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CARPET BE TOO TALL OR SKINNY THE GIRL DRAGON T his summer, we're dreaming of an imaginative respite beneath a towering palm. Thankfully, so is local shutterbug Steve Wrubel, who recently debuted his "29 Palms" series with each giclée print in an edition of 200. Wrubel's passion for palms can be traced to his father who grew up in the Mojave Desert in California in the magical town of 29 Palms, and to summertime visits to his grandparents in Southern California. "I was lucky to have grown up around palms," says Wrubel. "I think everyone loves a palm tree. Exotic yet fanciful, graceful and sturdy … They're the supermodels of the tree world." $600 to $2,600, at Number One, 1 Highland Park Village, 214.520.0101, numberonehp.com. Jane Rozelle It's congrats to Dallas darlings Kirsten Fitzgibbons and Kelli Ford of interior design firm Kirsten Kelli (you may know them as the owners of home boutique Madison in Highland Park Village), who were vetted for the prestigious Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York, hailed as the Academy Awards for interior designers. As this year's chair, designer Bunny Williams and her committee selected 22 of the country's most celebrated interior designers and architects to participate in the 42nd annual Show House, which welcomed more than 20,000 guests in May. Staged at Manhattan's iconic Villard Mansion at 51st and Madison, the chosen designers spent eight weeks transforming The Mansion on Madison. Designers included Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Christopher Peacock, Vicente Wolf Associates and more. "The first challenge we encountered," says Ford, "was the short timeline of seven weeks to conceive and execute our room design, then getting elevator time for installation." She calls the result "a luxurious office study, a refuge for either a man or woman to live in and enjoy. We loved the smooth monochromatic palette of camel shades and splashes of color, which have become something of a signature for us." The Showhouse is over, but you can see the rooms at kipsbaydecoratorshowhouse.org. Max Trowbridge DECORATION YOU CAN NEVER AND THE FINIAL Right, center: Rosalyn Schwartz's The Big Perfume, 2006, at McNay Art Museum Right: Nancy Lorenz's Red Gold Pour, 2013, at McNay Art Museum GOES TO... Steve Wrubel's Palm 13 Carini Lang's Phoenix rug woven from deconstructed saris with the We're in love with this dragon carpet rendered in silk from deconstructed vintage saris. It's 8' 9" x 12' 4", $18,000 at Carol Piper Rugs at Ellouise Abbott. Houston-based Piper is one of Texas' preeminent sources for antique to contemporary carpets, rugs, textiles and tapestries —and now she's opened a showroom within a showroom at Ellouise Abbott (Texas' oldest showroom, owned by Betsie Weatherford) in the International on Turtle Creek. Piper mans the Dallas space alongside Bard Center-educated director Ryan Reitmeyer; they both plan to commute weekly between cities. "Dallas is a huge market for art and design," Reitmeyer says. "What excites me is how different Dallas is from Houston. That really speaks to the range of design possibilities that exist across Texas." Piper and Weatherford will soon collaborate on an exclusive line of Fortuny-inspired carpets — a symbiotic move, as Ellouise Abbott is the exclusive purveyor of Fortuny in a four- state area. 150 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 201, 214.239.8722, carolpiperrugs.com. Catherine D. Anspon Christopher Spitzmiller — New York–based potter to the president — is best known for the glazed lamps he handcrafts in his Manhattan studio. But his hand-glazed marbleized dinner plates have us emphatically agog. Not quite as fastidious as aptware but similar in feel, the plates have an irresistibly crisp technicality. Look for four beguiling color combinations: Delft blue and white, teal and white, brown and white, and a brown and white stone design. $95 at Madison, Mecox Gardens, christopherspitzmiller.com. Seth Vaughan When a plate gives you pause … Christopher Spitzmiller's hand-glazed dinner plate in Delft blue and white T wo of the most lavish shows this summer bow to the Baroque. "Beauty Reigns: A Baroque Sensibility in Recent Painting" at the McNay Art Museum — ample reason to take a trip to San Antonio — considers 17th-century antecedents (through August 17). This survey of 13 contemporary painting talents, organized by senior curator René Barilleaux, is a sensory overload of swirls, whorls and patterns; bold, often dramatic scale; and an occasionally Day-Glo palette. The succulent summer show is recapped in the accompanying catalog (McNay, $29.95), which oozes attitude. Houston's Blaffer Art Museum offers a lavish play on 17th- and 18th-century ceramics in "Francesca DiMattio: Housewares" (through August 30). Riffing on refined chintz teacups, dainty chinoiserie-festooned teapots, confident Delft and the florid flourishes of porcelain produced for royal courts, DiMattio confronts us with deconstructed structures — often as tall as the onlooker — that evidence an extraordinary totemic presence. mcnayart.org, blafferart museum.org. Catherine D. Anspon Francesca DiMattio's Chandelabra, 2014, at Blaffer Art Museum PHOTO COURTESY THE ARTIST COLLECTION LUCY SCHWALBE, PHOTO COURTESY THE ARTIST COURTESY THE ARTIST AND SALON 94, NYC, PHOTO TOM DUBROCK Baroque my HEART Francesca DiMattio's Augarten Fetish Sculpture, 2014, at Blaffer Art Museum COURTESY THE ARTIST AND SALON 94, NYC; PHOTO JEFF ELSTONE