The Domus Building Gets New Tenants, One is “Samana”

I never really realized how big the old Domus store was until now, as I’ve gone into the several shops that have now replaced it. It was one really big kitchen ware store, really big. So, while I’m not real into wedding dresses or high end women’s fashion or cosmetics, I do appreciate eclectic furnishings and art work, handmade, from exotic foreign lands. I have browsed through the remaining shop of the four that are located in the Domus building. It’s called Samana, the name given to a collection of special monks in India looking for enlightenment in unconventional ways.

Barbara and Sandy are the owners of this new enterprise and they are both long time world travelers. Many years ago, Barbara began bringing back some of the art work she found on her travels. As she kept traveling, the pieces that she returned with evolved into a specialty interior design business which she ran in Santa Cruz, called Gravago. She closed Gravago a few years ago but kept traveling. Sandy was one of her traveling companions and after a time, Sandy suggested that they partner up and open another interior design enterprise and Los Gatos was lucky enough to become of the home of their new endeavor.

It was during one of my visits to Samana, when I finally realized how really, really big Domus had been. Samana is fairly large store all on its own, featuring goods from the Southeast Asia and India while Domus was a single, local operation, occupying the entire structure.

During her many travels, Barbara established a network of manufacturers who are more like organizers of specialized cottage industries and . . .  

(click here to read the conclusion)