Sherry and Miguel recently opened the west side’s answer to their successful Marvimon, conveniently located across the street from the Taylor De Cordoba. They renovated an old smog check auto center into what is now a gorgeous and completely green 6,000 square foot event space, called SmogShoppe. On a recent visit, Sherry showed me some of her favorite things starting with the living wall.

A vertical garden lines both the exterior and part of the interior of the space and it’s effect is really dramatic. It was inspired by French designer, Patrick Blanc, whose living walls are water based. To adapt this idea for LA’s dry climate, Sherry and Miguel modified the design and used pouches (made from recycled wool suits) filled with soil. Come to think of it the first time I saw a living wall was dining with Sherry and Miguel at Bastide, a fancy and delicious LA restaurant.

The main interior space is perfectly suited for sit down dinners at the long, wooden tables handcrafted by local artist, Tony Brown. Some of the tabletops are end grain and others have a chevron pattern – they are all really beautiful. And Sherry has been collecting vintage bentwood chairs, so they can offer seating for 120 when the space gets rented. It’s a chic alternative to generic party rentals.

Sherry is a vintage junkie (we see eye to eye on this) and she purchased most of the furniture and accessories for the space at flea markets, thrift stores or on Ebay and Craigslist. She’s found some great vintage trash cans on ebay and delighted in showing them to me.

These vintage baskets also top her list right now. Clever way to store unsightly clutter.

This life-size Egyptian is one in a set of two, found at the Long Beach flea market. Sherry was mysteriously drawn to them and then recalled seeing a version of them in a Tony Duquette book that she had recently read. A decorating seed was planted and now the rest is history. Using the bowl on her head as a planter makes an already dramatic piece all the better.

One of my favorite parts of the whole space is the ladies powder room. It’s bubblegum pink, with ikat wallpaper, a vintage chair and lots of good flowers designed by Holly Vesecky, who I will be blogging about later in the week.