One of my favorite pieces in my art collection is a striped Spinning Vase by Michael Biello.

The black-and-white stripes on the vase make it whimsical yet classic and magical … what an inspiration for the design of a current client’s main living space … and perhaps for other rooms as well.

Proudly, I would like to share with you two links about my design work in an apartment at The Murano condominium in Philadelphia. The interior design for the apartment recently won a Silver 2011 Dream Home Award.

The first link is to Philadelphia Style Magazine. Kathleen Nicholson Webber, whose work has appeared in Martha Stewart Living, the Philadephia Inquirer, InStyle and other major publications, wrote eloquently about my design.

http://phillystylemag.com/living/articles/home-tour-an-artful-italian-abode

The second link is to the blog of Ben Weldon. He is an extraordinary photographer I had the pleasure to work with during the shoot for the article published in Philadelphia Style Magazine.

http://benweldonphotography.com/blog/2012/02/15/philadelphia-environmental-portrait-carlo-fiammenghi-interior-designer/

Enjoy!

I am excited to share with you my latest interior design creation in collaboration with the interdisciplinary artist Michael Biello: Hickory Lane, one of the newest additions to the Fairmount dining scene. Located directly across from historic Eastern State Penitentiary, this new American bistro takes its name from the original name of Fairmount  Avenue.

Simple materials, warm colors and mysterious whimsical accents are the keys of the restaurant design. Burlap curtains and purple trims frame beautiful windows that surround the dining room.

A wall made with vintage ribbons recreates the mysterious feeling of dining in a forest amid rustic wood tables. Antique crystal light pendants, created by Biello, hang from the ceiling like stars in a dark night.

As you enter the restaurant, dancing butterflies welcome you atop a customized exhibition kitchen bar made from reclaimed burnished hickory wood.

Whimsical bunny sconces, creations of Biello, provide muted magical lighting.

My Grazie to Michael Biello, who created unique art; Dan Martin for organizing the impossible, and Michael-Ann who kept track of the impossible.

Rooms shouldn’t be designed in a way where everything has to be in the exact right place, avoiding what I like to call “disturbing perfection”. I prefer to design an interior that surprises, does not have a historical style but a humorous or theatrical statement. My interiors reflect a sense of identity so rooms never appear ordinary and are expressions of a mood or attitude. The plexiglas vintage letters from a hotel that is no longer in business are my surprise in this room for this summer. Humorously they bring into the room my mood, attitude or just my statement for this coming summer: HOT. I found these letters in a vintage-antique store during my Memorial Day weekend at the beach. It was a very HOT day and people in the store were really into the pair of gold sneakers I was wearing. Someone defined them as very HOT (the shoes or me?!). And the HOTEL HOLLYWOOD apparently was a very HOT spot for the summer down there. I decided: those letters were mine, but not all of them. I choose just three: H O T, the statement-mood-attitude of my summer and hopefully yours too. Stay cool but be HOT.

Ciao Ciao,
Carlo