DE-TUSCANIZING YOUR HOME

ASK THE EXPERT

By Thomas Burger

“De-Tuscanizing” your home is easier than you may think!

THOMAS EXPLAINS: De-Tuscanizing your home is accomplished mostly in the demolition of useless soffits, pop outs, recesses and walls. All of which create small, dark, busy rooms that aren’t charming but suffocating to be honest. Less is more even in traditional homes. In an interview with Mick Wallace, Frank Lloyd Wright stated that he received letters from clients indicating that the removal of walls and superfluous details from traditional architecture, leaving clean more open spaces had a life-changing effect on them. Tuscan architecture was never meant to be heavy or busy but somehow has been misinterpreted and over embellished in many parts of the United States. I owned a home in Tuscany for years so trust me I know and love real Tuscan architecture. I also know how to improve it with modern engineering, materials and technologies that will open up the design of your home, clean it up and create a more sophisticated and more up to date look whether or not you are looking to completely modernize or just lighten and open up your home reflecting a more authentic Tuscan style.

Once the shell of your home has been successfully opened up and cleaned up, attention to furniture, lighting, fabrics and color palette is your next step. So often I see heavy over scaled over carved and oddly proportioned furniture in densely textured fabrics dominating the scene here in the Valley. This need not be in order to furnish homes of large scale with high ceilings. There are better and more successful solutions that, I promise you, will change the way you feel in your home in a way you never imagined. Art is one of the final steps in reinventing your home.

Art is a very personal thing and I certainly am an avid collector of every style, period, culture, type and medium of art that I mix carefully in my homes and offices. The placement of art; however, should not be personal but should be placed in a home in such a way to balance and punctuate the architecture and furnishings of a home. I go much further into depth on “Art Placement” in a future article that I hope you will enjoy. Until then I trust that I have encouraged you to create the home that you truly love that embraces your dreams and desires.

Call for your appointment: (702) 468-9734 || w. thomasburgerdesign.com