Muuto Katalog 2023

60
What’s it like living in San Diego?
Los Angeles is the hip place. Everyone's stylish and knows
what's cool. In San Diego, we don't really have that. I live in
Escondido, more of a rural farm area. It gets hot here, up to
90, 100, in the summers. It's almost a desert, but it's really
easy to farm here. I can grow just about anything in this
climate: mangoes, figs, cactus fruits, dragon fruits, peaches,
guava, everything. The plants evoke a lot of passion for me.
My weekend getaways are to Palm Springs, Los Angeles,
Mexico—I can get to Mexico in 20 minutes. San Diego’s
community crossover is probably the thing that makes it the
most unique. I have friends that live in Mexico and come to
work here, or who I hang out with there on the weekends.
We have our own design community here, and it’s truly
international. I used to live in San Francisco and New York,
and that kind of energy is addictive and contagious. So I do
miss that a little bit. But being in my bubble here and having
so much space to create and focus, I can free myself.
Tell me about your home.
I live in an architecturally significant house. It was designed
by Walter S. White, who designed the Wave House in Palm
Springs, which is essentially a museum home. I've been
pouring hours of work into the interior, because the bones of
it are great. There are super cool little details that are part of
how the house itself was made, but it wasn't kept very well.
So I'm doing all that detailed work, bringing it back.
What is your favorite thing about having a garden? How
does this outside area complement your home’s interior?
I really think being in the garden has become the greatest
way of spending time in my life. I have always been attracted to
farm culture and my father has a four-acre orchard of every
fruit you can imagine. I always loved seeing how every part
of the yard can grow into itself and with my encouragement
become something truly amazing.
I am in the beginning stages of my yard, but I feel like every
day more of a master plan is developing. I specifically think
that the outside of a home carries a great influence on how
you perceive the inside of one.
How did you first start working with wood and where did
you go from there?
When I was 18 I hurt my ankle skating, and it was a super
long recovery—six months. While I was recovering, I took
all my old skateboards, and the jigsaw that I had, and I started
cutting them and glueing them and doing all these crazy
experiments.
I did play guitar at the time, and I thought, how cool
would it be if I could make a guitar? I was just gonna go buy
wood. But I'm 18. I don't have very much money. I thought,
what if I made it out of skateboards, somehow? I was about
halfway done when I realised, this is gonna work! So I started
making two more.
I kept making them. At the same time I worked for free as
a cabinet-maker, to learn more woodworking, then I worked
for free painting guitars. Then the craziest thing happened.
A guy at college was in a video film class, and filmed me
making guitars and we put it on YouTube. I thought, wow,
5,000 people watched this! Then I went to bed and woke up
and someone had picked it up, and it got something like 30
million views. It went insane after that, and I started selling
guitars all over the world through Prisma Guitars.
Is there anything you collect?
I have a pretty bad chair collection habit. I have a lot of
chairs. Some people's work really resonates with me, and I
love to have part of their ideas in my space. If everything
was something I made, it would be really flat, you know?
What’s your favourite time of day in the house?
Right when I wake up and I see the sun hit everything, I
really see the magic of it all. Those are probably the most
productive moments of my day. I'm not emailing, but my
brain feels active. That's the moment when my brain thinks
of the next idea. •