Interior designer Victoria Sass starts every project by learning about a space’s story. It’s an appropriate formula for her studio, Prospect Refuge, named after a design theory that explains why clients choose certain environments over others.
Taking that philosophy and turning it inward, you would find an upbringing that bucks convention. The 40-year-old grew up in sunny Santa Cruz, Calif., famed for its surfer culture. “My childhood was pretty bohemian,” she says. Not only did her parents drive a Volkswagen van, but they also lived out of it while visiting national parks.