After spending a weekend camping in Yucca Valley just north of Palm Springs, California, interior designer Natalie Myers of Veneer Designs caught the “what if” bug and began researching local real estate listings. Homes in the High Desert, she found, were affordable compared to the Los Angeles market. “We couldn’t stop thinking about having our own little desert cabin with acreage as a vacation house,” she says.

When she realized how hot the market actually was, she doubled down on her search, hoping to find an original homesteader cabin not too far from town. Eventually, she discovered a cabin, built in 1958, that had been previously snapped up by an “enterprising flipper” who had made some “horrendous choices in trying to make it look modern,” Natalie explains. “We didn’t want to reward him for his attempts, but at the same time, it really was the only cabin in our price range in the exact area that we wanted—so we made the offer.”

Natalie wanted to "clean up and refine the structure of the home," but her top priority was to maintain the 700-square-foot cabin’s sense of authenticity. "I wanted to get away from the rustic-chic design sensibility expected in the area," she says. "The vintage metal kitchen cabinets and the Franklin stove stayed put, but everything else was buttoned up and reimagined." Faux-wood laminate floors were pulled up to expose concrete slab below, and ceiling panels were replaced with smooth painted drywall.

Her biggest struggle was overseeing the work remotely. “We could only get out to the house every three to four weeks. We had hired a good quality local builder, but he was working on what we call ‘desert time.’ There wasn’t much hustle to get the work completed in a timely manner,” she shares. “Being a professional designer and having an understanding of how long things ‘should’ take, and then seeing it take double that time was challenging for me personally.”

Before: The Facade

After: The Facade

Ultimately, the results were well worth the efforts. Now, Veneer Retreat is where the family retreats when they need to leave the bustle of L.A. Recently, they’ve also started renting the property on Airbnb. “After the COVID ban on short-term rentals was lifted for the area, we have had a steady stream of L.A. guests desperate for a change of scenery—even right into the very hot summer months," she says.

Before: The Kitchen

After: The Kitchen

Shop the Look

Before: The Living Room

After: The Living Room

Before: The Bathroom

After: The Bathroom

Before: The Backyard

After: The Backyard

Veneer Retreat can be rented on Airbnb.

More Before & After:

A Riverside Cabin in Oregon Gets a Blindingly Bright Renovation

A Classic NYC Loft Ditches Its ’90s Look for Refined Minimalism

A Blighted Boarding House in Sydney Is Now an Adaptable Courtyard Home

Project Credits:

Interior Designer: Veneer Designs, Natalie Myers / @nataliemyers

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Before & After: An Interior Designer Rescues a California Desert Cabin From Drab Finishes