A house in California’s hippy-chic Topanga Canyon is not a surprising choice for a young, philanthropic entrepreneur and his family. Neither is it much of a surprise that the zeitgeisty, modern-cum-rustic home of Toms shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and his wife, Heather, looks a bit like a Soho House (the creatives-only private members’ clubs).
“I think that’s a great analogy,” says Mycoskie. “I always appreciate their use of new and found objects. That’s how we put our home together. We wanted it to look lived-in, not just-moved-in.”
Mycoskie, who is worth an estimated $300 million, founded Toms in 2006. His “One for One” business model – where every product bought means one can be gifted charitably – was first applied to shoes. The company now offers eyewear, bags and coffee, and in turn distributes glasses, birth kits and clean water in more than 70 countries.
The 3,500sq ft house, set on a two-acre hillside plot, has been home to the couple and their son, Summit, since 2012. They chose the house for its back-to-nature vibe, but also because of its proximity to Los Angeles. “We can be in nature here, but still only 30 minutes from the office,” he says.
It was not a ready-to-go property – “It needed a new roof, a lot of decking and tons of landscaping work” – and its interior was given an overhaul. Or, rather, an underhaul, paring back what was at the time a very modern space. “We took it back to more of its original form,” says Mycoskie. “We also replaced all of the doors and windows, to let in more light. It was quite a project. We wanted to keep it as rugged and natural as possible.”
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The work took ten months, with a deadline imposed by Heather’s pregnancy with Summit. “That was definitely the most stressful part of the project,” he says. They completed with a month to spare, with the help of the couple behind downtown LA interiors mecca Hammer and Spear. “Heather met them at their store and really liked their style. They oversaw the whole project with us.”
The house is filled with natural wood, ethically sourced from a local company that recycles old barns. “We call it our Topanga treehouse,” says Mycoskie. “The idea was to bring in the trees, to really make us feel like we were living in them.”
The house has three floors, over which four bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen and living area, office, TV room and utility/dog room are spread. The front door opens on to the open-plan space. “I love that room,” says Blake. “It’s where so much of our life happens.”
As with the entire home, furnishings are a combination of vintage finds and new buys. The kitchen has wooden benches but brass countertops, as well as a “total overkill” La Marzocco coffee machine from Italy.
The living area features pieces from the California-founded furnishings store Restoration Hardware and local antique yards, with pops of colour on soft furnishings and patterned rugs on the hardwood floor.
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Off the kitchen is the couple’s office, where they share a desk found on their honeymoon. “We got most of our furniture on that trip,” says Mycoskie. “We went to Bali and India, and started buying any cool stuff we found.”
One of those pieces is the ornate four-poster bed in the couple’s loft bedroom. Its heavy curtains are designed to keep out the light, “so it really feels like you are sleeping in a cocoon”. The rest of the bedrooms are on the ground floor. Both Summit’s and his soon-to-be sibling’s rooms are here (Heather is pregnant again) and their two goldendoodles, Gypsy and Buddha, also sleep on this floor.
Unfussy is the byword of this Topanga home. But it is a curated unfussiness that has by no means escaped the touch of luxury. “It’s a wonderful home,” says Mycoskie, “but it doesn’t feel fancy. That is exactly what we wanted – we didn’t compromise on it.”