SoCal Meets Mid-century Modern in a Small Santa Monica Guest House

Name: Hank Geer and girlfriend
Location: Santa Monica, California
Size: 600 square feet
Years lived in: 3 years, renting

We live in a guest house in Santa Monica, surrounded by an avocado tree, a lemon tree, and an orange tree. When we moved in it was mint green and covered in fleur de lis. Hank took his love for furniture and turned our apartment into his first interior design project.

By day he’s a Digital Marketing Manager at Velvet by Graham & Spencer and at night he’s a chef at Hayden. I’m the Brand Manager at House Beer in Venice, and at night teach hot yoga at Modo Yoga LA. We both grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and met eight years ago. We’ve been in L.A. for four years and can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: SoCal meets mid-century modern.

What is your favorite room and why? The living room—it’s full of vintage finds and plants!

If you could magically change something about your home, what would it be? We love all the old quirks and wouldn’t change the weird things that make it special—but we’d magically double its size. Santa Monica real estate tends to be small.

What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? This is our house. The last thing we bought was probably something from our ceramics teacher Patrick—we’re trying to make all our own dinnerware.

Any advice for creating a home you love? Only buy pieces you love—we’re very KonMari—if it doesn’t spark joy, don’t put it in your space.

Keep it simple, clean, functional and comfortable.

We’ve always tried to create a space where we can cook amazing food, entertain our friends, relax, and rest.

Thanks, Hank!

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