Uniquely Designed Coastal Restaurants

Come with me to Lure Fish House north of Los Angeles in Camarillo, California.

My friend, Debbie Duggan designed it.  It's a family operation that I was fortunate to see come to

 fruition. (I even ordered the Restoration Hardware convex mirror above).

Although on some of the design shopping trips (like for the Noir chandeliers above), 

I was/am truly in awe of the way Debbie pulled it all together along with 

her restauranteur sister, Patty and brother-in-law, David.

Their parents had a say in the design with this "private family dining room" 

which you can reserve for special occasions.

 The chandelier is from Arteriors.

How about this cozy nook in the bar!  I love all the textures:  stone, wainscoting, tufting

AND the nautical feel of the round interior window.

Here is the bar with a huge gothic mirror.

Laura and I are saddled up to the bar (sorry about the I-phone photo)...

for a glass of wine and delicious ceviche. 

The food is fabulous.  Bravo David!!  Fresh fish is flown in daily.  

Debbie's parents treated us to dinner for her birthday but most of the photos at 

night time didn't make the cut...except this cool window box.

Debbie's daughter, Julie, designed the logo.

The restaurant is so popular that they are opening two more
in the area with different decorating schemes.

On to more of a crazy but fun restaurant south of Los Angeles in
Del Mar, California is Burlap.  The cuisine is Cowboy-Asian fusion.  Seriously.

My mother, sister and I had brunch here... flavorful and unique food combinations.

The décor is a riot of western and far eastern; lots of outdoor "loungey" spaces with a fire pit

...quite the night-time scene, I'm told.

Thomas Schoos was the designer. 

The waiter spilled a mimosa on my sister.  Except for my sister's shriek, we remained calm. 

They gave us the entire meal for free!  

That was even BEFORE I said I was going to blog about it.

One more thing...while we were in Camarillo at Debbie's parents house...

look what we did.  OK, I look nerdy but I want to do it again! 

Have you been to any fun restaurants lately?

The Back of our Cottage Before and After

"Social Climber" is the name of our climbing rose bush. I love that name!

We planted it right after we finished the remodel of our beach cottage in Newport Beach, California.

Below is the rear exterior of our house before we added

a new railing, windows, smooth plaster and a new wooden garage door.

And here it is after...

Our Social Climber is supposed to grow two stories high...which will fill in the space to the

left of the balcony.  I took this photo a couple of days ago and there are even 

MORE blooms on it now.

I would have preferred a garage door like this one below from 

Vignette Design's great post on carriage style garage doors.

But we thought the windows could get broken by a basketball 

(and we were at the end of the remodel budget).

Here are two other garage doors that I admire on Lido.

Tommy prefers playing basketball at the courts, SO IF we win the lottery, 

I may switch out the garage door for a more stylish "carriage cottage"one.

I was not crazy about the Bose electronics showing on my bedroom dresser 

(more about the master bedroom remodel HERE).  So...

I found this cute metal quatrefoil tray at Target...it seemed a little light weight so I bought a 

placemat there and cut it to fit the bottom.  Antiqued mirrored glass cut to fit would be nicer 

but this was inexpensive.

Just added some accessories to camouflage  the electronics...

"Before"

"After"

 Aren't these great succulent arrangements from Roger's Gardens?

The crown one on the left is a birthday present for my sister, Teresa

(she is kind of the princess in our family).

Hope you are having a great week.  
Thanks so much for stopping by!

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China On Display and A Brush with the Law

Unrelated to the title, but aren't these cute dish towels and pot holders from Target?  

I just bought them for my sister for watching our dog, Rocky while we were on vacation.

These new, green Portuguese plates are from Home Goods.   A bargain!

My client, Nancy, has a lovely but empty, antique armoire in her dining room. 

This was given to her by her father.  I'd like to see the inside painted with milk paint or...

chalk paint like Kim at Savvy Southern Style does below.  You can read about it HERE.

AND

I gave Nancy the assignment to go to buy pretty white pottery to fill the shelves.

I suggested buying things she likes and will use, such as,

 pitchers and bowls (like these from Home Goods) or

White chargers from Vietri would look great against the back of the cabinet.

I have some Vietri serving pieces that I love...more about that HERE.

With perhaps a cake platter or two.  These come in a nice gift box...

sweet Mother's Day gift (with your home-made dessert).

I'll do a before and after post of Nancy's living and dining rooms eventually.

In other news... driving on the way to Mammoth, CA

there is a 65 mile per hour limit  stretch coming down the 

Los Angeles mountains into the desert. 

It's easy to coast at 80 mph if you are watching it.  

I wasn't.

Some of you (and you know who you are) have paid your teen-ager to take

traffic school on-line for you.  I considered it briefly, but rejected it as:

A.  My dad was a Judge and he is looking down on me from above

B.  My kids would probably charge too much

So, I went with this class with the catchy title.

"Madame Leadfoot" has been redeemed.

You can find the silver plated Madame/Monsieur napkins rings HERE.

More cute things from Home Goods...

we thought this combo would make a nice wedding shower gift.

Best wishes!

Great Ideas for Beach Inspired Bedrooms

This is a follow-up to my last vacation post on the New Smyrna Beach Penthouse.  Even though we are back in California now...showing these photos lets me relive our fabulous "House Swap" vacation.

This is the master bedroom.  The bleached wood planks on the accent wall add 

texture to what was probably a generic condominium wall.

The view from the bedroom windows was so lovely to wake up to in the morning.

More great artwork!

Here is the room at night with a comfortable reading chair and wall to wall seagrass carpeting.

I like this towel cabinet in the master bathroom...more use of the bleached wood...

nice touch with the rolled beach towels.

This is the daughter's room (she is a darling girl and sees my daughter often in 

New York city, where they both live).

Instead of closet doors...grommeted drapes are used...great idea.

Cute light fixtures in her bathroom.

More of Clair's artwork...I recognize the two children as Clair's kids when they were younger.

This is a cozy corner in the bedroom.  Nice scale and pattern.

There is a balcony off this bedroom with a view of the inlet.  

We saw lots of dolphins swimming out there.

Just off the entry is this office that  has a trundle bed covered in linen.

I plugged my computer in at this desk...love these shelves.

Here is the son's room, where our son, Tommy stayed.

Great iron beds, convenient baskets for storage or to place your suitcase on...

I like the floating shelves above the beds, too.

More drapes instead of closet doors...love it.

Here's the jetty that is formed at the beginning of the inlet.

There was a storm right before we got there...and look at all the pink coral that my daughter, 

Alie and I picked up on our walk.

It was fun and relaxing...and almost a year since our last vacation.  

I feel re-energized and inspired for some cool projects in the works.

Thanks for visiting!

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