Palm Springs Modern Home Rentals: Your Next Vacation?

Our Palm Springs vacation rental home. Apparently a former residence of none other than Liberace himself!

Mustard colored front door and grated front window.

Welcome home!

Once past the entry way you have the kitchen to the right and living room to the right.

The living room with a bit of toddler proofing (bench blocking fireplace).

Our comfy living room perfect for cocktails and family games.

The outdoor dining room shares windows with the main dining, kitchen, and living area.

Everything was included except for your family, good times, and a special Mr. Monkey making margarita's.

January is almost over but since New Years is my favorite holiday I try to stretch out the fun and relaxation as long as possible. One way I can do that is by revisiting pictures from our last vacation. For this past holiday we rented a home with our chosen family. I love staying in a beautiful hotel but there's nothing like the comfort and flexibility of renting a vacation home. You can create your own dream modern getaway by renting from vacation rental websites like this. It's a nice alternative to a hotel especially when traveling with a group and with kids. I love being able to settle into a home for an extended period of time. I also love that when we travel with friends and family we all get the chance to lay about in our pjs and have lazy mornings and naps by the pool. And those who choose to stay up late snuggled up by the outdoor fire pit with a glass of wine telling stories of our lives can do that too. Over the next few blog posts I'll be revisiting some of our modern design and mid-century modern site-seeing excursions. We visited notable MCM Palm Springs sites and a few Palm Spring hotels that have been marked notable by the design world. We also made it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see their, "California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way" exhibit. While we couldn't take pictures of it all we managed to get some pix of the highlights. 

Happy new years! Cheers to living modern and living well.

More Modern Palm Springs: Galleria

My bank account does not allow for big splurges on design but a girl can dream, can't I? I did quite a bit of dreaming and drooling over New Years vacation in Palm Springs. Our best find on our outing was the Palm Springs Galleria. The tienditas are on the main drag North Palm Canyon Road. A nice feature of the Galleria is the layout. It's like an antique mart but for MCM hounds. With about 10 different little shops, each housing a different dealer, all sharing a similar aesthetic. T'was a gorgeous sunny 74 degree January day and the dealers had a small sandwich and cookie buffet out - a nice touch for a holiday weekend. The Galleria is a great shopping environment - a few items seemed overpriced because your in MCM Mecca but for the most part the prices seemed spot on for what you're getting. There were so many fun objects I could have spent hours. So instead of mush and gush about each item I'm just going to let you feast your eyes on a few pictures - each one a miniature menagerie of all the great goodies the Galleria had to offer. My fave pieces are below, including the gigantic wrench. After seeing a large cork screw and can opener in a friend's house I just can't get enough of oversized everyday items.

I really really thought about buying this "e" - for Eugene - for the first letter of my name - for it's funky shape. But it's $675 price tag was outside of my league. We just got back from spending money on a southern hemispheric vacation after all. It was not a time for splurging on super cool decor items. I still dream of it though . . .

Love love love this metal lamp! I love everything about it except for its price tag!

Mid-Century Modern Palm Springs

On our way home from the southern hemisphere we stopped over in Palm Springs to ride the new year wave with our chosen family. We're a queer bunch we decided - scientific yet artsy (depending on who you ask), rigid sometimes in our demand for creativity (ironic, I know), free expression, plus a bit nudity just to keep it real. Each new years we demand supreme conversation, sublime cocktails, supine seating preferably by a source of warmth - usually in the form of water or fire, let's see what else . . . scrumptious mouth feels, raucous games, singing, and as much laughing as needed - the kind that will make you puke if possible - there was lots of that - laughing and puking - but not at the same time (a slight stomach flu crashed the retreat). Every year our new years is an absolute recharging of the soul (but usually without the stomach flu - blech). This year we decided on Palm Springs to satiate all of our needs - including my need for all things mid-century modern. We rented this sweet honeypot of a place and we camped out for 4 nights along side the pool and spa. Damn that felt good. Well the house was a cool little mid-century modern house - so while we forgot to venture out for the architectural tour of P.S. our neighborhood had some nice examples including our own digs. Our Palm Springs Vacation Rental was the perfect example of mid-century modern architecture updated without losing it's wonderful MCMness. We made full use of the MCM ideals of living outside and making use of the outdoor space as an extension of the interior. One day we did make it into town for some design inspiration that will be another post before the end of the month. For now, please accept these pictures of our vacation home as a bit of inspiration. Note the monochrome mosaic tile in the bathroom, a subtle feature but one of my favorites. It rained all day today here in Eugene and it's helpful to remember warmer MCM moments. Cheers!