Rustan's Talk: Italian Living & Entertaining

I attended the Rustan's talk on Italian Living and Entertaining. I brought along our two helpers so they get to learn something from the talk as well. It was not as in-depth as I hoped for, but I did enjoy My Home's Jie Pambid on his talk about Italian design. But before that, let me first summarize the other speakers:

The host (I forgot her name, sorry) briefly talked about Italian entertaining in general - serving of wine, Italian food, formal and informal dining set-up, etc etc. Then the owner of the new L'Contro talked about the different course meals and what can be served: Aperitif (like Cocktails), Antipasto, First Course: pasta, Main Course: meat or seafood, Soup, Salad, Cheese, Dessert, then coffee or tea.

The next talk was from Marcoroberto and he briefly discussed about Murano and the Murano glass/furniture. He also added that to truly entertain the Italian way, there should be 3 other things: Love, Passion (Romance), and Art. Without having those in the atmosphere one cannot truly entertain the way Italians do. Music and art are very important.

Then, the last talk was from Jie Pambid. Before the talk, I just had to tell him how much I loved the July Issue of My Home and that for me it was the best issue so far. He was very happy to hear that and we briefly discussed its contents.

Anyway, on to his talk...he started with a short history of Italian Design: Traditional, Provincial, and Modern. Then he explained to us the vignette he just arranged awhile ago and that one need not stick to just one style. Can you guess which of the furniture used are traditional, provincial, and modern? He asked us this hehehe.

There are four important elements according to him:

• Color: This binds the space together. For Italian design, use of earthy neutrals is very important: mocha, beige, black.
• Texture: Combine rough (rug), smooth (settee and pillows), metal (shelving, I forgot what those two pillar-like things were called), and glass (accessories).
• Lighting: Very important to use warm light in almost all areas. White light should just be used for task lighting (office and desks).
• Shape: Notice the shapes of the vases and urns on the background? Though they are different in texture, their shapes are almost the same. Repetition is important in this case.

What is important is that the homeowners should experiment and let their personality come through.

For the Q&A portion, I was of course the first to ask. He was really very nice and called me by my name hehehe. I asked about the color Turquoise (it is my favorite home design color hehehe). I asked how this can be incorporated into Italian design. He said that it is a nice and somewhat daring color, so I can mix it with the beige-y and earthy neutrals as well. I loved it and smiled like crazy when he told me this: For a more daring take, mix it with chocolate brown. I LOVE HIM! After the talk, we chatted for a bit and told him that I really wanted turquoise and chocolate brown so him advising this color combo just made my day!

Remember this, I made a few weeks back?

Yep, that's turquoise on the right and chocolate brown on the left.

He also told me to have chocolate brown and champagne pink and I said I might do that for my daughter's room. I did tell him though that I love champagne pink, especially the drink (pink champagne). Anyway, our chat ended with him encouraging me to study in PSID. Hmm, I really just might do that, I'm so inspired by him hahaha!

So anyways, even though the talk was delayed for more than an hour (which almost tempted me leave), I guess staying and waiting for it was worth it!