Insiders

Inside L.A. with Kelly Wearstler

Interior decorator Kelly Wearstler has put her glamour stamp on private homes as well as three L.A. boutique hotels, including the Viceroy Santa Monica. Wearstler and her husband Brad Korzen have two sons, ages three and five, and together they have staked out some favorite kid-friendly spots in Los Angeles, including one close to their weekend getaway in Malibu. Here, she shares her insider info with Indagare.

"The Malibu Country Mart is amazing. If we stay in Malibu, we’ll go early in the morning and get corn muffins and cappuccinos from the Malibu Kitchen & Gourmet Country Market. We’ll feed the birds and people watch. Then we’ll walk to Pet Headquarters and we always head to the playground. Of course, there’s also a great toy store, Toy Crazy (23410 Civic Center Way; 310-456-5696; www.gotoycrazy.com). We order out food from John’s Garden (3835 Cross Creek Rd; 310-456-8377; www.johnsgardenmalibu.com) and take it home and eat on the beach.

We go to the Santa Monica Pier all the time. We get a day pass and the boys ride bumper cars and scary rides, the big Ferris wheel and the merry-go-round. We take their scooters and skateboards and go on the boardwalk. We’ll get refreshments at the lemonade stand on the boardwalk near the swings, which is another thing they love to do. Then we usually we go to the restaurant at Fred Segal in Santa Monica.

We love going to movies at the historic old El Capitan Theatre (6838 Hollywood Blvd; 818-845-3110; www.elcapitan.go.com), because they always have a great live pre-shows. It feels old-school and beautiful. At the Petersen Automotive Museum, they have fantastic cars, including a police motorcycle you can sit on and act like you’re a police officer. Then we usually go to eat at Urth Caffé (8565 Melrose Ave.; 310-659-0628; www.urthcaffe.com). We’re Urth fanatics. We love the waffles, tamales and soups. There are also the old trains at Travel Town Museum (5200 Zoo Dr.; 323-662-9678; www.traveltown.org) in Griffith Park near the zoo. You can ride the trains. We do both the same day.

At Storyopolis (16740 Ventura Blvd; 818-990-7600; www.storyopolis.com) they have a lot of special, small-print-run children’s books and a lot of stories with meaning that are less commercialized. We’ve gone to author readings there too. They also sell CDs, music and toys and a great selection of puzzle and word game books. I buy birthday presents there.

More Inspiration

Plan Your Trip With Us

We only feature hotels that we can vouch for first-hand. At many of them, Indagare members receive special amenities.

Get In Touch

Welcome back,
log in to Indagare

Not a member?

Forgot Password

Enter your email and we’ll send you a link to reset your password.

Type the first 3 letters to begin