Leaf Motif

Interior designer Matthew White delights in unusual spaces, especially those open to the beauty of the outdoors. After all, he grew up in a turquoise and white trailer at his father’s Tumbleweed Trailer Park in dusty Amarillo, Texas. “I had enough dry, flat land with tumbleweeds blowing down the street to last a lifetime,” he says with a laugh. “Now all I want to see is lush, beautiful gardens.” For nearly a decade, White had a Pasadena antique shop and office located in architect Wallace Neff’s 1920s design studio; it faced a flower-filled Spanish-style courtyard with a burbling fountain. In 1997, when White closed the store, he moved his office into his home, complete with a view of his 300-plus roses and fruit trees. “Without leaving my chair,” he recalls, “I could reach out the window and pick lemons.” After outgrowing that space, he recently turned a 1940s cottage behind a friend’s Spanish Revival home into a larger office. It has a floor-to-ceiling window that floods the interior with light and overlooks a Mediterranean landscape fragrant with lavender and rosemary. “Today, it’s become my home-office-away-from-home,” White says. “When business gets too hectic, I just walk outside and take a deep breath.”

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What White Likes:

* 17th and 18th century Venetian antiques

* lamb sandwiches at Derek’s in Pasadena

* ‘Mary Rose’ roses

* piano concertos by Chopin

* his 14-year-old basset hound, Phoebe

* the designs of Billy Baldwin