Venice Beach Bead Store With $6 Charms: Brooklyn Charm

Brooklyn Charm's Venice Beach shop, at 905 Pacific Ave a block back from the boardwalk, is a bead and charm store where you pick the chain, the charms and the beads, and staff can put the piece together for you. It is closed on Tuesday and opens at 11 am or noon the rest of the week, so it slots neatly into a beach afternoon. Enter from Pacific Avenue rather than the boardwalk side, in the same block as Little Lunch, with Brooks Avenue as the cross street.

The brand began on the other coast. Brooklyn Charm opened its first storefront in Williamsburg in 2010, after starting out as an internet jewelry supply business, and built its name on asking customers to design their own pieces. The Williamsburg shop closed at the end of 2020, and the company now runs stores in Greenpoint and on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, plus a shop in Ventura, about an hour up the coast.

Venice is its Los Angeles outpost, and the setting suits the concept. On a street where surf shops, tattoo parlors and vintage racks share the sidewalk, a store built around one-off jewelry feels at home. The company describes the format plainly: with hundreds of chains and thousands of charms, every design comes out different, whether staff assemble it or you take the supplies home.

Pricing on the brand's online shop gives a sense of what a piece will cost, since charms are priced individually. A stainless steel Venice California charm is $6, which makes an easy souvenir, and there are matching ones for Brooklyn and Ventura if you are collecting the set. Enamel red mushrooms and floppy cowboy hats are also $6 each, while a pair of tiny cowboy boot charms runs $5.

Pearls are a big part of the look. The funky freshwater pearl charms, in eight irregular shapes with a gold accent, are $10 each, and a large heart locket is $10. For a bag or backpack rather than a necklace, the build-your-own keychain and purse charm base is $8, so a personalized bag tag can come in under $25 with two charms added.

If you like a surprise, the Mystery Brooklyn Charm Junk bag is $15 and mixes charms, beads, findings and cabochons across finishes and materials. It is a good way to stock up a home stash of odd pieces for later projects, and it is the item most likely to send you home with something no one else will have.

Start at the chains. Pick a length and a finish, gold-tone, brass, silver-tone or vintage, and then move to the trays of charms, lockets and beads. Lay your choices out together before deciding, because a charm that looks tiny in the tray can dominate a fine chain, and a heavy locket may need a sturdier link. Staff help customers sort through the stock and can assemble the finished piece in the shop.

Weekends are the busiest days at the brand's stores, and its Brooklyn shop warns of wait lists when it reaches capacity, so a weekday visit is the calmer choice. The Venice shop also stocks handmade accessories, crystals and the vintage odds and ends the brand is known for, so even a quick stop can turn into gift shopping. If you are making several pieces for a group, decide on one chain style for everyone and vary the charms, which keeps the set looking deliberate.

Think about the wearer before the charms. Someone who lives in the water will want stainless steel, which is what the city charms are made of, while vintage brass pieces develop a warm patina that some people love and others polish away. If the jewelry is a gift, a single meaningful charm on a fine chain usually lands better than a crowded cluster, and it keeps the cost close to the $6 to $10 per charm range.

The store is easy to miss if you approach from the sand. The entrance faces Pacific Avenue, not Ocean Front Walk, so walk one block inland at Brooks Avenue and look for the shop in the same building block as Little Lunch. Coming from Abbot Kinney Boulevard, it is roughly a ten-minute walk west along Brooks Avenue or Westminster Avenue.

Parking near the beach is limited and fills early on sunny weekends, with paid public lots near the end of Venice Boulevard and Rose Avenue. Big Blue Bus and Metro buses run along Main Street a few blocks inland, and biking along the beach path is a pleasant way to arrive from Santa Monica. Once you have parked, it is easy to combine the shop with the boardwalk on foot.

From Brooks Avenue it is a short walk south along the boardwalk to the outdoor gym at Muscle Beach, part of the Venice Beach Recreation Center at 1800 Ocean Front Walk, and the skate park beyond it. The boardwalk itself is a parade of street performers, murals and vendors, and late afternoon light over the water is the best time for it.

For a quieter loop, head south and inland to the Venice Canals, where small footbridges cross narrow channels lined with gardens and cottages, a reminder of Abbot Kinney's plan to bring a bit of Italy to the coast. Then wander up Abbot Kinney Boulevard for its boutiques and cafés before the light fades.

Address: Brooklyn Charm Venice Beach, 905 Pacific Ave, Venice, Los Angeles, CA 90291. Hours as listed by the store: Monday 11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday closed, Wednesday noon to 5 pm, Thursday noon to 5 pm, Friday 11 am to 6 pm, Saturday noon to 6 pm, Sunday 11 am to 6 pm. The same page's header describes the shop as open Thursday through Monday, so Wednesday is the one day the two listings disagree.

Price anchors from the brand's online shop: city charms at $6, freshwater pearl charms at $10, the keychain and purse charm base at $8, and the mystery bag at $15. For a seafood lunch or a sunset spot after the shop, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP.