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. •
61 Linear Steel Series p. 120 “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.” Enfold Sideboard p. 127 Post Floor Lamp p. 138 Outline Sofa p. 104 Upholstered in Refine Leather Cognac