Speed Monger Estates
For $4.5 million (the former asking price on Steve McQueen’s Palm Springs home) one can now pick up the actor/racing enthusiast’s 1964 estate designed by Hugh Kaptur and another notable neighbor, “The Boat House” (above). Designed in 1989 by Michael P. Johnson for race car driver James Jeffords, it’s on the market, too, right next to the abode where McQueen holed up with Ali MacGraw. A very ’80s boat for a race car driver ($1.95 million) and a masculine bachelor pad for a newly married couple ($2.5 million): two oddities across Southridge Drive listed by the same agent team.
This Land Is
Your Land
If you’re glimpsing home and design photos of the Coachella Valley in all of your mailbox catalogs, you’re not losing your marbles.
Recently CB2 couldn’t resist matching the awning stripes at Avalon Palm Springs with its Filaki and Tropez outdoor furniture collections. “We were looking for locations with a retro ’50s resort vibe. We were originally thinking Miami, but the architecture and pools in Palm Springs could not have been a better match had we built them ourselves,” says CB2 Creative Director Curtis Potter. “This was our second year shooting in Palm Springs and we had a fantastic time. It makes a perfect working environment. The locations, the weather, the people all contribute to great photos. We have a dozen people on the shoot, so it’s great to be in a place where there is something for everyone to enjoy during our off time.”
West Elm Embraces the West
The Uptown purveyor of casual contemporary home goods and furnishings splashed some local color when it opened this fall. Works by 15 California designers and artists join the seasonal merch. West Elm’s LOCAL initiative features in-store goods selected from a nationwide open call for submissions.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WEST ELM
While the assortment that celebrates “creativity and craft” grows, look for finds from these regional talents: Amanda Mills Design (Palm Springs-inspired illustrator and letterer with punchy colors); BKB Ceramics (a rustic-modern ceramicist from Joshua Tree); and XIO Design Studio (an Argentine woodworker living in Joshua Tree who creates decorative panels, such as the one shown above).
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAG
Groovy Baby
The West Hollywood SHAG store is no longer a newborn. To mark its first-year anniversary, the new “Trousdale Twist” print (above) releases in the L.A. shop and original Palm Springs gallery this month.
Keeping It Clean
Mod Maids arrive in a pink van, wear pink uniforms, and use green cleaning products. This colorful new company wants to clean up the housekeeping act around town, starting with friendly service and new standards of tidy excellence that sparkle and shine like Bella da Ball (pictured at right), its promotional diva.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOD MAIDS
Mod Maids is locally owned and operated by Odessa Christiana and James Hume, who timed their launch with the Gay Pride Parade Nov. 6. (Look for the pink T-bird.) Although maids don’t actually dust and vacuum in a pink bouffant and matching pumps, they pledge to make housework less of a drag.
Down Valley Digs
Formerly known as Kitchens, Baths & Closets of Palm Springs, the new KBC by Benjamin Sullivan showroom on El Paseo tempts remodelers with 7,000 square feet of high-end finishes. New offerings in tile, flooring, stone, hardware, lighting, cabinets, appliances, and plumbing fixtures fill out the William Cody-designed building.
