Between two ultra-suede barrel chairs, originals from 1958, a Samsung The Frame TV disguises itself on the collage wall. Tattersall changes its screen almost daily to match his mood. The artwork represents a lifetime of collecting and includes antique Italian etchings and a scroll from Kathmandu.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LANCE GERBER
Tim Tattersall answers the door barefoot, comfortable and confident, with his impeccably groomed Havanese at his heels. I like him already. Tattersall is a voracious collector in addition to being a designer, so there is much to take in, even from the front door of his recently completed Palm Springs townhome.
A dozen dapper hats, many made custom, hang at arm’s length for a quick grab on the way out. Several expansive collage walls of original artwork in a mashup of cultures and eras invite closer inspection. Then there are the eclectic one-offs, like the pod of swimming dolphins carved from a concave hunk of Koa wood. The piece, he notes, appeared in all Season 1 episodes of The White Lotus.
Designer Tim Tattersall in his home office.
Together in the open great room, these elements contribute to a look that’s relaxed and easy. On their own, each is complex and dramatic. Tattersall loves dramatic. Cue the kitchen’s highly reflective charcoal cabinetry and granite-slab waterfall island designed to look “like a piece of furniture.”
Maybe everyone who has lived in Hawaii for 15 years answers the door barefoot. For me, this is a new kind of aloha in Palm Springs, and that’s what I’ve come to learn about.
“Everything I do is warm,” says Tattersall, who layers modern, transitional, and midcentury styles in his home, all under the influence of a balmy Polynesian sea breeze. “If I’m doing contemporary or modern, I make it warm modern. Texture gives warmth, so I use a lot of grasscloth.” Grasscloth-covered walls in the living area face suede chairs, a custom bouclé sofa of his design, and a burl wood console. Wool rugs add patterns, and padding, to the real wood floors. “Even if it’s 45 degrees outside, I feel like it’s warm in here.”
Maui was the most recent but not the only stop on his journey. Tattersall lived in New York for six years and in Florence for five while working for
Cole-Haan. He touched down on every continent during a 20-year career for Ralph Lauren. His well-traveled perspective, expressed throughout the home, shapes the way he designs.
As one ascends the stairs, the sculptural quality of the 20-foot chandelier by Kuzco changes with each rising vantage point.
Below the stairs, Tattersall added electric for a picture lamp during construction. The bench is Christian Liaigre by Holly Hunt.
Birds in trees gather in the primary bedroom.
“I mixed a lot of everything that’s been in my life to this day,” he explains. “I do that with my clients, too.” He calls the style under his own roof “French modern.” Hand-painted trim, shutters, and doors wear a sophisticated black. The guest bedroom mirrors a French boutique hotel, with a sultry black velvet bed, red floral linen wallpaper, and tiny sconces. The primary leans into classic old European snugness, with a black, amber, and peacock scheme resting upon a deconstructed French rug. Clients who come by fall hard for the look. A couple in Indian Wells recently requested the same black doors in their own renovation.
Tattersall’s Cody Place condo sits on three levels, coupling living, dining, and a petite yard on the first level, two bedrooms and an office on the second, and an open-air lounge that encompasses the covered deck on level three. Above it all, a 20-foot chandelier dangles like a modern statement necklace into the 30-foot foyer.
What Tattersall makes look easy was far from it. “My husband, Errol, and I bought it when it was just two-by-fours, so I was able to customize it during construction,” he shares. Though most of his neighbors didn’t dare to paint a dark color across the ceiling that looms three floors above the entry or elevate the standard white-box model with glass stairway enclosures or a fully custom kitchen, he managed each detail while commuting from Maui.
Tattersall designed the walnut desk with a glass top, and says the piece, paired with the black shutters, creates a productive setting.
The way he explains it, he was cut from designer cloth. “Over 150 years ago, my great-great-grandfather Tattersall invented the pattern known as Tattersall Plaid. When his grandson, my grandfather, immigrated to the U.S. from England in the 1920s, he ran textile mills. By the time I was born, the intrigue for fabric, style, and design had been seeping into my DNA for generations.”
Perhaps it works in his favor that, rather than formal training, he spent two decades in roles with Ralph Lauren, experiencing the most stylish cities in the process. “I do not have a degree in interior design, but my 20 years working for arguably one of the greatest designers in the world was my university,” he says. “Ralph is good at mixing genres and styles. I was always designing, but when we moved to Hawaii in 2007, that was my opportunity to do on my own what started years before.”
The couple’s preferred getaway destination prompted the purchase of their short-lived Palm Springs vacation home. In a matter of months, they decided to make a lifestyle move from the islands to the desert. And here they are.
The guest bedroom sings a French modern tune, harmonizing a black velvet bed by RH with linen wallpaper by Phillip Jeffries.
The artwork and accents become more personal on the upper levels. “We shipped over 100 paintings from Hawaii,” he says. “Everything’s original, from trips or places I’ve been or people I know or artists that I’ve met.” Even the double-sided walnut desk that he designed for his office, which claims the second-level loft, was handcrafted by his long-time carpenter friend across the Pacific.
Taking our seats on the roof deck, Tattersall tosses a tennis ball to Koa, who has patiently trailed our tour. His furry white face appears in a few of the artworks. Personal homes are always warmer.
“What’s interesting to me is that Palm Springs is a winter haven, but I see so many houses that are cold,” he notes. “If you wake up on a cold morning and step onto this white tile floor and your feet are freezing, it doesn’t make sense to me. A lot of people aren’t here in the summer, so stylistically, it’s counterintuitive. I think visual warmth is appropriate in the summer and the winter.”
The “cocktail corner” doubles as a dining space. Its mix of styles juxtaposes ghost armchairs with a custom comma-shaped sofa under a chandelier by Soho Home. Swimming dolphins surface from a carved piece of koa wood.
Now that he’s here full-time, his expanding circle of friends and clients want to know if he misses life in Hawaii or in Italy. His answer is steadfast. “I don’t. Those were great chapters, but those chapters are over.” As I intuited, he is both comfortable and confident here in his home and in Palm Springs. “I’m exactly where I need to be.”
The powder room’s original Tahitian oil painting is by Tania Wursig. “I knew I was going to hang him there, so I designed the whole bathroom around it,” he says. Wallpaper by Scalamandré.
Grasscloth wallpaper wraps the living area in texture and a banyan tree root becomes a floor lamp.
tattersall’s Top 3
1. Lay the groundwork. “I love a good rug to build a room around,” says Tattersall, noting that a high-quality handmade wool rug can last for generations. “A great rug is the foundation for any room.
It determines the color, texture, and style of a room as the grounding feature upon which all else is built.”
2. Create tactile settings. “Texture is what creates warmth in a room,” he says. “From rugs to grasscloth or otherwise wallpapered walls to textural fabrics on upholstered furniture to art.”
3. Illuminate with purpose. The 20-foot chandelier supports one of Tattersall’s driving principles: “Lighting is key. I never use overhead lights in fans or ceilings, except in a kitchen or bathroom. All lighting should come from lamps or picture lights above artwork and be between 2,700 and 3,000 Kelvin in intensity.”