Kelly Wearstler is an interior designer and founder of Kelly Wearstler Studio, known for luxury hospitality and residential projects. She also runs Side Hustle, a gallery featuring emerging and established artists in her home.

The conversation covers her ambitious Cal Neva project in Lake Tahoe, a historic 1926 hotel casino where Frank Sinatra once performed and Marilyn Monroe visited. With 500 consultants involved, the project includes 200 rooms, chalets, a recording studio, and wellness facilities.

Wearstler discusses her design philosophy of mixing vintage and contemporary pieces, her early apprenticeship with graphic designer Milton Glazer, and how her book Modern Glamour led to major commercial opportunities including work with Bergdorf Goodman.

Cal Neva: Reimagining Frank Sinatra's Lake Tahoe Casino

The Cal Neva project involves 500 consultants and team members working on a 200-room hotel casino originally built in 1926, purchased by Frank Sinatra in 1960 who added a 400-person theater.

Historic guests included Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and the Kennedys, with underground tunnels allowing Frank Sinatra to move around the property unseen during the Rat Pack era.

The redesign includes chalets, membership club, recording studio, six food and beverage outlets, and a 40,000 square foot wellness facility with racket sports and retail.

Only 30% of the original historic fabric remains, requiring careful balance between contemporary additions and preserving the building's musical heritage and nostalgic spirit.

Side Hustle Gallery: A New Model for Artist Collaboration

Side Hustle operates from Kelly's home as an appointment-only gallery featuring 10 global artists working under the curatorial theme "Again Differently" - about failing and trying again.

The gallery crosses multiple mediums from rubber to performance art to scent, including an atmospheric playlist by Kenny Beats and exclusive works like Sonia Gomez's first bronze pieces.

Artists collaborate on pieces they might not have means to create alone, with Kelly's team providing assembly and fabrication support for functional art pieces.

The model includes Hustle Culture, a digital platform with moving images and storytelling, designed to feel warm and inviting unlike intimidating traditional galleries.

Design Philosophy: History, Scale, and Authentic Materials

"You have to know history to be a good designer" - Kelly prohibits her team from looking at contemporary interiors, instead drawing inspiration from architecture for chairs or earrings for drinking glasses.

Vintage furniture maintains better proportions: "seat heights on vintage furniture are very low, like 15 inches, and now it's like 23" which "truncates a room."

Authentic materials with patina cannot be reproduced: "there's something about something that has history that you just cannot reproduce" - furniture with stories and energy from previous lives.

Spaces should feel timeless through "soulful material" and mixing vintage, antique, and contemporary pieces to create tension where "you really can't tell when the house was designed."

Early Career: From Milton Glazer to Modern Glamour

Kelly secured an apprenticeship with iconic graphic designer Milton Glazer by sending a handmade note and "elaborate little book" that told a story, leading to a year-long position in his four-floor Manhattan townhouse.

Glazer's 20-person multidisciplinary studio covered graphic design, interiors, and restaurant work, including the famous "I Love New York" symbol and music industry projects.

Her book Modern Glamour led to an unexpected call from Bergdorf Goodman: "We're huge fans, and we have a restaurant... we would love to consider you to do the restaurant."

The Bergdorf success opened doors to product design, with the store asking her to create 20 accessories and sculptural objects for retail, despite having no prior product experience.

Technical Design Solutions and Acoustic Strategies

Acoustic solutions include placing "felt underneath the dining tables" to reduce echo, especially important in restaurants with hard surfaces like stone marble floors.

Long rooms can be improved by "adding portals to create an enfilade or new rhythm," plus "adding windows, adding columns" or "spaces within spaces" using mirrors for expansion.

Sunken elements like bars and lounges make small spaces feel larger because "the bar is more at almost like a dining height" and "doesn't cut the room off."

Ceilings are "such an important part of a space and a lot of people forget them" - she uses timber, plaster in unexpected colors, and brings wall colors up to create "warm and womb-like" feelings.

Personal Journey: From Myrtle Beach to Design Success

Kelly's mother's advice shaped her independence: "Nobody will take care of you other than yourself. You have to be happy on your own. You have to take care of yourself."

Started working at 13 making smoothies and hamburgers at a beach cafe, after initially babysitting for hotel guests at age 12 with business cards dropped at hotels.

Her parents married at 17-18 as high school sweethearts, divorced after moving to Myrtle Beach when her father "stepped out of the family," creating a difficult period.

"Dreams come true" - something she believes now that she didn't when young: "I honestly never thought in a million years I would be doing this" when waiting tables in school.