Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 39
Occupation: Interior designer and co-founder of Fettle.
Instagram: @fettledesign
Hometown: Los Angeles.
Studio location: Los Angeles and London.
Describe what you make: I create project-specific interior and exterior spaces, bespoke furniture and lighting, and pattern design.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: We recently finished a full renovation of the Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica which is an iconic 1933 built property with extensive views of Santa Monica pier and across Malibu.
Describe the problem your work solves: Whether renovation or new build, we aim to create spaces that have a sense of story and oftentimes nostalgia to them. We often work with historic buildings and try to find a balance between telling their story while creating modern, cutting-edge hospitality spaces.
Describe the project you are working on now: We have a series of openings coming up this year, including a 6,000-square-foot dining garden in the heart of West Hollywood called Lalou opening in June, and a very unique residential project on a hill overlooking Bel Air which completes in August.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We’re also working on a large food hall at a well-known casino in Las Vegas that’s wrapping up at the end of the year.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: The team. The thing I appreciate and feed off of most about our studio is the energy our team brings to our projects. Between our Los Angeles and London offices, we spend a lot of time discussing projects across time zones and hearing many different takes on various projects from people from many different backgrounds. We have nine different nationalities of the 16 people between the studios, and it gives us so many varied angles from which to look at the different projects.
What you do when you’re not working: I’ve done Capoeira—a Brazilian martial art that combines dance and acrobatics—since I was young, so that provides a great respite from work. I also have a good group of friends who surf together as we all live pretty close in West L.A so when we can sneak out early before work, we do. My wife and I also have three very young children so the vast majority of my limited non-work time is spent surviving generally!
Sources of creative envy: Envy is probably the wrong word, but I’m always pretty inspired by people who get to combine perpetual travel with doing what they love. There’s a great free surfer I always watch called Torren Martyn who’s currently traveling the South Pacific on a boat he and his friends seem to be constantly repairing while looking for pristine waves, which often seems somewhat more enticing than several of my less appealing daily tasks.
The distraction you want to eliminate: There’s a very good coffee shop in the bottom of the building our studio is in and if they would stop selling little boxes of almond cake bites I would not only get more work done but be thinner and richer, so that’s probably a win-win.
Concrete or marble? Marble.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse due to having vertigo, which provides our designers with endless entertainment when we’re on-site on certain projects and my legs go funny.
Remember or forget? Remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Ghosts, less existential crisis–inducing.
Dark or light? Dark.
