Area of Influence
Get acquainted with the new Arts District home + design collective
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer and Erik Torkells | Photography by Sara Prince | Illustration by Michelle Beamer
Holding Court
Lonetree's Michelle Beamer
Victoria Court is quickly becoming a design collective. Peek in on any given First Thursday evening, and the charming inner courtyard looks like a movie set with pop-up floral stands, makers, and artists painting under the trattoria lights. Anchoring the action is LONETREE, a new showroom from interior designer Michelle Beamer.
Located across from Olio Pizzeria’s patio, Lonetree is a longtime dream realized for Beamer, principle of MB Interiors and adjunct professor of interior design at Santa Barbara City College. Here customers can come in and have furniture designed to their specifications. “We can literally put a sofa in CAD here,” says Beamer, who displays two rosy-toned sofas along with new and vintage rugs, chairs, runners, books, artwork, and indoor-outdoor tables. “People come in and say, ‘You have color!’ We have lots of color!” She also encourages mixing styles, be it Spanish, traditional, modern, or beachy, as she illustrates by hanging a ropey rattan light over a polished black sideboard. Aside from her refreshing merchandise and relaxed approach to design, a big draw is the ability to touch the real thing before buying. As Beamer says: “With so much looking online these days, it’s nice to see things in scale and how it all goes together.” 1221 State St., Ste. 24, Santa Barbara, 805-892-7335, LONETREESB.COM.
Domecíl's Stephanie Payne-Campbell
Nearby, DOMECÍL is a home-goods shop from Stephanie Payne-Campbell that began as a pop-up. After she moved to Santa Barbara from Pasadena, Payne-Campbell opened a temporary outpost on Carpinteria’s Santa Claus Lane, and the experience triggered fond memories of shopping downtown. “My favorite was Dani, where everything was hearts and rainbows. I’d come in with my allowance and buy stickers,” she recalls. Though she originally had no intentions of opening a brick-and-mortar place, she found a spot in the hub of Victoria Court and jumped at the opportunity to have a smallish shop of her own. Tiny but mighty, Domecíl is filled with natural textiles, handwoven baskets, brooms, artwork, aprons and clothing (her own designs), ceramics, plants, and a kids’ corner where you might even spot a heart or a rainbow. “Santa Barbara used to be all small shops and super charming,” she says. “I thought, ‘Let’s bring it back!’” 1221 State St., Ste. 7, Santa Barbara, 805-324-4971, DOMECIL.COM.
Private Eye
“We wanted to be in an area that attracts people who understand and appreciate the material,” says Benjamin Cobb Storck, explaining why he and his husband, Jason, chose the Arts District for their GALERIE XX, formerly based in Los Angeles. The 3,000-square-foot gallery is set in a building next to the Arlington Theatre that was an I. Magnin department store in the 1920s and ’30s—an apt location for the material in question: 20th-century decorative arts and furniture by the likes of Jean Prouvé, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, and Jean Royère. Collectors have been gravitating to the category in recent years not just because of the elegant lines but also because it pairs so well with modern and contemporary art. “I’m an obsessive collector who has turned it into a business out of necessity,” says Cobb Storck, “and we can’t live with any of it because we have a three-year-old and a six-year-old.” 1315 State St., Santa Barbara, 805-895-2312, GALERIEXX.COM.
Jean Royère Cone Leg Table, $125,000, at Galerie XX in the newly dubbed Arts District.
Indian Pink's Tamara and JP Cajuste.
A more exuberant glamour is on display at INDIAN PINK, a few doors down. It, too, is a hobby-turned-business: Tamara Cajuste collected so much fabric while working as a flight attendant that she started making pillows; people loved them, and her husband, JP, joined the enterprise. After pop-ups here and there, the brand is putting down roots. There will be much more than pillows, including the pajamas Indian Pink launched during the pandemic and dresses, blankets, napkins, lamp shades, vintage textiles, and even furniture, all curated from around the world. The shop showcases the haute bohemian lifestyle, and what holds the collection together is a profound appreciation of color. “It has energy, and it just comes out of me,” says Cajuste. “I love everything about it!” 1307 State St., Ste. B, Santa Barbara, 805-869-2027, INDIANPINKPILLOWS.COM.
