Be better! At anything!

Brillante Interiors project

“Be better! At anything!”  This is the mantra for Betterfly: an online  service to find the right people to help you learn, look and feel better.
I was recently asked to be a guest writer on their blog and since I am very busy with a project I chose to send something already prepared:

"The colors of our life" 

an article I have written recently for a new Vancouver magazine on real estate, which will be distributed to 5000 local home owners in 2011. This way all my readers from Amman to Melbourne and beyond (yes I have readers all over the world and I am still amazed and thankful for blogging) can read the article.
So now please go to Betterfly, clicking HERE, and read what I mean by "The colors of our life".
As for the armchair above I have a long story to tell you.

Year 1971 - Milan - Two sofas and one chair were bought in Milan for my first apartment, made by the famous Poltrona Frau,

Poltrona Frau logo

back then they were covered in a gorgeous cognac color and in the most supple leather, with super comfortable loose cushions and a contemporary line that did indeed stand the test of time.

Year 2005 - Vancouver - After more than thirty years the abused leather was tired and even if worn out leather has now become fashionable, I decided to re-upholster them, this time in a totally new way: a silky velvet by Robert Allen in two different but complimentary colors, a fresh tender green and a hot pink! What can I say, I am not afraid of colors. I still remember the surprise and joy on my upholsterer face when he discovered the way  Poltrona Frau  builds furniture, he had never seen such a superb craftsmanship.  Six years later I still adore my renewed furniture and I am not tired of the look.

Brillante  Interiors project in progress

Year 2007 - Milan - About two years after the re-upholstery job I was in Italy and I went to buy the usual stack of Design magazines...to my amazement on the cover of March 2007 "Ville Giardini" a luxury monthly Italian publication there was my living room or actually something very similar, same style of sofas, two color velvet, fresh green and hot pink exactly like mine but this time they used the green for cushions and the pink for the frame.
Ilaria Miani, from Rome, was the designer featured on the cover and you can see the similarities with my sofas (the actual colors in my place and the ones on the cover are much more similar then they appear here!)

Ilaria Miani project

On her website there are three pages of Magazines where she was featured and you can find,  bottom row, the cover of Ville Giardini magazine I am talking about.

Ilaria Miani website

Many thanks to Betterfly for featuring one of my articles and for giving me the opportunity to talk in this post about the mysterious coincidence of similar living rooms in two continents.

Ilaria Miani and Albarosa Simonetti...were they separated at birth?

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