It was sold it as a social experiment. A fly-on-the-wall view of a family's life under the sun in the picturesque town of Santa Barbara, California. When An American Family premiered on on US television in 1973, its subject – the loveable Loud family – it would spark America’s gr … | Continue reading
Hiding in plain sight, you're looking into the eye of the last remaining example of the magnificent private mansions that once lined the Champs Élysées in Paris. Hotel de la Païva was built by a famous 19th century courtesan who came from humble beginnings in the ghetto of Moscow … | Continue reading
1. A top secret government Missile Complex is Up For Sale at $395,000The ex-Titan II silo hosted a missile fitted with a nine megaton thermonuclear warhead."BOLD opportunity to own a decommissioned underground Titan II missile complex" in Catalina Arizona. Found o | Continue reading
Chaim Gross in his studio. Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation / Instagram Wait for no muse. Make a habit of working all the time. Let your wooden sculptures grow up, and your bronze sculptures grow out. Such was the world according to Chaim Gross, the patron saint of bohemian Green … | Continue reading
© Michael HalsbandNobody could do camp quite like Nomi Klaus. He left the downtown New York club scene speechless with soaring operatic vocals, dressed in his signature triangular vinyl tuxedo complete with smoke bombs, punk rock nuances and 1950s sci-fi sound effects. On any giv … | Continue reading
Chaim Gross in his studio. Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation / Instagram Wait for no muse. Make a habit of working all the time. Let your wooden sculptures grow up, and your bronze sculptures grow out. Such was the world according to Chaim Gross, the patron saint of bohemian Green … | Continue reading
Here at MessyNessyChic, we love digging up long lost illustrations of the past to inject some creativity into our day. From the forgotten artwork found in lost Art Nouveau and Art Deco magazines to the drawing boards of the Ballets Russes; Heath Robinson's peculiar art of over-co … | Continue reading
Bryant Scannell / Flickr We interrupt your life above ground for some unsolicited subterranean splendour. It's just a quick pit stop off the humble Highway 191 in Southwestern Utah. But poke your head inside, and you'll discover a 5,000 square foot home fully equipped for life be … | Continue reading
Paris, is that you? All signs would point to yes in this building, a bite sized double if ever there was one for the Opéra Garnier this side of the Atlantic. Y'know, the one with a dramatic double staircase made for cape swooshing, cinematic lamp posts, and marble for days? The o … | Continue reading
1. Juni Ludowici’s 'Round House' on the River Thames, 1958'Cause tiny house have been around forever. In 1959, a designer named Juni Ludowici made his own Rundhaus (Round House). Found via Tumblr 2. Inside a $5.5M Floating Mansion in Miamihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k58G | Continue reading
The New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show. ©New York Botanical Garden / Instagram Sweater weather is officially underway in New York City, which means the holiday season is upon us! As the nights wax longer, and the subway lamps get a first dusting of snow, you're likely t … | Continue reading
migumil / InstagramWe thought we knew how the story would end. After all, we've seen our fair share of crumbling castles here at Messy Nessy Chic – chateaux holding on for dear life in the final hours of their swan song, left to the whims of nature and urbex explorers. Restoring … | Continue reading
©vermont_cabin / InstagramWe take our motto, "Don't Be a Tourist in New York," very seriously – which is why we're taking our own advice this November. Fall has arrived, Central Park is ablaze with shades of yellow, red and orange, but you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice if … | Continue reading
Books can be magical things, but some as it turns out, may be more magical than others. They might look like ordinary old books, but they're hiding a curious little secret in plain sight. A fore-edge painting is a scene painted on the edges of the pages of a book; invisible when … | Continue reading
1. Nylon Vending Machine in the Paris Metro, 1955Print available from the RATP website. 2. The Instagram Account of a Pigment CollectorAt her cabin in the woods of Washington, Heidi Gustafson is creating a many-colored library of one of mankind’s first pig | Continue reading
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of year again; the days are getting shorter, the clocks have gone back/forward?, the rusty leaves are floating off the trees, everyone’s shoulders are moving ever so closer to their ears, and the heaters on the terraces have gone ba … | Continue reading
Xenia RybinaMeet Xenia Rybina, the Parisian witch you never knew you needed in your life. Her artistic talents range from fashion illustration to stop-motion animation; esoteric embroidery to straight-up witchcraft. Which, she explains, gets a bad rap. "Let me tell you something, … | Continue reading
The Merchant of Menace, AKA Adrian StreetBefore Ziggy played guitar, Adrian Street pounded the ring (and the makeup counter) in silver tights. The pro-wrestler changed the game forever in the 1960s when he decided the game needed more panache. More glitter. More glam. He emerged … | Continue reading
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of year again; the days are getting shorter, the clocks have gone back, the rusty leaves are floating off the trees, everyone’s shoulders are moving ever so closer to their ears, and the heaters on the terraces have gone back to the … | Continue reading
Paris may be the City of Light, but it is filled with dark corners. Some of the best-known ghost stories were inspired by the very real, gory history of this otherwise romantic setting. Behind – and, indeed, beneath – the picturesque Haussmanian facades lurk countless tragic tale … | Continue reading
Pierre Marie in front of his work © Ambroise TézenasYou know Pierre Marie, even if you don’t think you do. You know the arabesque curves of his tiles, the vegetal motifs reminiscent of Guimard and Rousseau. You know the feel of his rattan and tapestry creations as if they came fr … | Continue reading
1. Oh, just a Floating Bed in the OceanLos Angeles–based artist Ariana Papademetropoulos’ new body of work, "Just Like Arcadia" highlights and explores the way the natural becomes mediated and conceptualized through domestication, locating interiority as a key in understanding th … | Continue reading
Sigmund Freud called it “the loveliest region of Italy: a stunning orgy of colors, scents, and lights…a great delight”.Searching for the perfect Autumn getaway? Look no further, because our latest eBook from the Keyholder's Library is here! Start planning your trip to Sicily now. | Continue reading
The initiation of Janet Farrar (centre). ©Stewart FarrarWe finally know what we want to be when we grow up. A forest dwelling, diadem wearing witch à la Patricia Crowther, Maxine Sanders, or Doreen Valiente. Never heard of them? Neither had we, until a trip to the Museum of Witch … | Continue reading
We'll file this one under "Things that ended up in North Korea". When it first opened in 1988 on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it promised "paradise at sea"; a floating seven-storey mega structure with nearly 200 rooms, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, a helipad, a tennis court a … | Continue reading
©Paul Symes / FlickrAt a glance, it's just another postcard perfect village in North Cornwall. But delve deeper into the misty valley of Boscastle, and you’ll find it harbours a special kind of magic. Literally. “There are legions of witches across Britain,” says Simon Costin whe … | Continue reading
Once upon a time, in a pre-smartphone world, people had to make their own entertainment. And so enters the salon, an Italian-influenced tradition of gathering of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, philosophers and intelligencia that flourished during a period known as the 'age … | Continue reading
1. Waiting room with TV sets at Greyhound bus station, Los Angeles, USA, 1969Found here. 2. Before McDonald's there was "Snappy Service System"The saga of Snappy Service System dates back to the 1930s. This Chicago hamburger stand was forgotten for decades, encased under yell | Continue reading
Elvis and Maila NurmiIn our usual perusal of the internet’s nethers, we kept finding trails that pointed to a darker side of the "King of Rock & Roll", notably, to a dame of darkness named Maila Nurmi, who pioneered the campy-vampire-starlet schtick in the 1950s, paving the way f … | Continue reading
As an author and purveyor of curiosities, if there was ever a collaboration to be had, this was always it! So it is with great honour that we reveal the Olympia Le-Tan x Don't be a Tourist Limited Edition embroidered Clutch bags, now available for curious collectors at OlympiaLe … | Continue reading
Imagining the fabled landscape "Irish Atlantis" on The Cliffs of Moher, not unlike those of. National Library of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Clare County LibraryEvery seven years, it emerged from the mist. The isle of "Hy-Brasil," aka the ancient Irish Atlantis bound to the whi … | Continue reading
Dragons curled up under the bridge. Toboggans splashed Parisians in to the Seine, benches twirled, and wine flowed freely. It was a Saturday afternoon like any other at the "Magic City" of Paris, the long lost fun fair that was the nation's very first parc d'attractions. As such, … | Continue reading
1. Porto Flavia, Italy, a sea harbor and former mining hub© SimoneRicci© gianluca.usai© MichelaA tunnel approximately 600 metres long, dug out of the rock by the miners, appears halfway up a cliff, offering a breathtaking view of the captivating Pan di Zucchero sea stack, a 132-m | Continue reading
I've been digging through the archives of the Met Museum again. You'd be surprised how many fascinating stories of dormant fashion brands are buried in there. They ceased to exist for a variety of reasons, but many of the individual designs kept in the collection reveal a direct … | Continue reading
Vive la resistance! Join me 600m below Paris to liberate the city in a special new “Don’t be a Tourist” episode with Microsoft. Discover a WWII bunker deserted for decades and relive the liberation of Paris with HoloLens mixed reality technology through the eyes of French resista … | Continue reading
The nounours in Paris ©Marco Ivezic / Instagram They came quietly. Massive teddy bears, popping up along Paris’ boulevard des Gobelins to cozy up in a bookshop, or relax en terrasse. Week after week, they seemed to multiply as if by magic, inciting joy and mystery in the otherwis … | Continue reading
The "Max" dining room. ©Jeremy & Kelsey Jauntily hung Friends posters, VHS movies, gel pens, furniture that looks like it's been taken straight off the set of Saved by the Bell, and nonsensical – but absolutely necessary – squiggly lines on every surface. We love the 1990s more … | Continue reading
1. The Best Cat Box ever?Found on Reddit Aww.2. These Art Nouveau & Art Deco sketches of Italian architect Silvio GambiniFound on Italia Liberty. 3. A Hidden Staircase at the Winchester HouseThere are just too many secret doors | Continue reading
We held our breath as its story unfolded. That of a curious, half-moon shaped castle unlike any other we’d seen before, tucked away in the quiet warmth of Bordeaux’s countryside. Something in our gut told us that this castle, of the many we’ve fallen for, was to be different from … | Continue reading
Octagon House, Watertown, Jefferson County, WI. Library of Congress. No kings. No priests. No aristocracies. Only a society whose residents believed they should "grow together — not by competition, but by united action." It may sound like a Bob Dylan lyric, but it's a 104-yr-old … | Continue reading
It's 1989 and Wendy Carlos is giving in an interview to the BBC surrounded by her electronic synthesizers and her Siamese cats. The Grammy-award winning composer and pioneer of electronic music is entirely in her element, giving a demonstration of the first commercially available … | Continue reading
Well, that's one hell of a way to end Paris Fashion Week! The Spring-Summer 2020 shows went out with quite a bang this year when a mystery woman seamlessly stormed the Chanel catwalk. At first, it looked like a pre-planned twist – the woman was decked out in tweedy garments and a … | Continue reading
The Tree House Joint ©groovi_raffi / Instagram There's no return from the orbit of SunRay Kelley. Not that we'd ever want to leave the little compound he's built in Washington state; it's a wonderland of moss covered fairy houses and sparkling waterways, wood shingled roofs and H … | Continue reading
1. Autumn Perfection in a PhotographIs there anyone that captures fall in America better than Kiel James Patrick? Ugh. 2. The Highland by Incredible Tiny HomesMore photos here. 3. Italian Clam Shell ChairsItalian Venetian Grotto Clam Shell | Continue reading
© KevanIn Margate, on the south-east coast of England, there is an underground grotto lined with majestic mosaics made entirely of seashells – and no-one knows how it got there. The site was discovered in 1835 by a father and son who were attempting to dig a duck pond. The story … | Continue reading
Picture an IKEA warehouse – but make it chic – and add an inventory of priceless furniture, textiles and objects that date as far back as the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, who indisputably raised the bar on what we'll call French 'power decorating' for centuries to come. A sp … | Continue reading
Victor Hugo's Hauteville House As long as folks have had money, they've had the ability to realise interior designs that most of us can only dream about – to breathe new life into ancient Italian villas, or hole up in a French seaside fortress; to live out their days in a storybo … | Continue reading
104 rue d'Aubervilliers c. 1900 ©Léon et Lévy/Roger-Viollet It was a time when divorcées were only allowed to be buried at night, when the Arch of Triomphe wore a black mourning veil, and the business of death was booming in Paris. In fact, over one thousand undertakers worked to … | Continue reading