Just Like the Pros
A new appliance brand aims to undercut the professional kitchen market in price while dishing up comparable style. Based in Chino, California, Thor Kitchen has entered the industry with a full pro-style kitchen suite at an attainable price. The small company with the superhero name (is it a coincidence that Thor was the Viking god of fire … and a main competitor is Viking appliances?) may well be the first to offer a high-performance stainless-steel range, ventilation hood, refrigerator, and dishwasher that ring in under $5,000. Home chefs: 2018 could be the year to go pro.
Speaking of Bespoke
John Gilmer has operated Porter & Plunk, a vintage-and-antiques retail extension of his architecture and interior design practice, since 2004. To meet the demand for quality production of new pieces that carry a refined, mid-mod elegance, he has launched a line he calls Bespoke. While not custom, the pieces are customizable in size and finish. His first four furnishings combine storage solutions with clean lines and a sculptural aesthetic. A handsome side table holds a small library’s worth of books and magazines (below). A sycamore console offers three shelves formed by floating planes, while a burl walnut veneer side table packs geometric punch with an octagonal shape. At the Palm Springs showroom by appointment.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY PORTER & PLUNK
Waving Goodbye
If you missed the free tours of the Miles C. Bates house in October, here’s your last chance. This month, you can tour the Wave House — and buy it. After Modernism Week open houses on Feb. 17 and 18, the City of Palm Desert will auction the property off to the highest bidder Feb. 24, with no minimum price and no reserve. Walter S. White (1917–2002) built the home in 1955 for his friend Bates, a playboy artist.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY MUSEUM OF ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, UC SANTA BARBARA, REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
The innovative architect and his unconventional client were well-matched in creating a modern home, known as one of White’s finest, and an important example of Coachella Valley’s architectural heritage. Vacancy, neglect, and ill-conceived additions have taken a toll on the original one-bedroom, one-bath home with curved walls and a minimalist open floor plan. Palm Desert has approved up to $50,000 in matching funds toward its restoration in hopes of netting a preservation-minded buyer.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY MOYA LIVING
Lab Experiment
After decades in the laboratory design and manufacturing industry, Moya O’Neill had a dream that was bigger than science. She was moved to adapt the austere beauty and industrial strength of steel cabinetry previously reserved for labs for use in homes, hospitality environments, and commercial spaces. Moya Living manufactures sleek, powder-coated steel cabinets. Accent materials, including glass, wood, cement, and quartz — often recycled and/or made in the U.S. — complete her designs. “The focus isn’t just on steel,” O’Neill says. “It’s what complements the steel. We like to add the yin and the yang, as opposites attract.” Every kitchen and bath cabinet features soft-close slides and hinges; the liners, pull-outs, and hardware can be customized. KBC by Benjamin Sullivan on El Paseo carries them exclusively.
Pot luck
Paints and plants are unlikely friends. But when Dunn-Edwards Paints offered its Trend Colors for 2018 to Los Angeles–based Pop Up Greens as a medium for hand-painted pots, a symbiotic relationship was born. The limited-edition collection employs five Trend Colors, including Dunn-Edwards’ 2018 Color of the Year, The Green Hour, painted on fiberglass pots in varying sizes and patterns.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY POP UP GREENS
“By incorporating the colors on these beautiful hand-painted pots, we want to inspire people to add new colors into their living space,” says Sara McLean, color expert and stylist for Dunn-Edwards. Colors were selected for their organic subtlety, with a focus on hues found in nature. Pick your limited-edition pot at the Palm Springs Fan Club event space (next to Arrive Palm Springs) during Modernism Week or online through May 31.
Manufactured Happiness
There is good news for architects and designers who can’t stand the drive to Melrose Avenue. Dosooz (pronounced doe-SOOZE) is a new Palm Desert showroom that sells only to the trade and is open only by appointment. Dosooz has filled its 13,000 square feet with a well-produced timeline of modern and midcentury-style goods.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID BLANK
As a manufacturer, the company can work off any design. Previously unavailable locally, Dosooz’s collection of tile, glass, wallpaper, drapery, patio furniture, and garden fountains rounds out this one-stop shop of furnishings. At these prices, it pays to be in the business.
Time Flies
Before there were Saturday Night Fever, the Egg McMuffin, and Post-it Notes, Sharon Tuverson opened Tuverson & Co. on El Paseo. The year was 1973. This month she celebrates 45 years of luxurious home décor, making her the oldest continuous retailer on Palm Desert’s fashionable shopping strip. Down valley’s finest know Tuverson as a prime source for tabletop, giftware, bath accessories, fine linens, and Versace china, a brand Tuverson also pre-dates by five years.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY TUVERSON & CO.