Mojave

In 2016, my partner at the time and I decided to buy a 1,100 sqft home behind Lovejoy Ranch in the High Desert. Our idea was that this home was going to be a weekend house, and blank slate. We gutted it; turned the hallway separating 3 tiny bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, into a huge closet, 1B1B house. Open concept. Our design process was free flowing. We knew it would be warm, natural materials, high quality materials and textures, Japandi inspired. We kept the budget tight, and employed a local contractor and carpenters. Total timeline was 1.2 years including the garden. Some of the highlights described below…

Cotton White & Seagrass

Flat, matte cotton white walls. Seagrass carpet. We tried a shadow gap but the floors and ceilings were both uneven, so pivoted to a trim. Legrand adorne switches and outlets.

Framing the Kitchen

My favorite idea in this project was the framing of the kitchen - and the garden through the fixed picture window - as you walk in. It gave an expansive feel to the space.

A Closet that used to be a Hallway

Believe it or not those beautiful plyboo doors were the hallway. And on the left you had two small bedrooms. Light was hard to come by. We made the windows larger.

Vents and Recessed Lighting

As soon as we switched out the vents, the whole space changed. We had to custom make the boots because back in the day these minimal looking vents were not customary.

Butcher Block

We kept the materials very simple, and got this butcher block from Ikea. A local carpenter mounted the wrap around and put together the island. The range hood is built-in.

Jib Invisible Door

Believe it or not, a jib door cost $2-3K when we were making this house. So I built this with the local contractor, some vague youtube videos, and tectus hinges.

The Garden. We drove to Palm Springs to find our Mexican Feathergrass, Palo Verdes, San Pedro Cactus, Mexicali Cactus, Barrel Cactus, and some Yuccas. The rest of the bushes were local, growing rampant on our property - so we repurposed them. We grabbed a couple of rocks from the movie ranch we owned in the area at the time, and voilà! 3 years later…this beauty emerged. Enjoy. The pergola we designed ourselves and built it with a local contractor. Same thing with the outdoor kitchen setup. Trex deck.

Joshua Tree

Work in progress! Estimating done summer 2025.