If the cat ain’t out of the bag yet, it sure will be as soon as people drive by the building on 7th and Dolores and see that it once again resembles an old, empty bank.  Yup, after 10 years in the old Great Western Bank building, Homescapes Carmel is moving to Carmel Plaza.  But first we have some building to do.

Long-timers know Beau and I opened our first store in 1996 in an old, condemned laundry we rebuilt.

We did the ol’ build-out trick again in 1999 when we opened in downtown Carmel.

When we opened Homescapes Carmel, we had NO idea that we would be running a store in downtown Carmel for 10 years.  We thought that we were only opening a temporary store to test the foot-traffic of Carmel shoppers against business in Pacific Grove.  But then our “owners” sold the building and thus began a long, often arduous tenancy in a building that became increasingly controversial.

Not to say that we aren’t thankful for our time in the building.  It’s led to some great opportunities for me and Beau, not least the new garden store we opened last May in the Barnyard.  But now the time has come to end the bank building chapter and open the Carmel Plaza chapter of Homescapes Carmel.

That’s right…those rumors you heard are true.  We’ve been approached by the Plaza to relocate to the 12,000 feet right below Anthropologie.  Perfect location for us and we are THRILLED with the neighbor…talk about stylish and in many ways similar (the buyer even has a television show, Man Shops World, that is a way-better version of what I’ve been doing on this blog for the last too-many years.)

The new space will have a Tasting Room Cafe where we’ll do wine pairings and classes, a specialty book-store with travel, decor and design books and magazines from around the world and an interior design studio.  In the long-term we also intend to partner with someone and bring the Flower Shop aspect back into play.  We’ve always credited the late Michael Weidner and the flower shop he created for us in The Grove Homescapes as the leading factor in our being so quickly embraced by  locals.

So if you drive by and see the empty bank building, don’t dispair!  We’re still open daily at the Barnyard and we’re working hard to transform yet another unattractive space into something beautiful that will make y’all proud.  Until then,  here’s a few pictures of the duckling before it becomes a swan.

Trust me, it’ll be beautiful.