Happy Chic in London

It was Jonathan’s dog, a Norwich terrier called Liberace, on the cover that lured me in to have a peek inside.

I discovered, actually, the book is pretty good and Jonathan Adler is hilarious.  Check out the about me page on his website.

His guiding motto is “If your heirs won’t fight over it, then we won’t make it.”    

Too true… Mr. N and I have every intention of spending every last penny we have before we pop our clogs so that our children will be left with no choice but to fight over the tchotchkes we have left them.  Might as well make those trinkets stylish then.

The book has great photos and lots of useful tips. After an overview of the usual design rules, he tells you how to bend these rules to fit the current taste for casual, quirky and eclectic interiors. I agree with him that too tasteful an interior is boring but too eclectic can just look plain weird.  It’s hard to strike the right balance but this book should get you started with lots of user-friendly tips.  Jonathan pops up regularly in the photos, flashing his All-American Jewish boy next door grin (with great dental work, natch).  I can only imagine all the Jewish mothers’ despair when they found out this otherwise perfect catch was playing for a different team.

Jonathan, who has been called the Prince of Chic in New York, has begun to expand his empire-building to London.  He’s got a store on Sloane Street and Kravet at Chelsea Harbour imports his fabric collection (with the sunny name of “Utopia” – but of course!).

Half my summer wardrobe is orange.  I love orange in the sunshine teamed up with bright blue skies.  Maybe I can learn to like it paired up with London grey.  What do you think?