AT the beginning of the summer holidays it's time to remind anyone heading for Paris to make sure to see the sensational new mini specialty store, Merci, at 111 Boulevard Beaumarchais in the Upper Marais. Open from 10am to 8pm, the nearest Metro stop is Saint Sébastien Froissard.  Opened in February by the former owners of Bonpoint, it's housed in an old factory with most of the original fittings still there. At the heart of the 21st century mood, it combines a book shop/cafe (selling secondhand/recycled books with recycled furniture), a florist (using recycled objects for containers and fittings), a children's wear section (with enchanting hand drawn wallpaper covering the walls), a needlework shop (what chic shop can be without one these days?), a home floor (recycled/eco friendly of course), its own vegetable garden (how chic is that?) and clothes for men and women presented as if in a vintage shop on wire hangers and plaind metal poles (even the designer brands, some made especially for the shop).  What we like most is that profits go to children's charities. What a way to say thank you for success?

NOTE: all these photos were on the TrendPulse.net website in February when the store opened, and were avilable to all TrendPulse.net subscribers. 

Possibly inspired by the beautiful new needlework department at Liberty in London, Lafayette Maison in Paris has created its own new needlework department with inspirational, colour coordinated displays. As at Liberty, knitting and tapestry yarns and equipment and sewing threads, needles, etc., are now all toegther in one tempting spot.

Our favourite flower shop in Paris, Oderantes, is tiny, tucked away on the Left Bank in the heart of the boutique shopping area (Victore amd Agnes B are both around the corner, along with Burberry, Ventilo, Max Mara, Joseph, Tara Jarmon, well, you get the picture). Innovative and quirky, the always sensational blossoms are mixed with unexpected objects - rough bark vases, swan sculptures, anything from nature not usually displayed with real flowers.  This week the windows mixed white with brilliantly coloured birds. How lovely is that?

Tempting ride on toy for a small child, these pink, white or green plastic elephants spotted at Lafayette Maison in Paris.

With recycling a key trend, beautiful new surfaces and paint treatments are appearing in the rush to renew good vintage pieces, especially good but ugly "brown" furniture, at top decorators and home shops everywhere.

 Both contemporary and vintage fabrics renew good but shabby chairs and sofas, now found in the best shops, too.

High gloss sprayed chair at Bon Marche, Paris

Distressed blue/grey chest at Nicholas Haslam, London

Distressed vintage sideboard at Julliette At Home display at Top Drawer, London

Deep green distressed painted cubboard with yellow pottery at The Decoratie Antiques & Textiles Fair, London

 Vintage chair covered in patchwork of vintage fabrics by Sprint at Designers Guild, London

A great new graphic look from a special collection of books created for The Royal Parks. A series of small stories about London parks, each by an established writer, and packaged in a clean, fresh graphic mood, inspirational for tee shirt graphics or print design of any kind. We spotted them at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street in London.

Dramatic, decorative imagery can be found in many places, but especially in the work of contemporary printmakers.  Among our favorites are Susie Perring - www.SusiePerring.com - and Sonia Rollo - www.soniarollo.com - who work together and with a small group of other printmakers as The Half Moon printmakers in London.All prints can be ordered directly from their websites.

Susie Perring's Chillis

 Susie Perring's Fruit &Veg

 Susie Perring's Birds

 Sonia Rollo's "Love Light in Your Eyes"

Sonia Rollo's "Emily, Charlotte & Anne"

One of the best spots to find sophisticated crafs is at Designers Guild wheere Tricia Guild mixes the best of contemporary crafts with vintage with Designers Guild's own interior designs. On display this past week were beautiful handmade dolls - a cross between sculpture and folk art.

We found these fun monster kits at Bon Marche in Paris, no not in the children's department, but in the young contemporary area, stacked on a table just as you step off the escalator from the delectible food department on the ground floor - a fun thing for any young Mama or Grandmere to put together for a lucky child

Too beautiful to burn, these classical candles at Liberty in London, in cream wax in the shape of portrait busts of Napoleon and an 18th century woman. With them, a simple, thick cream candle with a grey sealing wax stamp on the side. The candles were displayed with real classical carved stone heads.