Block Party Bingo

Fifty years ago, the Thunderbird Heights estate – and former home of pharmaceutical magnate Mel Eaton – was the unofficial block-party destination where guests like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz gathered alongside other Hollywood royalty. By 2014, the Pecos Road dwelling was in foreclosure, and in a bold move driven by passion and unforeseen potential, Palm Spring-based H3K Design made the home its pet project, a stand-off canvas that revived midcentury architecture with the appeal and taste of Hollywood Regency for the naysayers of today.

“The bank told us it was a teardown,” say Kevin Kemper and Howard Hawkes, principals of H3K. “The house had a life, and then it was on life support. We were able to catch it before someone pulled the plug. We knew it would have a history.”

Thus began the design dance between these two creatives. Despite the symbiotic minds of Hawkes and Kemper, both design masters faced challenges when deciding where to begin the project, but to get into the rhythm of what the home’s atmosphere used to be, the duo got into the mindset of fabulous party hosts.

The home’s skeleton called for a midcentury design, something less fussy and more clean. With a style characterized by the combination of clean simplicity and recreating the outdoor’s natural color palette, the Santa Barbara natives, Hawkes and Kemper, channeled their love for the ‘50s and optimistic architecture to keep the new festivities going that had once burned out, almost indefinitely.

The new living room offers a glass-walled view of the original Brown Jordan-designed swimming pool. The radiant blue is echoed in the room’s rug and pillow accents, which give a pop of color to the white furniture, floor and restored original railings that flank a wide step down from the front door. A painting by Cuban artist Andy Llanes Bulto in a subtle gold frame, side tables, mirror accents and twin gold swan statues that adorn marble coffee tables provide soft metallic hues to the space.

When it belonged to the Eaton socialites, the kitchen was a small servants’ kitchen, and because the home seemed to have its own rhythm, there was a constant battle between preserving the glory of the space and revamping it to fit today’s lifestyle. “The minimal aspects of midcentury design are what we have incorporated in our personal design ethic,” notes H3K. “Rather than complicating things (in true MCM fashion), we opened everything up.”

The home that once segregated the owners and the help (symbolically) had its walls torn down – reconfiguring floor space that began with the modest design of the original staff kitchen to form part of a more open fireside great room; the original labyrinth of powder rooms and closets has made way for a new, more open dining room and lent itself to create luxury guest bedrooms that demanded private en suite bathrooms.

The exterior is a party all its own. Flanked by towering palm trees and a natural backdrop of cerulean blue sky, everything about the house’s facade from the unusual H-shape floorplan to the majestic fluted columns extends an inviting sentiment to guests that steps onto the Rancho Mirage estate. H3K remarks, “This refound love for entertaining caused us to reconfigure the entire west side of the house.” With this revelation, the designers set out to create easy transitions between the rooms that offer different types of atmosphere – from intimate to larger scale affairs.

Marrying the past with the present is as much a design dream as an imminent challenge, especially when having to live up to the accolades of this entertainment haven. Back in the ‘60s, the Eaton’s had call bells and telephones wired throughout the house to call their servants. With today’s technology (and servants aside), prominent digital platforms have now incorporated themselves into every aspect of people’s lives. These design must-haves can make or break real estate deals, and ensure that a contemporary lifestyle can be had in spaces that honor eras prior.

Photography By Ketchum Photography.

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