In an edited extract from her new book, Aussie interior designer and photographer Ingrid Weir visits designer blogger Victoria Smith’s California coastal cottage
Home profile
Meet & greet: Victoria Smith (San Francisco Girl By Bay blogger) and rescue dog Frances.
The property: Rented 1929 Spanish revival cottage, Laguna Beach, California.
Ingrid Weir’s New Coastal: Inspiration for Life by the Sea is available at Paper Plus
The first visit to Laguna Beach I stayed at the romantic 1920s Spanish revival Casa Laguna Hotel and saw the rest of the town through a rose-coloured filter.
I had found the hotel on Victoria Smith’s blog – an enticing mix of modern meets Parisian bohemian vintage style. Now I have returned to Laguna Beach to meet Victoria in person.
Victoria carved out an early stake in the online design world. She started her blog San Francisco Girl By Bay in 2006 as a hobby. She was working in advertising at the time, with a roster of heavyweight clients. A couple of years later, when her blog started taking off, she quit her job, heading off into the internet unknown, bolstered with savings accrued from her Etsy store.
It all worked out. She was instrumental in helping Pinterest get established, collaborating with them after meeting CEO Ben Silbermann at a conference. Now, moving with the times, she has shifted SFGirlByBay over to Substack.
I’m staying at a different hotel this time and Laguna doesn’t feel as unique. More like other beach towns. But wending my way through the back streets to Victoria’s Spanish revival cottage, the charm of Laguna Beach reappears, full and vigorous.
It’s a delightful little house: whitewashed walls, teal shutters – set in the grounds of a magnificent cactus garden with glimpses of the ocean. She moved here from Los Angeles a few years ago.
“I have a closet full of clothes from LA, but I basically dress like I am at camp,” she says. “T-shirts, khakis, flip-flops, cut-offs.”
Here indoor and outdoor living merge. “Every weekend, I am outside on my chaise reading. I have an outdoor bathtub, so I’ll fill that up with cool water and a little bit of hot, and just take dips.”
The move to Laguna has been a good one. “I think it’s a hidden gem. Even though it’s not that far of a drive from LA, it’s kind of tucked away,” she says. “It’s a mix of people. There’s a lot of artists, a gay community, and the canyon can be kind of funky.”
Victoria is now immersed in the local community and gives me a list of several design and homewares shops to visit. “My friend Dana, who runs Good Together House, she has lived here her whole life. Her son went to high school here. We’ll go to an event together, and we can’t go five feet without them knowing someone.”
It’s pleasurable spending time in Victoria’s house; it’s light and airy and filled with beautiful things. Brocante found in French flea markets; shelves stacked high with art and design books. Victoria’s great grandparents owned a circus in the 1930s and there is something of that spirit in her collections. Her brother, who likes new houses, commented: “This would be kind of cool if you painted it.”
Edited extract from New Coastal by Ingrid Weir, $94.30 from Paper Plus
This is the seaside as an imaginative way of living. “Last night I looked out and there was this huge moon,” she says. “There were ships out there with their lights on. I like the sound of the waves. When there are really big waves, I can hear them here at night.”
Words and photography: Ingrid Weir
Read this next: A rural farmhouse renovation creates warmth and light
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
