Palm Springs, Calif. – A popular black-and-white poster hangs among the T-shirts and visors in the souvenir shops lining Palm Canyon Drive, the main drag in this storied resort town two hours east of Los Angeles (on a good day). The vintage photo spotlights Rock Hudson in his hard-bodied youth, paddling at the edge of a sunlit pool where the only thing glistening more than its radiant surface is his dark, roughlyslicked hair.
Images like these – classic Hollywood stars sporting natural tans while sipping elegant beverages in the shadow of gangly palm trees and jagged desert cliffs – give Palm Springs its reputation for low-key glamour.
“Palm Springs is known as a party town,” says David Travis, a furniture designer and manager of the trendy throwback design store Room Service, which has outposts in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Palm Springs. “People come here to let their hair down and not be fussy.”
For Travis, that means furnishings are predominantly white with festive splashes of color. It means light, exotic wood veneers; airy arrangements; and low, linear architecture. “Keep it natural and fresh,” says Travis, who recently had a hand in redoing Paris Hilton’s Hollywood house, where everything is reportedly covered in mirrors.
The good news is that even if you never venture away from the Rocky Mountain West, the ongoing popularity of vintage modern and midcentury-inspired furnishings means Palm Springs style is available to anyone, anywhere. And it’s especially apropos for outdoor entertaining in Colorado.
“It’s about glamour (and) being sexy, holding a martini glass with your pinky straight up and your little flame-tipped glasses on,” says Grady Cooley. The designer behind such swank southern California restaurants as Chapter 8 and P6 owns a weekend home in Palm Springs. His house is three sides of glass, cantilevered on the side of a mountain that backs up to Joshua Tree National Forest.
It’s decorated with such splashy, throwback furnishings as a pair of crystal wall sconces salvaged from Jayne Mansfield’s Hollywood home; a glass-
topped, Lucite end table fashioned to look like an abstract cityscape; a pair of 10-inch-tall Swarovski crystal votives reminiscent of stacks of diamonds when lit with candles; and an 8-foot-long, linen-wrapped wood chest by collectible modern furniture designer Karl Springer, a German known for his stark, straight lines.
“It’s the way people used to live, and they’re still doing it (in Palm Springs),” says Cooley, whose design business is based in New York City. “It evokes a sense of humor – you laugh at yourself for being so glamorous.”
Palm Springs glamour also includes plenty of sleek, outdoor furniture arranged into cozy conversation nooks. Flagstone paths, abundant succulent gardens and outdoor kitchens are the norm. “When I entertain at my (Palm Springs) house, I see big platters of hors d’oeuvres,” Cooley says. “It’s much more splashy and much more glamourous than when I’m in New York.”
Keys to laid-back glamour: light palette, clean lines
Federal engineers first dubbed the hot springs and casino resort town east of Los Angeles “Palm Springs” because they deemed it a desert oasis. Its real heyday was during the 1920s through the 1960s, when Hollywood directors and their crews frequented the town for location movie shoots. That led to its nickname as the “Playground of the Stars.” Here are a few decorating ideas for anyone interested in achieving Palm Springs glamour without going to Palm Springs:
Create an outdoor room complete with a cooking space, dining tables and multiple conversation nooks.
Start with a light, neutral palette, adding bold pillows and art work, and use furnishings with clean lines and simple detailing. “That is glamour,” says Lisa Peck of Pisa Design in Minneapolis.
Plant abundant succulent garden containers. Consider making them more fiesta-friendly by including one or two stone-looking, landscape audio speakers in the arrangement. Smarthome.com carries a tidy selection of these ranging in price from $90 to $180.
Change lamps, rugs, throw pillows and vases to anything vintage or vintage-looking. Collectible mid-century modern pieces were designed by the likes of Harry Bertoia, Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, George Nakashima, George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi, Gio Ponti and Eero Saarinen.
