What project could lure a designer away from her stunning studio in a Hawaii forest reserve? For Ginger Lunt, it was the opportunity to renovate a 1964 home by master architect Albert Frey in the heart of Palm Springs.

“A wonderful client of mine inherited the home from her parents,” says Lunt. “Since our studio’s work is primarily in Hawaii, it was really inspiring and exciting to have an opportunity to work in a different environment with its own unique natural beauty and cultural landscape.”

Palm Springs started attracting Hollywood royalty in the 1930s, and they hired some of the era’s top architects. Among them, Swiss-born and Le Corbusier–trained Frey brought his functional style, added inspiration from the environment, and became a pioneer of desert modernism.

“This house is a more tempered, traditional design than some of Frey’s ‘case study’ homes that can be pretty out of the box,” says Lunt. Frey’s low, V-shaped design encourages maximum engagement with the desert environment, in all its beauty and year-round sunshine. Every living area has views of the mountains and direct access to the back patio, which features a large, inviting pool.

Before: Living/Dining Area

As Lunt discovered when she first visited in 2018, the house suffered from delayed maintenance and had gone through a series of disjointed renovations. The “refreshed” kitchen and bathrooms already had a dated look, and the many different flooring materials made the open, spacious house feel choppy. In addition, to better suit the needs of their extended family, the clients wanted to replace an awkward bedroom addition and add an extra guest bathroom.

After: Living / Dining Area

Along with architect Peter Blackburn, Lunt planned a renovation in two phases. The first would restore Frey’s original vision, address the clients’ structural requests, and update lighting and flooring throughout. The second would tie it all together with a fresh color palette, new and vintage furnishings and art, and updated fixtures and textiles.

Lunt’s design carefully addressed practical needs, but also added touches of Hollywood glamour and a hint of luxury—oversized pool lounges, plaster wall coverings with a pearlescent sheen, gold lamps, and neutral textiles with sophisticated texture and patterns.

Before: Kitchen

“I have seen a myriad of color schemes in midcentury homes,” says Lunt. “I think the stereotypical version in Palm Springs is a 1970s mod version, with lots of primary colors and pop art.” The clients agreed that the look wouldn’t work in this understated ranch-style home, so the team opted to incorporate the natural hues visible from every room.

After: Kitchen

“This home is surrounded by the most subtle and stunning desert palette,” says Lunt. “There are layers of silvery sage and chartreuse greens, soft mauves and lavenders, and subtle golds in the landscape. During the day, the sky is a saturated robin’s egg blue and the mountains are a rich palette of browns, sometimes capped with snow.”

In addition to admiring the home’s architectural bones, Lunt fell in love with several details of the original interior design. One of these was the built-in bar in the dining room.

Before: Living Room and Den

Lunt laid the foundation for her unifying palette with honed terrazzo and vein-cut travertine flooring, which now runs throughout the home.

After: Living Room and Den

“We had the original Albert Frey blueprints from the home for reference as we planned,” says Lunt. “Our contractor had actually often worked with Albert Frey in the past, and he always had great input on what he thought Albert would have done.”

Before: Bedrooms

After: Bedrooms

Lunt and Blackburn reconfigured the awkward renovations to create three spacious and light-filled bedrooms.

Before: Bathrooms

The clients wanted the home to be able to accommodate a crowd, so they asked Lunt to add a fourth full bathroom. The existing home also had an awkward walled courtyard beside the master bathroom with no real function, while the master bathroom’s shower was a simple glass stall that did not relate at all to the exterior space. “Ginger came up with the terrific idea of combining the interior shower with the narrow exterior courtyard to create a large indoor/outdoor shower space,” says one of the clients.

After: Bathrooms

The existing bathrooms had been resurfaced with tile that felt “very commercial” to Lunt. She and the team replaced all of the bathroom surfaces and fixtures—including the plumbing hardware, cabinetry, and shower tiles.

To create a sense of style that didn’t feel overtly period, Lunt used terrazzo tiles (which can often be found in ’50s homes) and custom wood vanities with minimalist, midcentury-esque detailing. She combined these elements with contemporary hardware, plumbing fixtures, and lighting.

Before: Pool and Patio

During the first phase of the the renovation, the team replaced all of the floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. The clients wanted the patio to be a primary space for socializing and relaxing on nice days, and they wanted Tantalus Studio to take it from drab to sophisticated.

After: Pool and Patio

A new built-in concrete firepit grounds a large and comfortable area for nighttime socializing. The clients call the pool “the hub of the home” for sunny, balmy days, as well as chillier evenings, so it was important to ensure that the area was accessible and comfortable.

Although it’s already tempting, the pool area will get a further transformation next year, with the help of Geoff di Girolamo of Surface Design. “It will maintain an elegant midcentury feel, but we’ll really elevate the finishes and layer the plantings,” says Lunt.

“We have a large, busy, growing, chaotic family—so the home needed to comfortably accommodate a lot of us and be durable, but at the same time we still wanted it to be beautiful and serene,” says one of the clients. “Ginger was able to translate these rather vague guidelines into a beautifully designed home that is perfect for us.”

Related Reading:

Here Are 20 of the Best Midcentury Renovations in Palm Springs

A Honolulu Midcentury Becomes a Designer’s Vivacious Home and Studio

Project Credits:

Interior Design: Ginger Lunt, Tantalus Studio / @tantalus_studio

Architect: Peter Blackburn

General Contractor: Rawlings Custom Contracting

Bath and Kitchen Fixtures: Kallista

Area Rugs: Christopher Farr

Lighting Fixtures: Allied Maker Lighting / @alliedmaker

Select Handmade Furniture: Lawson Fenning Furniture / @lawsonfenning

Select Vintage Furniture: Orange Furniture / @orangefurniture

Poolside furniture: Sofa & chaise lounges, Dedon; swivel lounge chairs by firepit, Sutherland.

Master Bedroom: Bedframe, Baker Furniture; Vintage Lamp, Hedge Palm Springs/ @hedgepalmsprings

Pool Patio Landscape & Hardscape Design: Geoff di Girolamo, Surface Design

Floral Styling: Paiko

Photography: Mariko Reed / @marikoreed

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Before & After: A Classic Midcentury by Albert Frey Gets a Reverent Renovation