Happy Anniversary Surf Brew

Surf Brewery is an awesome brewery in Ventura, if you have not been you can check them out here.  They have just celebrated their first year anniversary, so that means it has already been a year since I got the opportunity to help with the design of the tasting room!  My best friend's husband, Chas, is the head brewer there (he's cool like that), and he was nice enough to introduce me to the Surf Brew team as a design consultant.  I love the beach, I love beer, I love design...how could I resist?  After meeting with the guys and getting a tour of the brewery I left with some great ideas for the space.  I wanted to gather some inspiration images so that I could translate the feeling I was going to try to get across.

When thinking about Ventura and the vibe of the town I felt the mood of the tasting room should match...therefore be cool, vintage and inviting.  Kind of like hanging out in your buddies really cool garage.

One of the biggest concerns of the owners was that the space of the tasting room was long and narrow, and it dead-ended into a huge cinder block wall.  I thought this would be the perfect spot for a huge mural of the Ventura pier, as if you were hanging out drinking Mondo's Cream Ale (my favorite) watching the surf from the beach!  This turned into one of the highlights of the entire design.  Originally I thought about a photo mural, but they ended up hiring an extremely talented artist to paint the mural on the wall (Art by Craig Tyler, mural by Erin O'Brien).  She did this by projecting a photo on the wall, tracing and then filling it in.  The end result is definitely the highlight of the entire design.  Some of my other designs that made it into the space were eclectic furniture, reclaimed wood features, concrete bar top, stained concrete floor and paint colors.  Of course they put their own personal spin on it but overall I was thrilled to see my design inspiration come to life.  

THE FINAL RESULT: 

I highly recommend making the trip to check Surf Brew out for yourself and of course get a sampler while you are at it!  If you get thirsty before you get down there you can now get Surf Brew beer at Whole Foods in Santa Barbara!

Before & After

I can't believe it's June, where have the past few months gone?  In case you were wondering I did not abandon my blog...at least not on purpose.  I made the decision to start a new job, take on a new client, move and leave town in the same week and have been playing catch up ever since.

Trav and I are enjoying our new space very much.  We moved on up (literally we moved upstairs)!  It is bigger, brighter and has been a refreshing new start.  I originally assumed it would be easy; it's a somewhat similar floor plan and I figured we'd just use all of our old furniture.  But of course the designer in me was not content and I've been dreaming up new designs and have been on the hunt for the best deals to make our new place feel like home.  My favorite transformation so far is our new dining space so I thought I would share it with all of you! 

Here is the before shot: 

It's not a huge space, but more of a dining room then we had downstairs.  I was inspired by this table that I fell in love with from World Market:

I did not however fall in love with the price tag of $299 (especially when you add the $100 chairs I of course wanted to go with it).  So I decided to take my inspiration, get creative and come up with the same look for less.

In sticking with the color theme I found some teal wood chairs on Overstock.com for $176.99 (only $2.95 for shipping as always!).  Then I found a wooden table on Craigslist for $175.  I made sure to pay attention the the table dimensions since it is a pretty small area.  Made in Mexico it is sturdy, well constructed and totally the touch of rustic I was going for.  Now for a paint color...I already had teal chairs so I wanted to mix it up.  With the Pantone Color of the Year on my mind I headed to Home Depot and picked a redish-orange for the table legs (I asked them if they could reference the Pantone colors but they did not have that information).  I settled on BEHR Preium Plus - Interior Gloss Enamel in "Firey Red."

I didn't do too much prep.  I just laid down a plastic inexpensive drop cloth, Trav took off some of the iron details I wasn't into, and I went to it!  I decided to brush the paint on very lightly...I figured if I wanted to go thicker I could always add another coat; I'm glad I used the paint sparingly because I ended up really liking the shabby effect.

And here is the finished result!

It is not identical to the World Market table I had originally had in mind but I think it's definitely inspired and I love it!

 

For a fun added detail I found some old glass milk jugs at a local antique store.  I coated the interior of the jugs with the same paint I used to paint the table legs.  I left upside down to dry for 30 minutes and voila- a fun and fresh pop of color to polish off the look.  (I have to confess that I am not sure if adding water to the jars will lift the paint, so I put the flowers in ziplock bags with water and secured with a rubber band before I put them in the jar.  Maybe it would not affect it, and there is probably a special paint to prevent this but I just wanted to go with what I had at the time and now I'd rather be safe than sorry.)

I grabbed some furniture and artwork we already had too fill up the rest of the space.  Some accessories I found at local antique stores completed the look!  

Hope you enjoyed my mini apartment tour!  I love getting creative when it comes to space and budget.  Keep your eye out for more posts to come...I promise it will be sooner than 3 months next time!

LIVE WELL!