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    Sunset Magazine

    Sunset Magazine

  • How to Design a Beach Cottage

    A Laguna Beach family shows how to mix styles and live large in a small space.

  • Top 10 Lake Vacations

    Christina Lake, British Columbia, is seemingly created for people who want to rent their own lakeside cottage/cabin/luxury home. Lake Crescent Lodge is one of the great national-park hotels, with a wood-paneled dining room--President Franklin Roosevelt ate here--and a sunroom where parents and young children play games of Uno and Jenga.

  • 15 Colorful Plants for Shade Gardens

    Plant some of these beauties for great garden color, even in shade.

  • 3 Ways to Decorate a Deck

    3 L.A. designers show how to make every dollar count when outfitting an outdoor room.

  • Beginner's Guide to Alaska

    You don't have to see the same places everyone else does. Here's our guide to the coolest glaciers, biggest bears, and best small town.

  • 11 Ideas for a No-Fuss Summer Party

    Make your next outdoor party a breeze with inventive menus, fun decorating ideas, and easy tips.

  • How to Design a Yard from Above

    Ipe wood insets are placed throughout the yard; Like many "walk streets" in the neighborhood, the pedestrian-only path facing the garden gets foot traffic from surfers and tourists on their way to the beach. So he kept the planting beds and gate only waist high, making the garden not only pleasing from above, but also welcoming to everyone passing by. From overhead, it plays off the garden's offset wall in an unusual way.

  • 15 Ideas to Steal from a Rustic-Modern Ranch House

    The ranch house rides again--this time with a dash of old world character. The ranch house is as quintessentially Californian as Yosemite and artichokes. So when Eric Olsen, an architect who grew up surrounded by the iconic style in Newport Beach, saw a textbook ranch house in Corona del Mar, he fell fast for its modern but modest style--and knew it was just the place for him and his wife, Adriana, to raise their three daughters. Adriana, who grew up on the East Coast with her Italian-American family, wasn't sure what to make of it.

  • 15 Iconic Beach Experiences

    Ignite your love for the shore with these classic beach icons. From boardwalks to bonfires, here are our favorite ways to dive in.

  • How to Design a Fire-Resistant Garden

    Follow its lessons for creating your own gorgeous, fire-smart landscape. Before this landscape was reimagined, a thick blanket of worn-out junipers covered the slopes;

  • 8 Crowd-pleasing BBQ Sides

    Steal the show with delicious sides like our famous Crunchy Napa Cabbage Slaw.

  • Fun Decorations for July 4

    Eden Rodriguez, owner of End Design in Santa Rosa and Mill Valley, places garden stake lights or a small battery-operated camping lantern under tablecloths.

  • 15 Ways to Upgrade Your Yard for Entertaining

    Style expert Caitlin Atkinson says, "The garden is your canvas--paint a warm, inviting picture on it." Here are some easy ways to do just that, and get your outdoor space in shape for weekend entertaining.

  • Top 10 California Coast Hotels

    The resort of choice for many SoCal celebrities, the Montage prides itself on exclusivity--not to mention its ideal locale in ritzy Laguna Beach with the Pacific Ocean sprawling out before it. Featuring a subtle palette of sea tones, the 38-room boutique hotel's interior evokes the changing moods of the Pacific, which lies just three blocks away from Shade's location in the heart of Manhattan Beach. Two blocks from the Promenade, the 36-room Palihouse Santa Monica preserved the bones of its historic 1927 Spanish colonial revival building even as it transformed into a boutique hotel.

  • 15 Great Ideas for Decks

    Find inspiration for turning a deck into your favorite "room" in the house.

  • 10 Natural & Earthy Decorating Ideas

    Touches of nature reign supreme in this unique Mother Earth-inspired décor.

  • 7 Essential Pieces of Camping Gear

    The latest, greatest, made-in-the-West products that will make your next outdoors overnight a dream.

  • How to Design a Lush Tropical Retreat

    See how a boring Southern California yard got a stunning ​Hawaiian makeover, complete with tropical plants and a lagoon. In the '90s, Jack Rice took a business trip to Kauai with his wife, Kathy. Over the next few years, the couple frequently returned to Hawaii with their sons, John and Matt, ultimately visiting all the major Islands. "I love plants, and envisioned dragging a hose around my garden in Hawaii," he says.

  • 8 Gourmet Camping Recipes

    Plan on some amazing meals from chefs in the West who love to camp. (And read up on some of our favorite Western wilderness experiences.)

  • Top Tips for a Last-Minute Summer Trip

    Lake Tahoe lodging fix Sure, the six-story concrete structure looks a bit like the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company--but one designed by Mike Brady, given its open-air lobby planted with Lawai ferns, Phoenix palms, plumeria, and red ginger.