Desert Glam: Earthy Tones with a Hint of Rock and Roll

• We ripped out the drab, greige ‘80’s floor tile and installed rich, handmade saltillo tiles throughout the entire house.

• We leaned into the heavily textured walls to dial up the funk, then painted them a bright white to lighten their weighted down texture every so slightly.

• We painted all the french doors a golden mustard and the ceiling's wood a creamy peach color for our desert-inspired palette.

• Kele designed a custom cabinet box to conceal the TV and treat the cabinetry like an art canvas. After sketching up a minimal, abstract desert landscape, we then brought it to life (think paint by numbers on a larger scale)! It was an inexpensive hack that had a big aesthetic payoff.

• We removed an old piece of dilapidated granite from the fireplace hearth and re-wrapped it in Jacobsen Cement Tile by Cle. The fireplace grounds the entire room, so we needed a graphic, eye-catching tile as a juxtaposition to the vintage pieces of furniture.

• The living room's back wall, being a massive blank space, was ripe for a gallery-style collection of desert glam art. Below it we placed a beautiful midcentury credenza, flanked with oversized table lamps.

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• In the kitchen, we tore out the cramped, existing kitchen to double the size of the space, so that it could accommodate more people and lend itself to a more open concept.

• We added an arched walkway from the kitchen to the living room to create continuity between rooms and keep in line with the desert motif.

• We used prefab white lower cabinetry and paired it with grainy hickory wood upper shelving for visual contrast. We then continued the hickory wood as a detail for our island kick-splash. We used ultra thick quartz countertops to mimic concrete, then splurged on Cle’s zelige tile in an amber hue to wrap the hood, making it a focal point of the room.

• We also gave some love to the little adjacent atrium, making it a fun spot to read and enjoy a morning coffee with the help of colorful furnishings and lots of plants.

• The dining room is a fairly small space, so we found a cool circular travertine table that we paired with Kele’s grandmother’s caned chairs. We balanced the vintage tones with a modern dining light hanging overhead, then doubled down on vintage (we just can’t help ourselves) and finished it off with tufted desert art prints.

• This three bedroom house has one ensuite with a king bed, one bedroom with two queens, and one bedroom with a queen and a pair of bunk beds.

• In the ensuite, we upgraded the bathroom with simple and budget-friendly additions, such as adding fun geometric brass mirrors, diamond-shaped hardware and a leathered countertop with lots of veining.

• In the double queen room, Kele and I sketched out a geometric sunset desert scene that we hand painted in auburn and rust hues, accented with an amber lamp hanging from the ceiling.

• To create the bunk nook within our third queen guest room, we closed off a hall closet that had opened from the kitchen and added that square footage back to the queen bedroom. This allowed us to create a custom wall-to-wall bunk nook within the room - perfect for a family who wants to sleep near their small kiddos.

• We invested in resurfacing the pool, as that’s a major draw for any home during Arizona’s sweltering summer months. We added desert-inspired tile along the water's edge, resurfaced the entire pool decking in a cream colored travertine and added retro-looking lounge chairs alongside the water’s edge.

• Tucked in the back corner, we added a bocce ball court and a little patio off the back bedrooms, for a quiet place to drink a morning coffee and read the paper.

• We added hints of wood detail throughout the exterior such a custom towel hook rack and a purposely uneven fence around the pool equipment, then we changed out all of the softscape to reflect the surroundings - loading every bed with cactus, succulents and rock.