Interior designer Sara Simon brings a welcome dose of color to California coastal design

When it comes to creating homes, interior stylist and designer Sara Simon conscripts the entire rainbow. Whether she’s working on a modern farmhouse in La Jolla or a reimagined midcentury ranch in Carlsbad, Simon skips neutral territory in favor of bold patterns, striking silhouettes, and above all, color. Lots of it. “Color brings personality; it tells the story of the home. Color evokes feelings. People should feel something when they walk into a room,” says Simon. Pink sofas? Wallpaper-emblazoned powder rooms? Zebra-striped seating? In Simon’s world, they all come together to create a sense of personality and place without straying into visual overload.

Much of Simon’s recent work has involved collaborating on homes developed by her husband, Sven Simon, managing partner of Encinitas-based dasMOD, a boutique real estate development firm. Challenging the accepted “offend no one” real estate wisdom, Sara’s staging comes as a welcome surprise from the all-vanilla spec house. “I think a lot of times when people think coastal design, they think of a white color scheme,” she says. “You won’t get that with me. Don’t get me wrong, I do use white, but I will find a way to spice things up one way or another in a home to bring it to life.” In a Carlsbad ranch, she positioned a bright pink sofa in front of the living room’s already statement-making turquoise rock fireplace surround. In a La Jolla manse, she punctuated quieter interiors with micro hits of candy-hued accessories in the kitchen and backyard.

That focus on bold design extends to artwork and accessories, non-matching bedding, and even mismatched lighting and seating. “I love to bring a little funk and out-of-the-box thinking to a home,” says Sara. She is currently working on modern farmhouse in Encinitas where an all-white exterior contains huge splashes of personality inside. “For me, color is the new coastal design.” handsomesalt.com   

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