Welcome Home! The Elegant Home.....

I spent a good amount of time thinking of a name for this blog. Some were trendy. Some were in Italian. Others tried to be self explanatory - with everything I do the url would have been a foot long!  

I then thought of my approach to my clients' homes. I live, breathe and preach simplicity and elegance. Simplicity doesn't mean boring. It means organized, clean and simple to maintain. Elegance doesn't mean snobby and stuffy. It means pleasant to the eye and soothing. All of the sudden the name "The Elegant Home" didn't seem so boring and passe' anymore. It fits what I love doing and what I enjoy teaching.

I was born and raised in Italy until I left to attend college in London. I majored in PR and business studies and my first job for a Travel Agency took me all over Europe. Such extensive traveling enlightened me with an abundance of culture, elegance and beauty. I spent the following 8 years discovering  Europe, Australia and the United States. 

Exploring new lifestyles and customs, tasting a variety of very different cuisines and visiting antique auctions and flea markets made it one of the most enriching experiences I could have ever asked for in my 20's. It was then that I discovered my passion: furnishings, the arts, textiles and accessories. I often say that furniture and fabrics have to "speak to me". I run my hand on an antique English rectory table or an Eames credenza or a Noguchi chair and they must send a vibration back to me. I guess I need to fall in love each time.....

Fabrics are supposed to stimulate your senses depending on the use you make of them and the interiors they accessorize.   They need to compliment the space, not overtake it. Vibrant colors are meant to fill you with warmth and joy while more neutral tones soothe your soul.

Each room in your home needs to flow and create a story. Your walls are you canvas, your background shot and you are the protagonist.Your furnishing are there to tell your story.

I enjoy getting to know my clients and their likes and dislikes. My vision needs to meet their dreams in creating their perfect sanctuary. Once I leave and they close the front door I want them to feel they have traveled the world and brought home souvenirs of their life journey.

I am a great believer that in order to change the outside we also need to change the inside. We can wear the most beautiful couture dress accessorized by the most fantastic (red soled) pumps. Truth is, for our beauty to shine we need to be in complete balance and harmony with ourselves and the world. Your home deserves the same. Some of my clients show me their (packed) closets and tell me they have nothing to wear. Far from the truth. It's a simple matter of knowing how to organize what you have and make the best of it.  A very pleasantly surprised client recently said to me: "I can now go shopping in my own closet!!!". Fashion changes too rapidly and only a small percentage of the world can keep up with it. I don't see that need anyway. You make your own fashion and individuality. I may ask you to reserve your mother's bell bottom pants for Halloween, but there is a way to mix and match what you already have and feel like you are walking on a runway in Milan!

Organizing a home in today's world is a huge task and one that not many career women/mothers have the time to attend to. Getting help is as important as a day at the SPA. As a matter of fact, I tell my clients to take the day off and go to the SPA while I organize their home. You don't think Mariah did it all by herself, right?

I plan to have a lot of fun through this blog as I share some of my tips - and tricks - with you, the mother, the career woman, the newly wed and, yes, even you the single Dad!

I'll be back very soon!

A presto.........