Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs retreat is renovated with nostalgic 1960s interiors
![Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs house](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TnLnuqHjQCkaFiHGFCKSgk-415-80.jpg)
Search for the phrase ‘party at Frank Sinatra’s house’ on YouTube and you’ll be treated to footage of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan shaking their tail feathers in one of Palm Springs’ most fabled homes. The occasion for Paris and Lindsay’s booze-fuelled bacchanal at Casa Sinatra was the 2007 Coachella music festival.
On one hand, the spectacle that unfolds on YouTube can be seen as a sad commentary on the diminished wattage of today’s pop stars versus those of Sinatra’s era. Those inclined to a more sanguine interpretation, however, might submit the video as evidence that the Rat Pack spirit – guys and dolls bumping and grinding into the wee small hours – remains alive and well in the 21st century.
Sinatra commissioned the house in 1947 as a refuge for his young family – his first wife, Nancy Barbara, and their two children, Frank Jr and Nancy. The marriage dissolved several years later and so did the dream of a cosy retreat intended for wholesome family fun. In various biographies of Sinatra and his second wife, actress Ava Gardner, the Palm Springs house is generally painted as a den of intemperance and debauchery, a place where alcohol and sex frequently collided to operatic effect.
Sinatra’s poolside changing room.
Given the iconic stature of the house’s owner, it’s only natural that the history of the place has become clouded by myth and gossip. One delicious tale suggests that Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo used the famous piano-shaped swimming pool for lesbian trysts. A crack in the sink in the master bedroom is preserved as a shrine to the moment when Sinatra supposedly threw a champagne bottle at Gardner in a fit of rage.
Long-time denizens of Palm Springs recall that Sinatra would hoist a Jack Daniels flag between two soaring palm trees next to the pool as a signal that the house was open and the liquor was flowing.
Certain facts about Twin Palms (as the house came to be called) can be confirmed with a higher degree of certainty. Sinatra commissioned the place after he made his first million dollars as a testament to his success as a crooner, heartthrob and rising star of the silver screen. It was the first residential commission for E Stewart Williams, a Californian architect whose distinctive style would later help shape the image of Palm Springs as a bastion of classical modernist architecture in California’s Coachella Valley.
The living room with vintage Monteverdi Young credenza.
When New York media executive Eric Ellenbogen purchased the property three years ago, his research led him to Williams’ daughter-in-law, Sidney, who unearthed the floor plans. ‘I wanted to understand the original layout of the house before I did anything, but I wasn’t interested in doing a dry historical restoration or a nostalgic Hollywood movie-set version of what Palm Springs was like in the 1950s,’ he says. ‘I wanted it to be evocative of Sinatra and his era, but it had to have a life of its own.’
With that in mind, he enlisted the services of Darren Brown, a New York-based interior decorator who had helped to solidify Palm Springs’ cachet among young hipsters with his work at the Parker hotel, a project he directed while working in the office of Jonathan Adler. ‘Darren’s approach isn’t dogmatic. He doesn’t have one specific look or style that he tries to force on every project,’ says Ellenbogen. ‘Whenever I stayed at the Parker, I thought “This is the vibe that I want for my house.”’
RELATED STORY
The architects who built Palm Springs: Albert Frey
For his part, Brown was relieved to find a client with the intellectual curiosity and imagination to look beyond the clichés of midcentury California modernism. ‘When most people think of that period, they think of immaculate Neutra houses and Julius Shulman photographs of spare, elegant interiors with just one or two pieces of modern furniture,’ Brown says. ‘The reality of that time period was more nuanced. There were plenty of floral chintzes and comfy club chairs in those sublime modern houses. I wanted to embrace a little of that Lucy and Desi spirit.’
The former staff bedroom, now a guest room, features wallpaper by Clarence House and custom-designed pineapple table lamps by Darren Brown.
Working in tandem, Brown and Ellenbogen developed an aesthetic for the renovation that has its roots in the fashionable Palm Springs houses of the late 1940s, but moves into the haute-bourgeois Beverly Hills-style luxury of the 1960s. The mix of furnishings includes items from Ellenbogen’s own collection, as well as pieces purchased at local vintage stores and secondhand shops. The assemblage is unexpected, idiosyncratic yet highly personal.
A set of Jacques Adnet chairs surrounds a dining table by Paul Frankl. Temple rubbings from Thailand hang alongside abstract paintings. Chairs by Paul McCobb and T H Robsjohn-Gibbings, as well as drapes made from vintage fabrics by Jack Lenor Larsen and colourful Italian ceramics from the 1950s, spice up the eclectic décor.
To keep an element of authentic historical texture, Brown preserved the original fixtures in the master bathroom, including the Raymond Loewy taps, and re-installed Sinatra’s recording equipment and sound system, which had been exiled to the garage.
The pink master bathroom, preserved with original fixtures.
‘The house pays homage to the legend of Sinatra. It still feels very masculine and groovy, but it’s not a museum,’ insists Brown. ‘We used lots of great modern furniture, but we also used pieces that have a more natural, crafty, handmade feeling. We wanted opulence as well as comfort. The mix says as much about Eric as it does about Frank.’
The house also underscores the dramatic disparity between contemporary notions of luxury and leisure and the more modest aspirations of an earlier generation. ‘Sinatra was already a big star when he built this house, but it’s a quarter of the size of a typical McMansion today,’ says Ellenbogen. ‘There was a kind of simplicity and loveliness to that way of life that people seem to have forgotten. The bathroom is just a bathroom, not a bathroom pavilion. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it was Sinatra’s bathroom.’
As originally featured in the October 2008 issue of Wallpaper* (W*115)
Sinatra’s original recording equipment, which Brown salvaged from the garage and reinstalled
The house’s view of the mountains and the twin palms that gave the property its name. Sinatra used to hoist a Jack Daniels flag between them to signal the house was open for partying
The living room, with a new self-playing piano, has a vintage Paul Frankl dining table and Jacques Adnet chairs
A vintage green glass Marbro lamp, 1960s Danish chairs and Jack Lenor Larsen curtains in the master bedroom
One of the bedrooms features a fireplace, as well as wallpaper by Wolf Gordon and a vintage chair and ottoman by T J Robsjohn-Gibbings
The master bedroom, which inhabits its own wing, features a pair of vintage Marbro lamps and John Widdicomb side tables, and a bench by Paul Laszlo
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
For more information, visit the Sinatra House website
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneer
Back in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Niemeyer’s modernism celebrated in Oscar Ibirapuera, an example of 21st-century São Paulo living
Perkins&Will completes Oscar Ibirapuera, next to Niemeyer’s modernist landmark park in São Paulo, Brazil
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The newest Centre Point Residences’ showcase is a masterful balance of art and furniture
Conran and Partners’ new apartment design for Centre Point Residences balances artwork and curated furniture and objects to craft a space that feels intimate yet luxurious
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Sun-drenched Los Angeles houses: modernism to minimalism
From modernist residences to riveting renovations and new-build contemporary homes, we tour some of the finest Los Angeles houses under the Californian sun
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Frank Lloyd Wright architecture: from Prairie House to Guggenheim New York
Frank Lloyd Wright, hailed among the 20th century's greatest architects, has left a rich legacy that inspires to this day; here, we invite you to dive into his world
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
John Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein Residence shows off its estate’s entertainment wing
The Goldstein Entertainment Complex at the estate of the Sheats-Goldstein Residence reveals its newest additions by the complex’s architects of record Conner + Perry Architects
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
We tour Caracas’ treasure trove of modernist architecture gems
Explore Caracas; the Venezuelan capital is full of midcentury modern and brutalist architecture with a tropical twist
By Adam Štěch Published
-
Modernist architecture: inspiration from across the globe
Modernist architecture has had a tremendous influence on today’s built environment, making these midcentury marvels some of the most closely studied 20th-century buildings; here, we explore the genre by continent
By Ellie Stathaki Published