We’ve moved! Here’s the story of our new home….
It was November of 2025, I was having my car worked on so my husband drove me to work – he took a route I don’t normally take and I spotted a For Lease sign in the window of the beautiful 2 story brick building on the corner of Traffic Way and El Camino Real. For the past 12 years, it has been offices for a Vineyard Management Team. The blinds were always closed and it looked somewhat unoccupied. I snapped a photo of the phone number on the sign and called immediately. The owner answered, and I went to look at it that evening.
I knew the bones of the building were good, it was built in 1920 and even through earthquake retrofitting, they had retained most of the original brick. Unfortunately, it had all been covered over with many layers of drywall. What I saw inside was many early 2000 style offices, it had been sectioned off to become 8 small office rooms, with fluorescent lighting and beige paint and brown carpet. It was really difficult to envision how I could make the space both usable and visually pleasing. I was very tempted to just take the leap, but a friend who works in commercial property talked me down. She said “this is going to be way too expensive to modify” – so dejectedly, I called the landlord and passed on it, explaining my reasons. What a rollercoaster. They called me back a few days later, offering to take care of most of the work themselves. The landlords were ready to invest in the building and bring it back to a more retail-friendly space. I was flabbergasted. And I got back on the rollercoaster.
Throughout the next couple months, we worked together to demo and design a new space, opening up the ceilings to expose the ductwork, removing the carpet, and the best part? Punching a hole in the wall to see if we could expose the original brick! And yes!! There it was! Beyond 2 layers of drywall, wallpaper, and a layer of plaster, was the glorious brick, full of history and character. I was excited to expose it more, and wanted to leave some of the plaster there to have it look like time and age had gradually chipped it away. It ended up looking like a mountain and clouds, but we are here for that too.
My goal was to bring in more color and energy and funk, to match the eccentric eyeglass frames we have become known for. The first thing I ordered was colorful corded light fixtures from Color Cord – with less natural light in the new space, I knew that lighting was going to be key to showcase our frames. My husband also figured out a complicated track lighting system. All of this working around exposed HVAC ducting, which I decided to paint bright blue!
An office window became an arch and dispensing bar, with an open work area where we have 2 workstations, and a big counter space for repairs and adjustments.
Carpet was removed and unfortunately no cool old wooden floor was underneath, so we polished the existing concrete and laid wood laminate flooring down in the rest of the space.
We used our existing frame boards Jeff made for the original space but spread them out at different heights and spaces to show the brick off and also give it more of a gallery feel. I carried a full size wall mirror through the streets of Berkeley with my daughter’s girlfriend, it was HEAVY, because I really wanted a huge body length mirror in the shop, because even though you are focused on the frames – sometimes it is helpful to see the bigger picture and perspective.
Our beloved plant collection was moved carefully and maybe somewhat illegally. Our tall fiddle leaf fig has a very long skinny trunk, so our friend stood in the back of the truck holding it up gently. Thankfully, all of our plants seem to love the new space and no one has died yet. We were so grateful for all the help with the move, it was a lot of work but it went super smoothly!
We were honored to host our Grand Opening May 8. We invited all of our friends and clients, and the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce came for a ribbon cutting. This was one of the most meaningful moments of my life, next to child birth. The chamber had a drone company come to record, and he directed us to have everyone go outside, he brought the drone in through the crowd and into the new space. As I cut the ribbon surrounded by our team and family and all of our beloved clients, people started clapping and loudly chanting my name, it felt so surreal and meaningful to me, and I felt like my soul left my body and was hovering above with the drone, I felt incredulous that this was my life, that this was my business, and that this was my beloved community cheering me on. You can watch the video here. I hugged the former mayor, and friend, Heather Moreno, and I felt the tears come on, and the kind of tears that felt like I could start sobbing. The joy and pride and love I felt at that moment was something I’ve never experienced before.
Thank you! You, our community and specs lovers, for helping us get here. This feels like Specs’ forever home and we look forward to fine tuning the space and our team to continue to serve you. It feels so amazing to be on the corner of downtown, seriously feels like we moved to the big city. We loved our light-filled original space with the loft, but we love this even more! We have more space to work and breathe, we can accommodate more groups at a time, we have a true break room, I have an office, and we have room to pursue future goals.
Our new address is 5915 El Camino Real, Atascadero CA – we have designated parking in the Carlton Hotel parking lot accessed on Traffic Way, next to our building. Our parking spots are closest to our front door next to the bus stop shelter/bench. We look forward to seeing you and welcoming you in.
