SAMUEL STUDIO

Desert Jewel Box

When I first visited this client’s 2000 sf home built in 1978 in Indian Wells, California, I knew structurally it had potential - but I also knew we’d have to completely gut-renovate it from top-to-bottom. Out came the floors, the kitchen, the bathrooms and the fireplace. The interior design plan called for replacing the plain tile floors with rich oak hardwood in a herringbone pattern, for turning the walls into a rich tapestry of earthy grasscloths, to turning a 1970’s bar into a central artistic feature, to rebuilding custom cabinetry in every room, and to toning the fireplace down. The finished result? Step through the front door and you pass from 1978 into a completely hidden-in-plain-site jewel box.