‘Monte Carlo is a really fake city – all big cars and consumerism. I wanted to create a home that would allow its owners to be more connected with their souls,’ explains Valentina Guidi Ottobri, the creative force behind this project.
That is why, in the entrance hall, she has chosen a hypnotic wallpaper by Wall & Decò – an art deco-style pattern full of all-seeing eyes. ‘The eye,’ Valentina tells us, ‘is a protector.’
Symbols are important for the creator and curator behind VGO Associates, who begins every project by performing a numerological reading for her clients – in this case Marco and Enrica, a young Tuscan couple. The insights she gleans are then used to inform a selection of colours and important objects that will enhance everyday life.
Here, the palette comprises a lot of red – a shade that promotes powerfulness – and yellow, which suggests family and the pursuit of a happy life.
After making a very large change in her own life, Valentina is passionate about empowering others. She quit a high-flying job as director of the homewares department store LuisaViaRoma at the height of the pandemic in 2020 to launch her own gallery, studio and online marketplace for artisanal pieces and alternative therapies – and hasn’t looked back.
Working with many of the craftspeople she sourced and stocked in her old role, she sees what she has built today not as a gallery but a community. Home is at the very centre of that community. ‘Our home,’ she says, ‘is like a shell. A shell that we retreat into. The question is: how do we best experience this place?’ vgo-associates.com
