Hills I'd Die On Part 1: Design

The half bath at Canyon Vista had cream walls, and you could barely see them. The owners' framed sports memorabilia ran floor to ceiling. The collection stayed. The room around it went deep blue.

That's hill number one. Here are all five.

1. I design for people, not trends.

I don't design for trends. I design for people. A home should reflect the people in it, not the trend of the times. That collection belongs to the owners, so it stayed right where it was, and the room changed around it.

2. If it's good, keep it.

Same house, the kitchen. The old one was dark wood under a set of original ceiling beams. The new one is white, and the beams were left exactly as we found them. New kitchen. Same beams.

Restraint is a design decision.

3. The view is the art.

Still Harbor is a condo on the San Diego harbor in Point Loma, first floor, with the beach right outside the glass. It got redone because the city required the plumbing to be dug up, and the family took that as the chance to upgrade the whole place. Mostly finishes. The giant sliding glass doors are the view: walk in, and that's what you see. The bay, the Coronado Bridge, sunrises. So the palette came from outside. Light sands, whites, driftwood, the blues of the water and sky. The shiplap fireplace wall and the driftwood-looking mantel tie the room back to the window. Tranquil is the word.

4. Influence, not a theme.

Rosa Verde is a small first home in Allied Gardens, and the client came in wanting a Mexican hacienda theme. We didn't want the project to FEEL thematic. So the influence lives in the color: a warm clay rose and deep emerald green tile on a feature wall and the base cabinet fronts, with calm creams and warm wood around them. Then one authentic piece, a custom arched solid-wood door milled in Mexico, just across the border.

5. Plan how people move before how it looks.

Sparkcycle was my first K2Design project, a cycling studio in an old warehouse at Liberty Station. The real job was how a person walks in, checks in, drops their shoes, gets into the room, and leaves again without once having to stop and think about where to go.

Every space should speak to the people who experience it. My job is making sure it does.