Cashmere designer Greg Chait's 600-square-foot Venice bungalow: "I don't dream of anything bigger."

By David A. Keeps

Greg Chait designs handmade cashmere sweaters and blankets sold at exclusive stores across the country. Just one of his Ten Pound cashmere blankets can command $2,000 – or more. But despite his focus on the luxury market, Chait prefers to make his home in the simplest of settings: an old Venice surf shack with about 600 square feet of living space. It’s a bohemian retreat that captures the designer’s personality, friends say, and his sense of humor. Here, Chait takes a look out his bedroom window, which is covered in a Vietnamese fabric that he describes as “100% polyester and flammable.” His house is decorated with things acquired on his travels, including the African figurine on the windowsill. “He looks like a slingshot,” Chait says, laughing. “But he keeps watch over the house.”