Fifth Anniversary Sette Design Blog

It is crazy to think that  5 years ago today I started this blog.  Happy Anniversary Sette Design Blog!  I remember the day clearly, because I was living here in Italy and we had just had the first snow fall on the mountains that surround our city.  Now 5 years later with climate change, it seems there is no snow insight for who knows how long.  My girls were 9 and 13 compared to now 14 and 18, huge difference.

To celebrate today I thought I would give you some advice, this I secretly find funny because if you knew my life more intimately you would say (or quietly think) Nat you really are not in any position to give advice.  But when you hear the advice you will see that actually is is common, simple, pure and obvious.  Plus this way we can look back on some pretty photos I have taken in the years past.

Here we go life advice from Sette Design.

Make home made bread, it will make your friends and family so happy it is ridiculous and strangely it will also make you feel good about yourself.  The house will smell amazing.

Light candles it makes everything look and feel good.

Flowers add color and joy.

The sky is the limit.

Go for walks alone,

and with family.

Change is something we can count on.

Paint something white, it will reflect light into a dark space, of course paint something colored too.  I love colored walls.

Too much at times can be splendid.

Just as simple and empty is pure and lovely.

Paint something it deepens our souls, or play music, cook, write, sing or dance.

Home is where you make it.

If possible make love on vintage Italian sheets.

Embrace whatever kind of creativity you have that makes you purrr.

If something feels wrong run for it.

Rest assured you are not the only one who is crazy.

Drink lots of coffee and remember love is what matters most of all.

Now I will leave you with a good quote and a cool scene I came across years back.

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."

E.B. White

 With affection,
Natalie

Houses Covered in Vines - Napa Valley

Structures covered in vines.

Here we are in Vine City.
There is too much going on for this little simple life of mine.

Inside Winter Garden

I remember when I was young and going to Art and Design School in Brooklyn, I loved to look at the bare black trees reaching for the Winter sky.  Here presently in California the spring flowers are already starting to bloom, even if the Winter rains are still here in force blowing apart the streets and trees and branches falling, rivers rising. It is nice to create a calm sanctuary inside.

Distressed Country Table

I’m very excited to show you this Distressed Country Table, my design for our kitchen table.  The boards were originally being created for a long table to be put on trestles (saw horses) that I want to wholesale to stores in my area and have my clients be able to order it in any size they want. When I put the stucco on the boards it flaked off after about a month.  Big disappointment, now I’m working with kiln dried wood and we will see if that works better.

Christmas Eve -Eve Heart in Two Places

Sette Design

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

I love to say that.

My heart is in 2 places this Christmas.

It is also in some Christmases in the past and some in the future too.

It’s funny as the girls grow up, I feel nostalgic remembering back to a Christmas when they were little.  I can remember one Christmas when Elisa was still a little one, she decided to move all the presents from under the tree into the kitchen.  We would go get the tree and strap the Christmas tree on to the back of my bike and push the bike home.

Patina

The Simple Life

It’s raining and I’m drinking hot apple juice with cinnamon.  I just made classic old fashion biscuits (out of Bisquick no less!).  It may be a crime to make biscuits from Bisquick in Napa Valley.  It certainly would be in Umbria if they only knew- the crimes of my heart. Oh the lovely starchiness of Bisquick.

Wall of Grapes - Italian Design

We returned to the Napa Valley to a wall of grapes and streaming grape vines out our kitchen window.  The courtyard glows at night with soft pink sky sunsets and the white lights that are strung above.  We eat dinners outside on our long farm table.   

Abandoned Garden

Do you love an Abandoned Garden, we have one right out our window here in Spello.  The view from the window is magical because it doesn’t look like Italy it feels like some other place I have never been too.

Sette Design  here are the public outter steps to get to a side enterance to the garden

Do you find that with gardens left alone you want to go and fix them up or just sit among the chaos of nature.  I find that when I look at the huge swaying palm trees I waver between wanting to trim the dead furans off and then the next moment I relish in the beauty of the neglect.   It is silly because my mind has battled with these thoughts all summer long.

What Makes You Feel Good Lately?

 

The Simple Life

Good Evening Everyone

I am excited because I am in a very creative phase in my own life and work and somehow this is translating into not much creativity for my blog.  I’m sorry about that, today’s post may not make up for this lacking either, but I’ll try to get better.  I do believe that creativity is endless and the more we use our creativity the more it grows.

Winter Bouquet Inspiration

I’m back in California and the rain won’t quit.  We have little breaks and the sun tries to come out, but the air and ground are always.  We are all thrilled, after 4 years of draught, the rain is a big celebration.  I like to go for long walks and then scavenge for a winter bouquet.  It is easy just to pick up Lichen, branches of Rosehips or fallen Camellia blossoms.  They are often covered in dirt or mud.  At home I rinse them off and put them in a crystal bowl and an old olive oil bottle.  Even if they faded or browned at the edges the effect is still stunning.

Guess the Photo - Italy or California

It is a rainy day somewhere in the world, now since you don’t really know for sure if I am in Umbria or California today we are NOT going to play a little game, NOR are we going to take a test.  I don’t like to do either of the above, in fact my friends and family think I should begin to like to play games.  I would rather read a book or go for a run, than play a game.

Bohemian Loft

Here is the loft I finished painting a while back.  Everyone who walked into this space wanted to move in.  I called this loft the House of Doors.  There are five doors exiting the bottom of the loft and no inner doors at all, except one going to the bathroom.  All the doors lead to the huge garden and courtyard area.  To me this is a Bohemian Loft because of the mix of elements in the design and also because I know the people who own it will fill it with books, art, wine and unmade beds.  The Bohemian life we all want.

Credenza and Table

Today as promised I’m going to show you the last job I did in Italy.  The last job before I left.  There will still be other jobs in Italy in the future, “Salve Italia”.

I hope this will be inspiring.  As you know I love grey, this was a taupe-grey.  Here I did the credenza a shade lighter than the table.  Distressed both the pieces.  Then on the table I sanded the edges irregularly and added bronze.

Almost Christmas

Winter Solstice

It is the darkest night of the year.

From now on it starts getting lighter.

Making a Forest Christmas Wreath

I'm now on the “Flipside”.

All the way across the world in Cali (California).

I got my freedom.

We are moving into a tiny cottage and I don’t exaggerate when I say tiny.  Now the Simple Life will be truly tested.

Painted Ceiling in Perugia

Here is the café at the train station in Perugia, Italy.

The ceiling is fantastic!

I also love the crumbling effect on the walls painted over in deep rich red.  I can see having a loft space with the walls aged in this manner.

A Little Shabby Chic and French Provincial

Happy Friday it is almost the weekend.

Today I’m just showing an after and before photo. 

I fell in love with this piece the moment I saw it.  I like the curved legs and curved door, plus a corner piece is always lovely.

Happy 2nd Anniversary Sette Design Blog

Can you believe it we have made two years.  We are still kicking!

It sure has been fun.

Will we make it to three years.  Will you still be here?

Stones for Peace

The Simple Life

You never know what you might find here at Sette Design.  I hope this is a tiny part of why you keep coming back.

I made a simple discovery recently, if I leave stones around the house it makes people happy.  I love to collect stones from the river or from the Adriatic and then display them around the house, sometimes with art or sometimes just randomly left around.

Painting a Restaurant - Distressing Walls

Here are the finished shots of the restaurant I have been working on in the center of our city, Foligno, Italy.

Everyone was thrilled with the the final look, rustic, distressed, aged walls and two smooth plum colored back walls, which gave a nice accent.