Wayne Rollins’ Black Bird Home Gallery embodies his unique coastal style, a resort-chic look refined for Sarasota but acquired when he and wife Mindy lived in Santa Monica, Calif. “California is where it starts: soft contemporary—not modern, not cold,” he explains at the shop, a Zen-like oasis that exudes calm sophistication.

A psych major, former interior designer with the firm of the late Atlanta celebrity designer T. Gordon Little, and most recently a West Coast art dealer, Rollins has perfected a decorating niche he saw nowhere else in town: “a look of casual refinement, more organic, more wooden, equally at home in a beach bungalow or a mansion on the bay,” he says.

“People who live on the coast love nature and strive for a view. It’s important to have furniture that doesn’t weigh down that view,” Rollins says of his shop and design philosophy.

Black Bird Home Gallery, 1540 Main St., Sarasota (941) 366-0941

California dreaming You’ve swooned over products from California brands Oly Studio and Noir Trading on the pages of national magazines. Rollins has them both, including Noir’s reclaimed wood Egypt Console (left, $1,875), a gray-washed, hand-hewn example of the new Rough Luxe look.

Can’t live without “My family, definitely (Wayne and Mindy moved to Longboat Key to raise their toddler son here). “I also can’t live without art in all forms, life on the beach—natural beauty—a beautiful world around me. I enjoy helping people connect with the one thing that makes their room beautiful. Their joy is infectious,” Rollins says.

What this town needs: “Main Street has great establishments, and I’d love to see it 100 percent retail and restaurants, with more young blood bringing in new directions in design, fashion and food. We have some momentum going with young owners of new boutiques, and we need to encourage more.”