Julie Carlson is the brains and brawn (i.e. Founder and Editor in Chief) of the ridiculously popular interior design inspiration and remodeling source website, Remodelista. Besides keeping up with the site and lending her expertise to publications like California Home & Design, The Washington Post, San Francisco Magazine, and Food & Wine, she recently published a book inspired by her own site, Remodelista: A Manual for the Considered Home. With her keen eye, it’s no wonder the book was named one of Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year. Let’s see how this influential tastemaker would spend a day in Los Angeles at some of her favorite spots in this week’s Friday Five.
1. At Remodelista we’re all plotting a visit to the newly opened Ace Hotel in the up-and-coming downtown, with interiors by Commune (a firm we’ve been admiring ever since we stayed at the Ace Palm Springs a couple of years ago).
2. My first stop is usually Noodle Stories on West 3rd Street, which carries my favorite under-the-radar designer, Sofie d’Hoore (last time I dropped in I had a bonus Ellen Degeneres sighting; she’s a Sofie fan too). The shop itself is the height of understatement; I especially like the plywood office kitchen at the back of the store and the ginger candies they dispense at the cash register.
3. I’d also drop in at Garde on Beverly Boulevard, LA’s best housewares shop, to check out the offerings; I’ve got my eye on the reasonably priced Concrete Pendant Lamp with wood cleat by local designers Wrk-Shp. Owner Scotti Sitz has great design radar; she’s one of the only US stockists of Michael Verheyden.
4. On my design to-do list: a visit to the Eames House in the Pacific Palisades, one of only 25 Case Study houses ever built. Like a visit to Mecca for any lover of mid-century design.
5. Axe is a brilliant restaurant on Abbot Kinney in Venice (I especially like the ceramic wind chime curtain by Stan Bitters that acts as an outdoor room divider on the patio). Owner Joanna Moore designed the interiors using a combination of congona and black acacia woods and handmade jute lamps.