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Category / Desirable Digs

India’s Utopian “Star Wars” City

Her words rang out for 5,000 to hear, and in 16 languages, on a winter’s day in 1968. It was the inauguration of Auroville, the futuristic utopia in India led by guru Mirra Alfassa, who declared her mission to make “a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace…

Forget Route 66: Get Your Road Trip Kicks on Route 62

Sun-bleached buildings, a hot convertible, and the smell of a dusty roadside town. There’s nothing more American than a stretch of quiet highway, and photographer Ashley Noelle has been on a quest to capture its old haunts before time and decay beat her to it. “I started at the beginning of route 62 and the…

The Forgotten Power of the Parlour Palm

We forget that once upon a time, social status had a lot to do with the common houseplant. We’re talking about the parlour palm, one of the most significant decorative features in a Victorian home, which referred to any number of varieties of palms, ferns, and other hardy perennials that were native to South America,…

Here’s What We Know About the Mysterious Knights Templar Rabbit Holes

For the amount we talk about going down the rabbit holes here on Messy Nessy Chic, there was no way I wasn’t going to obsess over this one. Have you heard about the Caynton Caves? In Shropshire, England, on the estate of an historic English estate, a series of rabbit holes leading into what’s being speculated as…

Miami of India: The Forgotten Capital of Art Deco

Mumbai; the gateway to India, home of Bollywood cinema, infamous for its slumdogs and shanty towns. But did anyone know the city also has the second largest number of surviving Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami? Flickr Photos (c) Sandra Cohen Rose and Colin Rose While visitors to the Indian capital of entertainment…

An Ode to Floating Lighthouses

Sure, we’ve all admired picturesque lighthouses on rocky shores, or with waves crashing over them at the edge of a harbor, but…what about floating lighthouses? Like something out of a Wes Anderson movie, these fascinating vessels did exactly what their name suggests: they were lighthouses, guiding ships around obstacles and into safety. They were also…

A Compendium of Native American Tipi Decoration circa 1900

I found an online treasure chest of gas lantern slides today in Yale’s digital rare book library today. There are thousands of hand-coloured slides of the Blackfoot community in northwestern Montana at the turn of the 19th century and reflect the photographer’s particular interest in the unique decorative and artistic styles of the Native American…

Atlanta’s Phantom of the Fox and His Secret Theatre Apartment

Theatres are inherently haunted places. By night, actors tread the boards, conjuring the spirits of those who lived and those who never were. We can hardly expect all those shades to simply evaporate into the ether after the final curtain. Instead they seep into dark and secluded backstage corners – an underground lake, perhaps –…

My Brazilian World Cup Cabana

So today is the day when everyone is about to lose their sh*t because the World Cup is starting. Personally, I’m a little less enthusiastic about football, but never one to miss out on a good vibe. Football fever is rising among us, but of course, the tournament’s host nation is about to spread some irresistible…

The Man Who Lived in a Jewellery Box

He was the man with the thriftiest of Midas touches, and the only decorator who could spend $999 at a 99-cent store thanks to one mantra, seek “beauty, not luxury.” Tony Duquette was a Renaissance man of film, theatre, interior and jewellery design in Hollywood– if you name it, he probably built it and dipped…

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