Anyone who has paid a visit to Venice, Calif. can attest to its originality, creativity and general funkiness. The neighborhood is a breeding ground for artists of all kinds -- from interior designers and architects to performance and graffiti artists and everyone in between. I sometimes call this always interesting stretch of oceanfront land home and when I'm in town one of my first stops is always to see what's new on Abbot Kinney Blvd.

For the perfect summary of all Venice has to offer the design-inclined, one need look no further than Abbot Kinney. The selection of art galleries and furniture, antique and design shops can keep a person busy for days. In fact, the first Friday of each month shop and gallery doors stay open late to welcome locals and visitors alike who want to check out what's new, beautiful, weird, interesting or all of the above.

You'll be well fed on this block as well with permanent establishments like Lemonade offering a gourmet cafeteria experience, not to mention some of the most creative lemonade flavors you'll ever taste, plus a more recent addition to First Fridays: gourmet food trucks. Sample everything from Korean specialties to dripping barbecue and exotic grilled cheeses while you stroll and shop.

Below are four of my favorite shops on the block. Several cater to designers, helping them to create custom furniture or collections for their clients, others offer design services of their own. All have something very unique to offer.

• Bountiful
  In this cavernous location you'll find antiques in every form: cabinets of all sizes, low tables, dining tables, dressers, mirrors, upholstered furniture, decorative accessories, massive chandeliers and so on; plus one-of-a-kind pieces like a library card catalog that was in stock during my last visit; and some new items as well like decorative frames and accessories from Olivia Riegel and a seemingly endless supply of milk glass cake stands in an Easter parade of colors (a personal obsession and one I'm pleased to see has captured someone else as well).
  
  
• Stansbury Collection
  The primary business here is custom furniture work for designers but the shop that surrounds this business is interesting in its own right. Antiques and antique reproductions mingle with the custom-made furniture, classic surfer art and memorabilia, and paintings and illustrations done by local artists. The owner has a knack for finding exquisite hand-carved antique pieces. My most recent favorites have been an intricately detailed china closet and an armoire so solid you would never guess it had survived so many decades.
  
  
• Colcha
  Here you'll find on-site designers ready to take on full projects alongside a shop that speaks perfectly to the California chic lifestyle. Elegant and cheerful home accessories from designers like Jonathan Adler and Michael Aram live gracefully beside dining tables of reclaimed wood, a massive organic root table, colorful Swahili baskets, and soy candles by Aquiesse in scents like Boardwalk, Shoreline and Pacific Lime Blossom.
  
  
• Surfing Cowboys
  It's hard to place a label on a shop that in one day's visit offers up vintage surf posters, mid-Century modern furniture and accessories, a custom line of clothing, and a Victorian church pew. Just when you think you've got this place figured out, you turn around and realize how wrong you are. And the owners like it that way, calling it "a collection built on a love for a style." There is a California cool simplicity that runs through this ever-changing collection that allows seemingly different pieces to live in perfect harmony.