Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/470425
M aya Romanoff's legendary wallpaper was represented by Donghia for a whopping 24 years. Now the line has left that roost, teaming up in Dallas and Houston with George Cameron Nash showrooms. To celebrate, Nash has created a dazzling jewel box of a display — and, in Dallas, a public art installation à la Christo. There's plenty of reason to rejoice: Nash and Romanoff, who died last year, go way back. "Let me tell you a bit of history about me and Maya Romanoff," Nash says. "In 1987, when I was working at Hargett [the new-defunct showroom in the Dallas Design District] and I was just starting my own showroom, Maya was the only one who came with me. He believed in me. I opened up, called everyone after I got the lease, but nope, not a single one who'd promised they'd come with me did — except Maya. He said, 'You have a brilliant, artistic career ahead of you, and I want to be a part of it'. So, I went after it the way I am now and put in a really exciting showroom display." Three-and-a-half years later, Nash lost the line to Donghia, who offered the Chicago-based wallpaper genius a seven-city deal. Romanoff and Nash remained friends for more than two decades, and shortly after Romanoff's death in 2014, Nash got a call from the company, asking to come back. "It's not a line you just throw up on the display wings and show," he says of the dazzling handcrafted designs that include mother-of-pearl, inlaid seashell, micro-thin wood veneer and flexible glass beading (which has been inducted into the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's permanent collection). "Everything comes full circle," Nash says. "It's an opportunity to sell an artist like Maya's great work." To the trade at George Cameron Nash. Rebecca Sherman We really can't get enough of Bunny Williams and her cozy pedigreed lifestyle. Williams has revised the classic Bunny Williams: On Garden Style (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, $50), which was first published in 1998. In this edition, she visits breathtaking gardens from around the world — some small patches of ground, others hectares of manicured perfection, and all glorious. But Bunny gets her hands dirty, imparting practical advice on planning your garden, then bringing it to fruition, with plant lists, a reading list and more homework. CULTIVATING BUNNY One of the foremost examples of successful organic gardening, the gardens at Highgrove were 30 years in the making. Landscape architect Bunny Guinness and the green-thumbed Prince of Wales have created Highgrove: An English Country Garden (Rizzoli $50) — 240 pages lushly documenting a single garden. And I don't think a delphinium was photographed twice. Breathtaking. PRINCE of a GARDEN dare you to find an abode in Marfa that doesn't have at least one piece of Garza Marfa colorful, powder- coated metal and leather furniture. Vibrantly hued stools in green, blue, red and orange with walnut or oak seats can be had for $750 each. A saddle-leather ottoman with a white base is $720, while Peruvian blanket pillows big enough to be used as floor cushions are $395 each. The Joule Hotel in Dallas' creative directors, Kristen and Joel Cole, have long had a love affair with the Marfa artists' wares, using them in Weekend Coffee and The Joule's lobby. Garza Marfa's creators, West Coast natives Jamey and Constance Garza, moved to Marfa in 2003 after creating the furniture for Austin's Hotel San Jose, and their collection of metal and leather pieces debuted to the public in 2011. To order through garzamarfa.com. Rebecca Sherman Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts' mission is to break down the silos between dance, theater, visual art and music — and sometimes that even involves actual grain silos. Cue CounterCurrent, an engaging (and often participatory) festival for the performing arts, now in its second-year, which brings international artists to town while also tapping local talent, to choreograph six surprising, bold days of experiences and programming, unfolding April 14 through 19. From an alfresco ritualistic environmental staging in the historic East End's Mason Park by New Orleans theater troupes Mondo Bizarro + ArtSpot Productions' (venue pending final confirmation) to Austin multimedia artist Luke Savisky's video spectacle projected underneath Allen's Landing Bridge (which opens the festival Tuesday, April 14), there are 10 separate programs by 11 artists and/ or companies with dozens of individual members. The festival wraps Sunday, April 19, with a closing celebration and brunch headlined by a Ten Tiny Dances happening. Lynne McCabe's new place, Flex Space (2608 Dunlavy), serves as CounterCurrent HQ. All performances free; space is limited, reservations required: countercurrentfestival.org. Catherine D. Anspon MARFA Brights We Performance Is CELEBRATED E nglish bon vivant Nicky Haslam is most definitely a decorator of the highest order, and this book, Nicky Haslam: A Designer's Life (Rizzoli, $55), is proof. But erudite Haslam is also an engaging performer and recording artist, known for his literary and artistic pursuits as well as his bits writing about life and society for Tatler, World of Interiors, The Spectator, Vogue and Vanity Fair. Thumbing through A Designer's Life is a tad like perusing a scrapbook, with scads of photographs, sketches, invitations, notes, magazine pages and other ephemera that have influenced and shaped his design career. One of the UK's most illustrious designers, Haslam's mother, Diana Ponsonby, was a granddaughter of the 7th Earl of Bessborough and goddaughter of Queen Victoria; he was educated at Eton, worked for Diana Vreeland at American Vogue, moved to Arizona to breed horses and returned to England to take up the life of an interior designer, only to propitiously transform the homes of Bryan Ferry, Mick Jagger and Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber. Just our kind of chap. MAWVELOUS NICKY My, My, MAYA MELISA CARDONA Bunny Williams Garza Marfa chairs The Prince of Wales River Bed hand-painted wallpaper, crafted in Maya Romanoff 's Chicago studio Mondo Bizarro + ArtSpot Productions' "Cry You One" Precious Metals II Type II Vinyl, an interpretation of Maya Romanoff 's Precious Metals hand-leafed paper Beadazzled Sparkle Geode, a flexible glass bead wallcovering handmade in Maya Romanoff 's Chicago studio