COCONUT FIBER ACTS LIKE A SPONGE.
“IT ABSORBS THREE OR FOUR TIMES ITS WEIGHT IN WATER. WHEN THE SUN HITS THE TURF, THE MOISTURE EVAPORATES AND COOLS THE SURFACE. IT CAN LOWER THE TEMPERATURE FORTY TO FIFTY DEGREES.”
Texture matters. Balance matters.
When Olivier Roumy talks about grass, he speaks about it the way an artist talks about his craft. Texture matters. Balance matters. The way something looks and feels when you run your hand across it matters. For Roumy, the founder of Los Angeles-based turf company Cocoturf, artificial grass has never been just a landscaping product—it’s something to be refined and perfected.
Roumy grew up far from Los Angeles, in France’s Loire Valley, a region known for its historic castles, vineyards and winding rivers. “It’s one of the most beautiful parts of France,” he says of the storybook setting. “I actually grew up facing a castle. Not in one, unfortunately—but right across from it.” The countryside shaped his childhood, from long bike rides through the rolling hills to the early obsession that would stay with him for life: motorcycles. “I started riding when I was five or six years old,” he says. “In the countryside, you just ride everywhere.”
Like so many, Roumy came to the United States with curiosity, ambition and little certainty about what his future might hold. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1998, working as a hairdresser. It was a creative, high-energy world, and Roumy quickly built a reputation for his meticulous work and artistic eye. “I was doing men’s and women’s hair,” he says. “Balayage twenty-five years ago, before it was popular.” The work even took him backstage at New York Fashion Week. “That was exciting,” he recalls. At the time, Roumy had no idea that those early years—focused on artistry, customer service and attention to detail—would eventually shape the philosophy behind a turf company on the opposite coast.
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https://citylifestyle.com/brentwoodla/issues/2026-06