Designer Celerie Kemble shares her favorite haunts along West Palm Beach's South Dixie

Bowls. Those there Celerie Kemble's earliest South Dixie Highway obsession. "I remember getting dragged from shop to shop by my mother, being told not to break anything," Kemble says. "I went straight for the candy bowls." Though she was surrounded by gilt mirrors, chandeliers, and Chippendale chairs, at the time, Brach's caramels were the real treasure.

These days, the New York-based, Palm Beach-reared Kemble-who partners with her mother, Mimi McMakin, in Kemble Interiors-has made a name for herself as a designer of high-profile residences and private clubs in New York, Palm Beach and points beyond. A risk taker with a flair for originality, Kemble still descends on the cluster of West Palm Beach shops fronting South Dixie Highway, a Florida stretch of U.S. Route 1 as often as possible. She loves the quirky shop owners, the (relatively) low prices, and the eclectic mix of antique and vintage furniture, art, and accessories that can be found along what's known as Antique Row. Shopping South Dixie, Kemble says, fires her imagination. "You can measure my excitement by how long I'll go without eating when I'm running around buying for clients," she says. "I don't want to stop!" And, yes, she sometimes drags her children along.

Kemble tries to hit all four dozen or so ships, cruising the street's east side first and then U-turning to focus on the west. If that sounds exhausting, here are her top recommendations.

James & Jeffrey Antiques: "If you're looking for something slightly more traditional-more New Orleans antique than Los Angeles modern-this is the place, "Kemble says. "Gilt and marble, nineteenth-century Continental, chinoiserie: The shop is really thorough." It's actually two different stores a block apart: the Showroom, with more serious indoor furniture; and the partially tented Pavilion, with more casual pieces such as garden furniture.

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