L.A.'s 30 Under 30: The City's Rising Stars
The Interior Designer: Kyle Schuneman
This room guru claims that he “owes his success to L.A.,” but we’re guessing that growing up in a jam-packed 1200-square-foot apartment in Chicago probably taught him to use space to its utmost potential. After devouring endless issues of Architectural Digest and finishing up high school, Schuneman packed his bags for Lala Land and broke his back working as a retail assistant, studio page, and PA (this included menial tasks like cleaning up confetti on commercial sets), before finally finding his “home” in production design for television. The go-getter crafted his first set at the age of 20, and had his on-air debut with KTLA the same year. He says of that groundbreaking moment: “I remember Ice Cube and a lady that bred ‘toyger’ cats were in the dressing room. I was so nervous that I kept tugging on my clothes throughout the segment, but over the years I’ve become more and more comfortable with practice.”
Eschewing the “stuffy bunch” of the interior-design community, Schuneman has never let the word “no” hold him back, and has sought out a “bold, fun, layered, cozy, and quirky aesthetic.” With this as his foundation, he’s got a brand-new book hitting the shelves in August, titled The First Apartment Book: Cool Design for Small Spaces. An answer to any champagne-taste-on-a-beer-budget decorator’s prayer, the tome aims to prove that “good design can make you live up to your surroundings — and it doesn’t matter if you're living in a rental, it’s your space — you should splash your personality around it and show your unique point of view.” We’d so follow any DIY tutorial from someone with so much haute heart!
—Brenna Egan
Hair by Jacquie Fetch, makeup by Mayera Abeita and Ali Magee.
in NYC