Your Villa Magazine - Desert Cities - October-December - 2022

While looking for an investment property in Palm Springs, the owner and lead designer of Modernous tripped over this Donald Wexler-designed neighborhood, called Green Fairway Estates, in South Palm Springs. It wasn’t in the budget, OR the neighborhood she was looking for, but the house seemed to call for help and she couldn’t walk away from its pedigree. While most finishes needed to be updated, the layout was terrific and no walls needed to be changed or removed The team started by creating a unified and neutral background with a white, vinyl floor and white walls. “The original fireplace had been removed from the living room, so our biggest focus was figuring out how to have a new one fabricated to the original specifications (see photo below),” said Sally Julien, Principal of Modernous. “It was a truly iconic design and a custom element that was unique to this neighborhood full of houses.” The bathrooms and the kitchen were completely updated, and the exterior painted to highlight the natural stone walls. By paring back everything extraneous, the remaining original architectural elements were able to shine. A full-service design firm, working with clients in Seattle, Palm Springs and beyond, Modernous works to bring timeless interior design to its clients’ homes. With an Historic Class I project in Palm Springs under its belt, Modernous has a special competency in architectural and vintage homes. “We love working in historic houses, helping clients decide how to respectfully update their homes,” said Julien. “We evaluate what was part of the original architectural intent and what can be updated. We always tell clients that no architect, living or dead, would want them living in a time D E S I G N + B U I L D capsule! Architects are interested in the latest materials and building technologies, so we try to interpret how an architect would have used and interpreted those materials, had they been available when the house was built.” www.modernous.com 206.430. 1966 Timeless Spaces: Modernous Interior Design