Viesso Furniture

How important was it that the company be green?

Ryan: We didn't start the company fully green. Our father is an energy specialist, so we grew up living a pretty green lifestyle. Both our parents were using solar panels over 25 years ago. They are happy that the revolution is finally taking place. Quickly after we began this company, we realized that we could offer green options. As we work with different companies, we see that they're all moving in that direction, so we almost don't even have a choice now. We can fade out a lot of the non-green options because there’s so many available replacements.

Tell us about how you started the company. The story begins with you and your third partner Alex Contreras sitting outside a mall, looking into the windows of another furniture company…

Ryan: We saw how they were doing it, and thought there had to be a better way…. Travis: Everything was so homogenous. They took up an unbelievable amount of space to show basically the same thing over and over again. We wanted to allow people to have some creativity in their design. Ryan: We started selling furniture out of our apartment. It took off, but we both kept our day jobs—I started a graphic and web design company; Travis was in advertising. We set up appointments with customers at nine o' clock at night. They got off work and would come to our apartment, which we just gutted and put in sofas. Eventually, we stumbled into the space that we are still in, in Santa Monica. Travis: The idea was to focus our efforts through our website. The key is to have customization available, including green options. People all over the country can use our website as a resource to build whatever they’re looking for.

What were some of the first green options that Viesso offered?

Ryan: From the beginning, the frames have been FSC-certified hardwood. [Forest Stewardship Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging responsible forest management.] Travis: Anything that's upholstered is 100% alder wood underneath. Ryan: The biggest surprise for a lot of people was using natural latex. At the time, it was—and still is— used for mattresses, so we thought: Why not chop it up into smaller pieces for upholstery? Funnily enough, it's superior in quality by about twofold to the manmade stuff. Nature ends up winning, and there’s no off-gassing. It’s naturally hypoallergenic. As we grow, we hope to continue to green our company. While our products are very green, the next step is to get our manufacturers to have facilities that are green and solar powered. That's all down the line and where we hope to go.

Your company really stands out among other green furniture companies as having a lot of style. On your website, you say, 'We share the same taste in culture, in music….' There’s a sense that this the cool green furniture.

Travis: We get that a lot, where people say they felt like they had to sacrifice aesthetically. With us, they can maintain a modern look but still have the green elements. We try to create an environment, in both our showroom and website, that we feel represents us and our consumer base.

Fashion designers speak of how there can be aspects of green materials that they have to work at, make compromises. For example, sometimes with bamboo, it might not offer enough shape. Have you had similar experiences?

Ryan: Sure. You brought up bamboo. We use bamboo on all our wood products. It's a very dense, hard wood, and it's great and very durable, but it took some time to get the joints, the cuts, the stains all the way we wanted. We've found a way to work with it, and are quite happy about producing some really beautiful, long-lasting pieces.

You have a feature in which for $100, you'll advise them on furniture styles and fabrics, even go to their house. What's a common decorating dilemma you guys have come across?

Travis: People will get a sofa, and then the question is what to do about the chairs. A lot of times, people try to keep the two furnishings within similar lines. Ryan: It's funny to see people come in here, and some will stick with the exact same model, the exact fabric, everything matches perfectly. They're used to a traditional furniture company, where they dictate what the trends are. And then other people will come in and choose this wild, crazy fabric for the chairs, and then a sofa in a bold orange or something. They're all over the place. But in every case, they're happy that they found exactly what they wanted.

You mentioned your dad's an energy specialist. Exactly how green were you, growing up?

Ryan: For starters, I was conceived in a trailer with solar panels on it. Our parents were in Santa Barbara and off the grid completely, in a camper, and self-sustained. We grew up with an overall general respect for Planet Earth. Instead of taking out the power boat, we’d go camping for a week.

Did you ever rebel?

Travis: This is kind of our rebellion, starting a company. Our parents were both hippies, from a counter-culture generation. They were sort of—well, not anti-capitalist, but more into living the simple life. Us doing this thing is almost our rebellion.

Is there any product or service you wish were green?

Travis: A taxi is definitely one. Ryan: With cars in general, living in a car culture like LA, it's really pathetic that we don't have more options when it comes to what you’re driving. There should be more hybrid cars by now. I recently came across a company called NAU. It's a very cool clothing company, and they have a similar model to us with using web technology, encouraging people to use that to shop, and having small stores rather than a 20,000 square foot flagship store. I just think they're very forward thinking.

What's your eco-sin?

Ryan: For me, it's golf. My dad doesn't play golf, and cringes every time there's a new golf course, just because of what it does to the land and the amount of water, especially in southern California.

Would either of you date someone who wasn't green?

Travis: Probably not. Ryan: My girlfriend is very green, so I'd have to say, No, I wouldn't.

Ryan, with your girlfriend, have you ever had an eco fight?

We have. Her father is a fisherman in Santa Barbara. He has a small fishing boat, but it's enough to make a comfortable living for his family, and has been doing it for a long time. She is very proud of him and what he's done. So any sort of environmental issue that comes up with fishing or over-fishing…not that he over-fishes, because most of those issues involve huge commercial fleets that are out in deep waters severely over-fishing a certain population. But anything that comes up around that we can butt heads over.

What's next in home decor?

Travis: I'd like to think it's über-customization, which is what we're doing. We don't have any inventory, so we don’t build unless someone buys the item—it's a very quick process. In today's world, because of Internet technology, people don't want to settle for something that they can just buy, in stock, that everyone else can get. We’ve shown in the last couple of years that people do want custom. And even where we are right now, we’re making a change on our website that's going to make it even more custom. Right now, for each model, you choose the fabric, the legs, the fillings, and the back pillows. At the store, you can choose things like 'I want to make this arm two inches thinner,' 'I want to make the depth four inches deeper, and make the back pillow taller.' We've had more and more people do this: They like what they see, but there are a couple of tweaks that would make it their perfect sofa. And so now we're further encouraging that by making those changes possible on the website. You can actually change our model online and build exactly what you want—tweaking it down to stitching type and things like that.

Any trends in furniture shapes?

Ryan: There's going to be a big push to start mixing more, including a more baroque style. People are already doing that. Kelly Wearstler, a famous interior designer, has made a name for herself and that sort of style. She does a great job of taking spaces that might architecturally be more modern, but mixing it up with baroque-influenced furniture and accents and details. We're going to continue to see a melding between those two, where people aren't afraid to play and mix it up.