While Palm Springs, California has no shortage of marvellous midcentury architecture, not all of these historic homes were created equal.
The vast residence at 650 E Tachevah Drive – completed by architectural designer Howard Lapham in 1966 and spanning 9,445 sq ft – is one of the largest and most impressive properties from the era within the city limits. A real estate developer bought it and, along with his girlfriend, hired Los Angeles-based interior designer Jessica Ayromloo to reanimate its capacious entertaining spaces and no less than 12 bedrooms 'They were looking for somebody who could re-envision it, but still keep the original aesthetic and bones,' Ayromloo tells Wallpaper*.
The sheer scale of the interior spaces could have been daunting. 'They're enormous,' said Ayromloo, whose initial thought was: 'What am I going to do with this giant gallery-sized living room that’s 60 feet long?' But she approached the project like a small boutique hotel, treating the main social space as a lobby.
Here, Pierre Paulin chairs that the clients had already bought at auction and various configurations of B&B Italia’s Camaleonda modular sofa – a design the clients dreamed of owning – are arranged to invite more intimate moments. 'If you're hosting a party, you want it to be conversational,' Ayromloo says. 'You can either sit and face the pool, or the fireplace. And if you get bored of this layout, you could always change it up.'
While retaining the classic mid-century features, Ayromloo dialled up the drama a few notches to live up to the 'party house feel.' Located in Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighbourhood, the home lent itself to her aptly cinematic references. These included the 1968 sci-fi film Barbarella, whose sets and costumes inspired the home's mirrored and metallic finishes, curvaceous forms and highly textured surfaces. In the living area, these manifest as a fireplace clad in metal panels set against a reflective wall, amorphous coffee tables with shiny surfaces and a custom rug that stretches the full length of the room. 'I sometimes think of myself as more of a set designer than an interior designer,' Ayromloo says.
'I sometimes think of myself as more of a set designer than an interior designer'
Jessica Ayromloo, Interior designer
On the back wall, a trio of disc-shaped sculptures by LA artist Nicholas Biddle – one of which the designer discovered at Rhett Baruch Gallery, with the others commissioned in slightly different warm colour gradients – offers another movie nod, according to Ayromloo. 'In the really kitschy sci-fi film Total Recall, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, there's a woman with three breasts, and it reminds me of that,' she says.
Continuing in the dining room, a glass-topped table with mirrored legs and matching chairs all reflect a patterned Kyle Bunting area rug to create 'trippy' illusions. A Slinky-esque pendant light helps to resolve the tall ceiling height, while a mirrored-mosaic Space Curtain from Paco Rabanne presents a disco motif that will reappear later.
In terms of spatial reconfiguration, the kitchen received the most attention. Appliances were shifted around to improve the flow, with the stove landing below a cut-glass, mosaic-tiled hood. A long central island is accompanied by 'ice cream parlour' bar stools that could’ve been lifted straight out of The Jetsons, while the distinctive cabinet colour required a compromise. '[The client] wanted a green kitchen but super faded, and I actually wanted a darker green,' Ayromloo shares. 'So we met in the middle, and eventually landed on this desaturated pistachio.'
The same pistachio shade appears in the numerous guest bedrooms across Flavor Paper wallpaper, paired in geometric patterns with silver to match the patent leather bed frames and metallic linens. Meanwhile, the family room at the end of the property received a punchier injection of colour thanks to a painting by Ozzie Juarez sourced from the Frieze art fair, which informed the furniture choices. 'Here, the desaturated colours get a little more saturated,' Ayromloo explains. 'You’re dabbled in colour through the other spaces, and then come to the end of the rainbow.'
For the primary bedroom, a custom white-lacquer and polished-steel bed, silvery carpet, chainmail curtains and more metallic accents reinforce the Barbarella theme. This is taken even further in a stand-out powder room, where original gold mosaic tiles were replaced with silver—evoking the inside of a disco ball. 'We wanted to pay homage, but do our own thing in a way that goes with the rest of the house,' says Ayromloo. 'It's a disco ball party!'
Meanwhile, the mosaic tiles that surround the outdoor bar and lounge are iridescent, creating a mother-of-pearl backdrop for glowing Artemide Alphabet of Light numbers that divulge the home’s address. 'Who doesn't want to be inside of a seashell? We just need a mermaid posted up in there,' Ayromloo says.
A separate pool house was treated similarly, with pink and aqua decor and transparent furniture reminiscent of a life-size Polly Pocket toy. 'It speaks more to the outdoor lounge, with the iridescent pink tile and the blue of the pool,' Ayromloo says. 'We really had fun with it.'
Finishing touches included repainting the huge front doors beyond a pair of koi ponds in a peach melba hue. 'We wanted to go with something not as expected for Palm Springs,' said Ayromloo. 'This colour echoes the koi fish without matching too perfectly.'
The sculptural door handles that resemble Georg Jensen vessels were thought to be original to the home, but when they were removed to be repolished, Ayromloo discovered that they were in fact from a 1990s Ikea designer collaboration. 'That was a really unexpected surprise that really threw us all,' she says.
Now glistening anew, these pulls and a pair of custom vertical lights on either side of the entrance subtly hint at the exuberant sci-fi fantasy that visitors can expect to encounter inside.
