Photo shoot of a project

Yesterday…rainy day in Vancouver but exciting photo shoot at Manito new store, where you can find luxurious silk bedding and more.  I have shown the “before” images of this project in my previous post HERE and now you can have a preview of the (almost) finished space.
As you may know a photo shoot requires days of preparation, sourcing for props, arranging furniture, adjusting lights, buying flower arrangements and in this case… steaming every single wrinkle out of pillowcases, bedspreads, bed sheets.

The photographer, very professional and so pleasant to work with, Andrea Sunderland, arrived in full gear with diffusers, lenses, external flashes and all the tricks of the trade.

 

Of course the store looked a …bit…messy since we had to arrange

and rearrange furniture and accessories every hour.

A ladder certainly help to have different angles.

Here I am, comfortably seating (for just 5 minutes!) and checking compositions and light with my point and shoot which I used all day wondering how magical the “real” images from Andrea will be.

Charcoal and pale blue silk for this bed with a vibrant orange lampshade on the side table.

Rich plum and fresh green silk for this image, Hilary Miles beautiful roses

and…do you remember that purple tea cup from a previous post?

A more masculine look with chocolate, champagne and whipped cream silk (yum).

Angela Grossman art piece on the floor.

Designers Guild pillows, Heather Ross new candles on the antique chair

and the vivid color of Miriam Aroeste painting as a backdrop.

My favorite picture of the day? I can’t explain it but it is this one…so dramatic  and theatrical.

Silk becomes regal!

Photography © by Albarosa Simonetti

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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Home Sweet Home!

This month’s book is “Home Sweet Home” (Rizzoli) by worldwide famous photographer Oberto Gili.
His house is in New York since the Eighties but his “home” is still in Piedmont, Italy, where he was born and where he constantly returns.  Here he has cows, acres of land he loves to work on, vegetable gardens, grape vines and most important his four beloved dogs.
In this town he lives a totally different lifestyle from the one in New York or when he travels around the world, in touch with  celebrities and going to parties in the most  elegant houses.
Here he completely restored a dilapidated farm house near his family home, leaving wood beams, old cotto floors, creating a charming and cozy atmosphere of yesteryears.
Furniture and accessories are all part of his life, he says that every object has some happy memory and of course the walls are decorated with his photography and many pieces of artists friends.

The dining room with a table, designed by Gili, that can sit 16 people, a 1700 armoire and two sofa beds from 1800. An eclectic interior where everyone feels welcome and lively conversation comes natural.

The kitchen, in different shades of green has a large credenza full of jars with preserved fruit and vegetables, a passion of the photographer, who spends hours preparing and canning them when in town.

An American mantle for the fireplace in the living, colorful sofa and chairs and on the main wall two Gili’s framed photographs. As you can see the dogs are a major part of his life there and are treated like family!

Another Gili’s piece, over an antique dresser.

Vivid colors in the master bedroom, with a flaming Moroccan rug and vibrant art on the walls.

In his pale blue bedroom he created a corner to work, with simple furniture, like many others around the house which are salvaged old pieces, and a beautiful old chandelier he found in a flea market.

A small room in the guesthouse with different styles put together in an harmonious way.

The white studio of Oberto Gili, with incredible natural light. Pendant lights were also designed by Gili. Of course the natural light can be totally obscured by heavy drapes when needed.

Old charming French doors opening to the luxurious garden.

A real “Home Sweet Home” where life can be happy and easy and where the artist can recharge and create while away from his intense life in New York.

Photography by Oberto Gili

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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My favorite graffiti!

 

  
My favorite graffiti? are the ones that lead to a well prepared and managed project and I will show you some steps of my latest effort.  Above are some instructions for trades drawn on the walls by the contractor for the correct execution of the project.

      

A large open space in the beginning, with a door going to the secured parkade in the back, no washroom, only a pipe and a hole on the far right corner!

 

Even if we had drawing plans, using tape and drawing shapes of the correct size were necessary to be absolutely sure there would be space for handicapped people to move around in the washroom, before walls were built.

 

The space was carefully measured and the drawing plan created  two separate areas, one for retail and one for the storage, the office and of course for the new washroom. Ceilings being very high the new walls had to be appropriately sized.

 

One of my favorite parts, even if challenging, is testing the paint before it goes everywhere. Of course patches of different paint were scattered around to examine the different lights conditions and left there to dry and be examined at different times of the day. This time the challenge was even greater since there was still no washroom installed so not even a drop of water in the space, but I managed to arrive those days with buckets of water in my car to wash brushes between different colors and lots of rags and paper towels. I was testing the colors myself since there were some delays (sounds familiar?) and trades were busy.

 

 

Washroom and storage area created by the new walls, plus the necessary stereo-radio that every trade likes to blast!

 

Preparation before the first coat of paint.

 

Yards and yards of painter tape…

 

On the window the necessary Permit forms ready for the approaching inspection.

 

Ceiling sprayed in charcoal.

 

Concrete columns were carefully covered  to leave them intact, part of the industrial look that the space had, together with high ceilings and pipes, that I wanted to preserve.

 

Yes, it is me… taking pictures a few months ago at the front window of the new store with its temporary sign. Exciting news: after a few months of decisions making, drawing plans, revising budget, sourcing and testing…Manito store in Vancouver, already open to the public at 1822 West 1st Avenue, at Burrard Street, is about to be ready for a grand opening party!


Photography by Albarosa Simonetti

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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Room # 1 !

 

Style at Home magazine latest issue.

                          

              Room # 1  -  $ 15,536                                               Room # 2  -  $ 5,952

In my previous post (HERE) I was asking which room had a higher price and today I published the answers there and as you can see the first correct answer received was from (again! congratulations!)

The Critic’s Eye

many more readers guessed correctly and you can see their explanations in the comments on my previous post.

The fun game “High or Low?” can be found monthly on Style at Home magazine (paper and online).  This particular  project (issued on August 2011) was by Margot Austin, senior design editor at Style at Home and if you like you could study the details of the interior decoration HERE.

Just as an example I give you the cost for the patterned pillows:
#1  Madeline Weinrib Daphne throw pillow  $637 CAD
#2 PillowMio throw pillow cover $ 32 US (found on Etsy)
The high end wallpaper (Designers Guild $ 162 per roll) is “thicker and has more ink colours, meaning it takes longer to make” as Margot Austin says, the other one (Blue Mountain $ 70 per roll) “is thinner and has fewer colours, but the metallic gold gives it a high-end look”.

If you don’t have a big budget to start with then be assured that with lots of patience and a good eye in sourcing you can find beautiful items at reasonable prices … or of course you can always call a professional designer who can easily pull together the expensive look or the budget conscious one, because…yes… we also work within small budgets when needed.

These articles are the first that I read when I receive the magazine Style at Home and I find it amusing each time to guess as fast as I can “High” or “Low”. So far I have scored well but at times it takes a few minutes to really scrutinize every details when in doubt. 

Photography by Nina Teixeira

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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I invite you to Venice

 

My loyal readers may remember that a year ago The Address magazine published an article on Milan written by me (HERE on Pages 106-113).

 

This year I have written instead of Venice,

Venezia in Italian, one of my favorite cities in the world.

The Address is an exclusive online luxury property and lifestyle magazine, a division of W International, based in London UK, designed for an international audience. One of their regular features is an Insiders' Guide where invited contributors are giving their best tips to visitors to various destinations. No one can buy advertising space in the magazine, there is actually no advertising at all, inclusion is by invitation-only, so I was even more thrilled when they asked me again to write as an Insider, a year after I wrote about Milan,  choosing another city in the world and my heart went to splendid Venezia.

You can read online the whole current issue, N.10, HERE and you can find my article on Venice at pages from 186 to 195.

 

At page 193 a funny thing happened, my original image taken at Villa Pisani of Napoleon’s bed was badly cropped for layout reasons and as you can see from the image published

and my original image

 

Napoleon lost his “logo”!!!

It is always a pleasure to read The Address and day dreaming about fabulous houses and interesting destinations can inspire and excite our minds.  So many gorgeous houses around the world, so many extraordinary cities.

Let's dream on!

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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A mysterious sink

Since I moved to North America it always amazed me that many times I have seen, especially in brand new houses, two sinks in a bathroom, taking lots of space, and for me totally useless since I would not want to be seen by anyone while in my private sanctuary…especially when I wake up in the morning making faces to the mirror while I brush my teeth…but… no trace of a bidet. You can read the whole story of how, when, where the mysterious sink was invented, HERE.

 

The images above show that even in a small bathroom there is often space for a bidet.  In many countries of Continental Europe and Latin America a home would not be called “home” if it did not have a bidet installed and a bathroom would not be considered such without one.

 

A new concept emerged not long ago of a toilet with a bidet incorporated, used mostly in affluent Asian countries and starting to appeal recently to Americans. It consists in a water system going through the seat of a toilet, whose temperature can also be regulated by a remote control.
Without entering in details…water is better than just plain paper, which is better than a plantain leaf! So we have already two degrees of separation from barbaric customs, if we add a mild soap…well… I leave it to your imagination how fresh you would feel, in your best days and also in your worst ones.

Have you ever seen a toilet with four legs?  These are from the line Cow by Artceram, easy to clean underneath, like the suspended ones.

New request from the market is the increased height, since in affluent countries the average human height is growing and it is obviously more ergonomic to sit higher.

A fairly new line is Le Giare by Ceramica Cielo, looking like a sculpture and following the perfect shape of an egg, symbol of harmony and life.

I have heard that North Americans are one of the top producers of bidets, but weird as it is, they mostly export them. I like to encourage more people to use this mysterious sink in their houses when renovating.
I always insist on installing one and I survive the jokes of the plumbers with silence and a smile on my face knowing that my clients will be happily thanking me later!

Welcome to the world of bidets, used by millions  who will

never settle for a bathroom without one.

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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