(photo via traditional home.)

among all the inspiriation in lonny, there is a great spread on ellie somerville’s chic & cheerful apartment, beginning on virtual page #145.  i love the way she painted in trompe l’oeil mouldings on her pale blue living room walls.  brilliant!

“don’t be afraid to paint a vintage piece.  every piece of furniture can’t be brown.”

can i get an amen?

(photo of mr. marty’s showroom from nashville examiner.)

noted in this morning’s nyt style/design magazine, regarding this spread on todd selby & apartamento: “tousled: studied interior design dishabille; the antidote to perfectly styled rooms that have long been the aspirational norm in design magazines…”

dishabille was one of my grandmother’s very favorite words…though she (charmingly) pronounced it “desh-a-bell”, and it took until mme. lavrakas’s 8th grade french class for me to learn the correct pronunciation.  gigi loved to say that she was currently in her dishabille, or suggest that we lie around in our collective dishabille.  this often involved eating ice cream sodas in her bed, she in her slip, us in our jammies.  hair rollers were occasionally worn as well.

gigi’s very own vernacular also included some other very random, hilarious things.  when she’d knock on the door, if you were to ask “who’s there?” she’d reply, “the devil with a pitchfork!” breaking up in giggles.  if frustrated, she’d exclaim “oh for the love of pete! (or, alternately, mike!)  concluding a thought, she would say, “well there you go, tony.”  we’ve never been quite sure who tony was.  but this is for sure: mrs. jones is all for bringing dishabille back.

1. the bunnies are funny in their twisted-ear-posing bunny-seriousness.

 2. it’s a print room layout…of bunnies.  and you know mrs. jones is always looking for an excuse to obsess further over the subject of print rooms. 

last week’s cover, “homage”, by ana juan, also caught my attention for its sort of sad-seeming prettiness…though fashion-challenged me did not understand the reference until cracking open the april vanity fair (which, coincidentally, hit the mailbox on the same day) and seeing a photograph (below, from vanity fair) of the alexander mcqueen butterfly hat that he created in 2004 honoring his friend & muse, isabella blow.  so now that’s all clear.  in a bittersweet way.

in that issue, there was a great piece on polyvore …also something new to under-a-fashion-rock-dweller mrs. jones, and where the clothing “sets” lately are featuring (natch) a lot of alexander mcqueen, especially the butterfly hat.  this is the part that has me all a-flutter: did you know that you can create polyvore sets of rooms?  oh yes, it’s true!  so, who’s in?  (and if you know how to add wall colors and patterns, will you please write and give me a clue?) 

which is exactly what i felt when i saw this in my just-arrived may 2009 house beautiful:

prussian blue venetian plaster walls in a dining room designed by allison caccoma.  gorgeous.

(from l to r: paint, hines & co.’s “palermo stripe” paper, paint.)

there was also (p. 68) a nice mention of artist julian merrow-smith, a long-time fave. but the absolute mailbox high for the week was in the march 16 new yorker…a wonderful profile of the ultimate (gentle-) “man on the street”, bill cunningham.  his weekly new york times online slideshows (narrated in his inimitable new englander’s accent) along with his photos and commentary in the “styles” section, are an inspiring sunday morning treat.