Top 25 Interior Design Blogs in the World

Tent London Interiors has been mentioned in "The Top 25 Interior Design Blogs in the World".
I am honored to be nominated and happy to be part of such a great group of bloggers, including my friends Ivan at Meade Design Group and Patricia at Patricia Gray.

Thank-you Designs-n-Deal.


©2013 Tent London 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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And the Award goes to…

  
Do you know Claudia Juestel of Adeeni Design? She is a great designer, editor and  blogger from San Francisco and I invite you to know her better through her Blog, where you’ll find “Tea with Claudia” featuring interesting interviews, the latest with Kyle Bunting, great stories and what also intrigues me, frequent referral to European culture, being Claudia from Salzburg and I from Milan, two cities not far away. 
Now back to the title:
She was so kind to nominate my blog on The Stylish Blogger Award and I am honored and grateful, being in the company of extraordinary bloggers and designers.

Seven images of what I consider style true to itself:

Ischia, under a pergola a set of 1950's chairs

Macerata, geraniums in terracotta pots and a spectacular view

Milan, vintage chairs and a chandelier made of recycled glass shades

Milan, an Ikea lamp and an antique lacquered Chinese table

Venice, an antique bookcase, vintage objects and art books

 

Milan, in a XIX century building a sleek set for an icon of style

Grado, VI century, the Romanic style church

Seven  quotes by great personalities:
1) Only great minds can afford a simple style. Stendhal
2) Fashion fades, only style remains the same. Coco Chanel
3) When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person. Blaise Pascal
4) Style is knowing who you are, what to say, and not giving a damn. Gore Vidal
5) Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better. Margaret Oliphant
6) He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise. Paul Klee
Finally a controversial quote on style:
7) Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns. Willem De Kooning

Now it is my turn to choose and …The Stylish Blogger Award goes to…
Grant K. Gibson: who I follow from the beginning of my life as a blogger and who I have seen blooming exponentially.
Patricia Gray: for her fabulous blog and for pushing me in the blogosphere when I did not even know how to spell “blog”.
Ivan Meade: for the fresh approach to design, his weekly eye candies and for the intriguing interviews to top designers.
Vicente Wolf: who I had the great pleasure to meet recently and whose blog I follow to learn everything I can from a master designer.

I hope they can share their 7 thoughts on style with us!
Believe me, I have so many more names in my mind, some were already nominated, but for now I need to refrain myself.

Images© in color by Albarosa Simonetti
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Be better! At anything!

Tent London 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.

Tent London  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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I invite you to Milan

The Address magazine

Since I started blogging beautiful things happened to me, new clients who found me on Internet, new friends, real or virtual who I cherish and from whom I learn every day and...I was also asked by a few magazines to write articles for them.  Not bad for a person who has English as her second language; at times my friends make jokes on what I write and lately I was told that even my phrases' construction is inherited by my mother tongue, I guess at times I put words where they should not be, no matter how carefully I edit.
But Hey! HERE is my first article and a second one for a Vancouver magazine will come soon.

        Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan

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 the 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 to write as an Insider about any city in the world and...guess which city I chose?  Naturally having traveled extensively I could write articles on many more cities, not to mention Vancouver and who knows what the future will bring?
Now please go to the magazine, online, enjoy the beautiful images on each page, find my article on pages 106-113 and please leave lots of comments to give me some encouragement for my new career as a journalist. Just kidding!

For layout reasons, only one of my pictures was chosen and the story behind it will be part of another post on this beautiful and extravagant shoes store in Milan,
but I am glad they have chosen other superb images to represent my first city.

Guido Pasquali, Milan

You can read online the whole THE ADDRESS magazine which is so full of style, beauty, luxury and... you can subscribe for free.

 

So many gorgeous houses around the world, so many extraordinary cities.

Let's dream on!

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A-Efendy Lifestyle, Magazines, Milan, Tent London Interiors, Thanks to, Travel

Michelle, ma belle!

What can I say when a friend, great designer and blogger calls me a Goddess? I was stunned and surprised and I giggled of course. To know more about what I am talking you need to go to the Blog A Schematic Life, by Michelle Morelan, and you will read about my daily life in

"Six objets de vie"

starting with my precious cup of coffee in the morning.

It was an honor to be part of this extraordinary blog, always full of superb drawings, educational videos, new ideas. A true learning experience.

Thank you Michelle!

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One of my favorite blogs

To understand why there is the picture of this gorgeous pastry above… you must read the whole post!

A year ago I discovered by pure luck the most refined blog, written impeccably by Diane Dorrans Saeks, a best-selling author from San Francisco. She has published 20 books on Interior design, all of them an absolute must in your personal library if you are a professional or just passionate about design and style.
I am sure many of you are already familiar with some of her books like the following:

 

 

In her blog The Style Saloniste she really keeps up with the title, in fact it is like being part of one of the famous salons of the past, where people were involved in deep conversations about highly cultured themes.
She writes about design, style, travel and I have virtually accompanied her to Venice, Provence, around Paris, through magic India and many more places, always with the feeling of being there with her, so vivid are the description of places and people.
Now I like to tell you about the pastry pictured at the beginning…from the book “Paris patisseries” as the one below.

I am so glad to say that I received a great gift as a giveaway from her blog, a marvelous book on French patisserie which will enrich my large collection of books about food, recipes… yes… but also novels talking about the pleasure of the table, books on history of food, how recipes and the way of entertain has changed through centuries, and more.

Can you imagine my joy when Diane wrote to me that I won the book!

Thank you Diane from one of your many loyal readers

and thanks for the kind words in your last post.

You are an inspiration.

Images from The Style Saloniste blog

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A gift

Sorry...I just wanted to catch your attention! the gift was for me...

I just discovered that I won another giveaway, this time from James at Garvinweasel, a blog I discovered by chance, while I was judging, with other designers, the interiors sent to Brooke at Velvet & Linen for the "giveaway of the year" and I was so attracted by the image he sent.
The blogosphere is becoming more and more interesting every day, discovering and connecting with new people, helping each other, learning from everyone, receiving and giving gifts...what a marvelous way to start my day! I will just have to wake up earlier and earlier every morning to keep up with all these amazing blogs.

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What Opaline says about Tent London

I received a very nice comment today from a blogger I did not know:

"You have one of the coolest blogs I've found in a while. I hope you don't mind if I "steal" from you often (with credit, of course) for my Sucasa design sites"

so I went to check their site... please go and read Opaline, you'll find many interesting things.
It was also great to see my own photography on their blog! All my images are for sale and they can be found on my website, on my blog and many more in my portfolio.
For any information please contact me via Email, I will be pleased to provide you with details.

Image by Albarosa Simonetti
You may also like to read Home decor Fornasetti style

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A-Efendy Blogging, Tent London Interiors, Thanks to