....revisiting ZOOM MOTORS....!

Coming upon the end of the year always has me reflecting back as to where I was the year before....what has changed, what hasn't, where was I at this time last year both mentally and physically....?  This year marks my husband and my five year anniversary of living in San Francisco!  


Five years ago I was frantically trying to wrap up my projects I had going on in Santa Barbara - our pitstop for 8 months between our Los Angeles to San Francisco move.  I had a great little project during that stint in SB.  I had just started branching out on my own in the big design world and was finishing up a remodel in the Hollywood Hills as well as doing a quick and cost-effective remodel on an old service station in Santa Barbara.  It was my first solo commercial project and I worked with AB Design Studio on the interior layout and city permitting (the biggest headache in Santa Barbara FYI....if it isn't a maroon, Spanish tile roof.....get ready to wait and wait and wait), etc.  It was a fun project, one worth revisiting because the before and after photos are SO drastically different.


This was a grungy, mid-century service station that sat in it's own grease for who knows how long.  Being on the corner it had the potential to be seen from several angles.  The owners of ZOOM Motors sold used, unique cars and offered a detail service for the same....so we wanted it to be hip, modern and bright - as bright as possible for SB....we literally went through SEVERAL orange colors for the exterior sign color because our original orange was too "bright".









before office



before office






SO much grease...it was days of power washing.  not pretty.





We added a multi-work surface, kitchenette (all affordable IKEA) and a smaller desk in the back for accounting, etc.  The large white wall is built out to look like corrugated metal painted a lacquer white.  I can't remember why we didn't actually use corrugated metal (I love that material), but I am going to take a wild guess and say that it had to do with city permitting.




















It turned out pretty darn cute.  Zoom Motors unfortunately took a big hit in the recession a few years ago....I don't know what is there now....anybody from SB know?


"before" photos by janel holiday design....fancy, pro shots by Ciro Coelho.


Soundtrack for this end-of-the-year revisit is one of my favorite 80's albums: