After a late breakfast at the revered Maxwell’s in Venice, my son Leo took Charlotte back to his place in Orion’s two seated car leaving me the opportunity to walk with him the long way home. Talking arm-in-arm was a treat beyond this mom’s happiest dreams. Walking long distances has long been a forte on the Norwegian side of our family, so when we came to a point where I could take a detour to see with my own eyes the most incredible collection of artistry in design on the West Side of this continent, Orion begrudgingly pointed his feet in the same direction of my heart. It is not very often I get to share my world with my sons and the eponymous Stahl & Band store on Abbott Kinney is a Mecca I have been salivating about entering for some time. This collective of organic elegance and outlandish ephemera had me at hello when they first appeared on the scene. The first and only directive they gave me at the door? “Come in and please sit on everything.” Obedient by nurture I compulsively complied. I sat. I swiveled. I touched. All with you in mind of course. A crowning selfless act by a designer dedicated to her clients’ needs.

I now know the thickness of the Calacatta Viola Marble shade, the softness of the shearling Franck daybed, the delicacy of the Dune maple wood coffee table, the sheen of the blackened bronze Surface sconce, the luminosity of the Jade side table glass and the scale of the Flexible fabric light… part utilitarian and ALL collectible, each piece handmade by artists and architects, stone cutters and ceramicists, fashion stars and wood sculptors, glass blowers and basket weavers from around the globe. The whole store held up the motto by which I work: be different. There is only one life. There is only one YOU.