Yesterday’s images from Oberto Gili’s new book were delicious and dense.

Today I am giving you a little taste to cleanse your palette before the feast.

Still Gili, still distinct, but with more air.

I know you may have been shopping or cooking or traveling to someone who is shopping and cooking on your behalf, so to soothe the strain I am offering up a copy of Oberto Gili’s Home Sweet Home.

Leave a comment here by Sunday, November 27th and I will announce the winner Monday morning.  Now, think this through.  I must, must, be able to get in touch with you if you win, so you might need to leave your email address in the comment section.  There’s no way around it.

All images courtesy of Rizzoli New York, photography by Oberto Gili.

There are people for whom the images of memory are not just things they have experienced themselves, but also the pictures they have seen.  In galleries.  In museums.  And in magazines.

Pictures that are so close, so clearly remembered, that they feel they were in those spaces.  That they experienced them in a very personal way.

Many images by photographer Oberto Gili are in my files, both paper and mental.

“I try not to change anything and not to style,” Mr. Gili told me.  He has shot the homes of friends and strangers and says neither is better or easier, but “The difference is if they are interesting or not.  An uninteresting person will for sure live in a dull house.”

He has favorites, as I have favorites (the pool, the flag, the cows), but will he click and tell?  “I could name many, but I go down to two – Richard Meier and Isabella Rossellini.”  I remember them well.

If you are an Oberto Gili fan, you will be thrilled with his new book Oberto Gili, Home Sweet Home: Sumptuous and Bohemian Interiors.  Bill was shaking his head and smiling as I kept saying, “Oh, it’s so beautiful.”  All images courtesy of Rizzoli New York and are, of course, by Mr. Gili.

I missed meeting Brooke Giannetti when I was in Los Angeles a while back.  My schedule was hectic and she was busy with business and children and our paths did not cross.

But I have read her blog, Velvet and Linen, for a long time and I liked her already.

Brooke and her husband, Steve, own Giannetti Home where they offer up interesting antiques and beautiful (and sensible) architecture and design services.  I’ve always enjoyed their aesthetic as it seems so genuine.

I’ve watched Brooke spiff her kitchen, build a chicken coop and become friends with Penelope Biachi (which brings about a little envy.)  And, now she’s written a book, Patina Style.

There is no doubt that the interiors are beautiful, but the bonus is the amount of really helpful advice that you will find here.  Her thoughts on paint are worth the price of admission alone, but there are also great sections on using architectural salvage, furniture placement and display.

Recently I asked a friend if $700 shoes (and $800 shoes and $1200 shoes) really feel different than $300 shoes.  We had a brief, yet believable, exchange about quality and longevity.  A few days later, pouring over Oliver Messel’s design of Rayne’s Shoe Shop I thought, “This was a place that girl would dig.”

Shelves and pedistals, mirror and silk, this was a shrine to shoes cloaked by a “Shop” with no “pe.”  This was one side of one room.  There were rooms.  This is the sort of spot, like the couture section at Hall’s, where my foot would never cross the threshold.

Later that day I received an email from a friend who sends me pictures of houses he likes with subject lines like, “Yes. This,” and no other text.  The latest contained a link to a post at The Selby with a brown-that-was-supposed-to-be-red chair and this.  A modern day version of Rayne’s for one’s very own.  A cabinet so lovely that she just might become vain, but who keeps her head as she has such a serious job to do.

This jazzy cabinet belongs to Brooke Cundiff (Director of Merchandise at Park and Bond) and her husband, Michael Hainey (who is just about everything – writer, artist and deputy editor of GQ.)  And the chic grosgrain ribbon on this convoluted shoe box?  This pithy quote at the end of the post that I just might treasure more than a pair of Louboutins:

Image, top, from Oliver Messel: In the Theatre of Design, edited by Thomas Messel, Rizzoli, New York from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre and Performance Collection.  Image, next, via the Selby.

Obviously, there is set design and decoration.  Pages of sketches of costumes and stage.

Don’t forget tales of British aristocracy and politics and life-long friendships.

But the best parts of Oliver Messel: The Theatre of Design for me are the houses he designed in Barbados and Mustique.  Those chalky walls, bare floors, porcelain and chintz.  My copy’s spine is already cracked to Chapter Five.  For the design?  Yes.  But also for the reassurance that one can shift focus, try something new and succeed.

This book truly has it all – great design, a rollicking story, a great romance and best of all a dashing leading man.  And wonderful pictures to boot.  All images courtesy of Rizzoli for Oliver Messel: In the Theatre of Design edited by Thomas Messel.  Photography for all photos but the third by Derry Moore, the other is by Dale Curtis.  Rizzoli provided the book for review.