THE TALE END
Charles Pearson and Thomas Sharkey
Owners, Hedge
68929 Perez Road, Suite F, Cathedral City
hedgepalmsprings.com
Charles Pearson (on left) and Thomas Sharkey set up shop in Cathedral City’s Perez Road Art & Design District 14 years ago. Initially, half their space housed Pearson’s landscape design firm and the other half an assortment of vintage garden furniture and pots (thus, the name Hedge). As the district came into its own, their business flourished from an outdoor-focused insider’s shop to a must-stop design destination filled with last-century furnishings and artwork fit for every living space.
“As we found beautiful outdoor things, we started to find beautiful indoor things,” Pearson explains of their retail evolution. The pair curates a range of vintage styles and artwork — over the past 10 years, summer trips to Bali have strengthened relationships with eight contemporary artists they now rep.
Before Hedge was Hedge, Palm Springs was the place Pearson and Sharkey came to reinvent themselves. Back East, Pearson studied at Harvard University and worked as a landscape designer. In L.A., Sharkey had been a personal assistant on and off for Shirley MacLaine and Jewel for 25 years. “That’s a career I’ll never do again,” he confides. “I would rather crawl on broken glass.” Launching their somewhat serendipitous business in Cathedral City was the ideal lifestyle reset.
“One or both of us is here every hour the store is open, and we still love coming to work every day,” Sharkey says.
“The store is our social life,” Pearson adds. “A lot of people just come in to visit and have a cool experience. We’ve made many friends at the shop who are going to be really good friends for a long time.”
Charles recommends
“Go to Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage and walk around the garden. I love to get there in the afternoon when the sun is just about to end the day. It’s free, and you don’t need an appointment.”