I met Bree Cutts when she opened her home for Marin Open Studios. Maybe it was the rosé, but we’ve kept in touch ever since.
What do you do?
My husband and I co-lead a design firm focusing mainly on cultural museums and nature trails. We’ve been lucky to work with inspiring people and in beautiful places. We often joke that we work from square inches to square miles.
Where do you live?
In San Anselmo, on a steep-ish hill, with a beautiful view of Mt. Tam.
How long have you lived in Marin?
I moved to Marin in 2006 after 10 years in San Francisco. I grew up in Pasadena, the home of the Rose Bowl and the Doo Dah Parade.
Where can we find you when you’re not at work?
I love to design patterns, which I first paint in gouache and then print using custom stencils. I also enjoy walking in the local hills with our dog, Jax.
If you had to convince someone how awesome Marin is, where would you take them?
The bike loop I used to ride from Fairfax past Alpine Dam, along Ridgeview, up to Mt. Tam and down into Mill Valley, for food and wine at either Playa or Watershed—and a car ride back home.
What’s one thing Marin is missing?
Diversity. I grew up in southern California where diversity felt more natural.
What’s one bit of advice you’d share with your fellow Marinites?
(Slow down) and check out the poppies that grow along our local roads each spring, sprouting out of asphalt and pavement.
If you could invite anyone to a special dinner, who would they be?
That’s so tough to narrow down, but as a kid who had trouble reading, I loved the eerily-hilarious cartoons by Gahan Wilson.
What is some advice you wish you knew 20 years ago?
Advice I wish I knew 20 years ago: Relaxing doesn’t mean being lazy. Advice I wish I followed 20 years ago: Get your head into the numbers.
What is something that in 20 years from now will seem cringeworthy?
Leaf blowers (with all due respect to gardeners).
Big question. What is one thing you’d do to change the world?
Re-design schools and our education system.
Keep up with Cutts at sibbettgroup.com and @breecutts on Instagram, and check out her holiday pop-up in the window of Studio J Architecture, 574 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo (breecuttsstudio.com/popup).
Nish Nadaraja was on the founding team at Yelp, serves on the San Anselmo Arts Commission and attempts to play pickleball at Fairfax’s Cañon Club.
