You know when you walk into a store and it’s just totally right and you immediately start dreaming about where each piece will go in your home? That’s what happens when you step into Garde, the newly-opened home furnishings and personal accessories store on Beverly Blvd, owned by Scotti Sitz.

Sitz is both impeccably stylish and incredibly sweet. She’s had an impressive career–working first for Calvin Klein and later as the director of retail development for Giorgio Armani. The classic, minimal style of those major brands finds its way into Garde’s retail space, which use to be an old electronics repair shop–untouched for over 30 years. “It was a boring space with no character,” Sitz tells Take Sunset. “I thought, how do I create an inviting environment out of nothing?” She completely overhauled the space. “You name it, we gutted it,” she says. “There was an old drop ceiling with 1950′s tiles, the skylight was boarded up, linoleum on the floors, bad windows, partitions.”

The end result is light, open, modern and minimal without being austere. “The space was long and narrow, so I needed to divide it without walls or partitions,” Sitz explains. “We painted the big grey stripe through the middle, added shelving and display surfaces so you have a subtle feeling of different spaces, but still open and gallery-like.” When asked about her design influences, Sitz says she has many–gathering her likes and dislikes over the years in order to fine tune her own style. But for this project, one particular inspiration stands out. “In the past couple of years, my go-to design influence has been the Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen,” Sitz states. “Mr. Van Duysen represents the minimalist, which is in my nature, but without being severe. He puts the warmth and tactile elements back in spaces and manages to keep all the rooms flowing in a natural direction.”

As for picking Garde’s location on Beverly Boulevard, Sitz explains that she use to live right around the corner and has watched the neighborhood change into the perfect location for her retail store. “It’s become the neighborhood of higher-end vintage furniture and design, without being over the top,” she says. ”It is kind of the anti La Cienega and PDC [Pacific Design Center] area. It’s less commercial, which I like.” And so far, so good. Sitz says she loves her shop’s new neighborhood. “I love contributing to the cool vibe that’s now known as ‘the Beverly Corridor’.”

Contributing to that vibe is Garde’s unique mix of housewares and accessories, including silk textiles by artist Stevie Howell, jewelry by designer Satomi Kawakita, brass ornaments by Anna Karlin, pottery by Sara Paloma, and ceramic and hemp wall hangings by Michele Quan, which I immediately fell in love with. Sitz says the most important aspect in choosing the collections she carries–aside from being beautiful or interesting–is her personal connection with the designers. “I love the stories behind each artists’ journey and the process to create their designs,” she says. “And I curating collections from artists in the U.S. and abroad. The world has truly gotten that small, thankfully.”

Garde
7418 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.424.4667