Eclectic SLO County store sells handmade, vintage home goods ‘rooted in nature’
A shared passion for nature lured Sea + Green store owners Rebecca “Becky” Biskaduros and Jay Turton away from New Jersey and back to California in January 2020.
“We fell in love with this area more than 20 years ago when we were living in San Diego,” Biskaduros explained. “That love never really left us.”
The couple moved their Sea + Green shop, which sells “a collective of vintage and handmade goods inspired by the sea and rooted in nature,” to San Luis Obispo County along with their family.
They signed the lease for the shop’s new location at 2380 Main St. in downtown Cambria that February and began remodeling the space — right before a COVID-19 pandemic-related closure hit in March.
As Biskaduros put it, “Insert moment of panic here!”
Fortunately, new landlady Kathleen Gerber waived rent payments for her tenants during the closure, so the couple was able to concentrate on converting the longtime antique mall into a roomy, open-floor-plan retail shop.
Turton and Biskaduros used concrete, stone and clusters of natural crystals to build the shop’s massive, organic front desk in place. They built a dining table out of old barn wood and antique furniture legs.
They also created a “peace window” at the back of the store, overlooking a garden. Framing the window, the “driftwood, circular archway sculpture gives the feeling of entering a portal,” Biskaduros said.
Daughters Willa and Anza Turton, now 14 and 12, made “lovely, plant-dyed clothing and accessories” for the shop, their mom said.
“As a family, (we) have poured a lot of love and passion into this new store,” Biskaduros wrote in an email.
What brought family to SLO County?
Becky Biskaduros, 48, grew up in the woods of Massachusetts.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies in 1996 from the University of Vermont, then moved to San Diego. She worked in the energy efficiency industry and was a cofounder of the U.S. Green Building Council’s San Diego chapter.
In 2002, Biskaduros worked for noted architect James Hubbell, building the Pacific Rim Park in China. Her husband also worked for Hubbell at one point.
Jay Turton, 49, was born and raised in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. He was also a student at the University of Vermont, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
“That was where I met Becky in 1993, and we dated for a month or so,” Turton said.
Then, “about three and a half years later, we got back together in San Diego,” he said. Eventually, the couple eloped in 2003 in Las Vegas, with their rescue dog Dub as their best man.
The couple moved back to New Jersey, where Turton spent 15 years working in a family real estate company.
In 2007, Biskaduros launched Sea + Green in Bay Head, New Jersey.
Biskaduros relocated the store several times within the state, taking a two-year break from brick-and-mortar shopkeeping to exhibit at various shows, including those put on by Country Living magazine.
After she reestablished the shop in 2018 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Biskaduros and her husband continued “to pine for California,” she said.
Ever since they discovered the area during a one-week business trip, “We’d always dreamed of relocating to the central California coast,” she said.
“It was everything we dreamed of,” Turton said.
In 2019, Turton decided to switch careers so he could participate in Sea + Green full-time. That’s when the couple agreed that it was time to move to the Central Coast.
Cambria store puts focus on natural, homemade goods
Sea + Green held its soft opening during Memorial Day weekend in 2020.
The store’s main focus is on “natural and handmade” goods, Biskaduros said. “We’re so inspired by nature, bringing it into your home as a design element. We like to keep things as raw as possible.”
In addition to handmade products, the shop offers vintage and antique items such as “old food vessels from Pakistan,” she said. “I feel like the older the better” for things like that.
Sea + Green’s eclectic mix of products for sale includes crystals and fossils; leather goods from Faby Co. in San Luis Obispo and hand-shaped surfboards crafted by Shea Somma of San Luis Obispo and others.
The store also sells jewelry, accessories, candles, scents, oils, body care products and plants.
Other offerings include pigment-dyed kitchen towels, plant-dyed scarves and unique art such as handmade concrete botanical hearts.
Biskaduros and Turton collaborate with the husband-and-wife artisans at Rose + Stone Pottery in Arroyo Grande to help create custom pieces.
The Sea + Green proprietors recently launched some workshops and classes, and they’re selling a wholesale line of their products to retailers in Massachusetts, Louisiana, Los Angeles and other areas.
Sea + Green gives back
Biskaduros said that “giving back has always been an integral part of Sea + Green’s philosophy.
“After Superstorm Sandy, we were able to raise over $23,000 for Shores United Relief Foundation,” she said, selling heart ornaments made with reclaimed wood the hurricane had damaged.
She and Turton also made one-of-a-kind furniture and accessories out of damaged boardwalk wood, which they sold to raise funds to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
The Sea + Green owners plan to continue giving back, by donating money and products to local nonprofit organizations and giving a portion of sales on selected items to causes such as ACLU and aid to Ukraine.
Sea + Green is located on Main Street near the start of Cambria’s downtown area, in a building bookended by two restaurants, Wild Ginger and JJ’s Pizza & Grub.
The shop is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. or later on Friday and Saturday.
For details, go to sea-n-green.com. Follow the store via Instagram at @seaandgreenhome and Facebook at Facebook.com/sea.and.green.
