of hats and Geronimo's leashes. Needless to say I had to be very careful with every inch to have enough space for walking, moving furniture, entertain. Luckily it is my profession and we do this for clients all the time, using the space as best as we can. The flow is great.

Let's rewind for a moment.

From the bed to the living area before, cold and uninviting as it can be.

Fast forward.

I love the energy of the orange and the pillows are made of a luxurious damask silk, instead of that useless screen I hang hazelnut silk drapes.

I never liked headboards and rarely had one so I hung a big oil painting instead, at the perfect height to be able to read in bed without touching it. I also have small oil paintings on each side of the bed, made by my mother after some of our trips, the one here has Hawaiian  Plumeria as a subject.

The bathroom as it was before, isn't a weird way of using a wall?

 

Don't you think art looks better on the wall instead of towels? and the two silky turquoise curtains make me smile every morning. The small table with an aqua glass top is one of three from a previous house.

Another wall in the bathroom with my photography displayed.

 I love pure linen towels, they dry easily and it is a wonderful feeling using them.

My bathroom is full of framed photographs but as long as I keep an eye on the matte for signs of dampness I know they are safe.

This project as you can see is still in progress, I will add a ceiling light over the bed, I have my eyes on something on 1stdibs, I need new window treatments, change the fireplace front and oh! so many things so little time.
In Italy they say the shoemaker does not have shoes, is there anything similar in English?
Next time I will show you where I work and socialize, in the meantime I would love your comments:

What do you think of the transformation? Comments please!

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Photography by Albarosa Simonetti