By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Elizabeth Lamont brings decades of experience in the world of interior design to her latest store, the eponymous Elizabeth Lamont, located on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of the Village.
Lamont is familiar with the world of retail and design: She opened her first location, Room With A View, on Montana Avenue in 1990, eventually taking over Room at the Beach in Malibu nearly 10 years ago, which she still owns and operates.
The Marquez Knolls resident of five years shared that she has been searching for a long time for a spot to open a Palisades store.
“I have a fantastic Realtor, John Alle, he found this location and we were just thrilled,” Lamont explained. “We love it, it’s bright and sunny, it has great energy and we’re really happy to be here.”
Lamont took over the spot formerly occupied by en Route Travel. She explained that since her team has opened stores before, they were able to turn the location around quickly and opened in a short period of time.
“When I say we, I mean we because this is definitely a team,” Lamont explained. “I have a fantastic, fantastic team of people that make this all happen because it’s quite an enterprise that we have because it’s not just the two stores, we also have a full interior design business and that’s really what this type of business has become.”
Lamont’s stores sell a mix of items crafted by artisans around the world—rugs sourced from Nepal and India, pieces from Italy and France—and items that she has designed with those artisans as part of her line, Elizabeth Lamont Studio.
“Really what my passion is, is working with small companies and artists that I’ve known for such a long time, since I’ve been doing this since 1990, and being able to either create our line within their line so that we have product that is unique to us or just to be able to showcase them because they are fantastic artisans that I love to showcase,” Lamont explained.
The store offers everything from furniture to lighting, flooring, holiday items and bedding—which is the first item Lamont designed and sold.
Most everything is customizable and can be personalized with engraving, allowing customers to purchase unique gifts for everyone on their lists, during the holidays and beyond.
Lamont and her team also offer a full interior design business.
“Getting to know the client is very important,” Lamont shared of this side of the business. “Going into their home, we make a list of everything that they want to do and then we come back and say, ‘OK, let’s be realistic about your budget and what you want to spend.’”
Lamont explained that one of her goals is to prevent clients from making interior design mistakes—which she shared can often be expensive to fix.
And, following the success of offerings at Room at the Beach, Lamont will have classes and workshops in her Palisades store starting this spring.
“We do flower-decorating classes, design classes, health and wellness classes, sort of anything you can think of,” Lamont explained.
Elizabeth Lamont, now a member of the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, participated in the 2019 Christmas Stroll and hosted a grand opening party the evening of the stroll, which featured a book signing of the Cal-a-Vie health spa cookbook. A portion of proceeds were donated to the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, founded by Maria Shriver.
Lamont, who said operating a store in the Palisades is like something out of a Hallmark movie, with neighbors walking by and knocking on her window, encourages community members to stop by.
“We just really welcome the community to come and see what we are doing … and we want to get to know more of our neighbors,” she shared.
Elizabeth Lamont is located at 15221 Sunset Blvd. For more information, visit elizabethlamont.com.
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