A Sixties Revival

Palm Springs, the famous city in the California desert, is a glamorous, vibrant green oasis where world-famous architects have built masterpieces of modern architecture for their ultra-rich clients, including numerous Hollywood stars.
It is no coincidence that for the last 10 years the city has hosted Modernism Week (14-24 February 2019), an event that celebrates the architecture, design, art and fashion of the mid-twentieth century. A kind of period revival event, the show also has an educational and social function including the awarding of scholarships to outstanding students in the fields of design and architecture, to preserve the legacy of the great masters of the past while looking to the future and creating a connection between the architecture of yesterday and today.
One of the most interesting events is the Christopher Kennedy Compound, named after its creator, which each year organises a modern revisitation of an iconic 1960s building. In 2019, Christopher Kennedy invited 14 leading US designers to rethink the interiors of a historic 1962 property, a kind of multi-space ranch in the exclusive Indian Canyons neighbourhood. Amongst this year’s participants was Californian designer Michelle Boudreau, who won plaudits for the creativity of her new interior project for a pool-view annex, known as Pool House.
Michelle Boudreau works in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York and boasts twenty years of experience in the field of design. Her distinctive modern style is international in scope and reflects her love of blending different cultures and languages with taste and harmony.
« I have always sought to create unique, personal spaces capable of telling a story, an adventure, a journey, spaces that are always filled with emotions, » she explained when talking about her Pool House.
In this showhouse she recreated a vintage sixties atmosphere with retro touches and appropriate colour references, but at the same time using the very best of contemporary design in terms of aesthetics and technological research. The choice of materials played a key role. Porcelain tiles (the Italian-made collections from Marca Corona) take centre stage, chosen in colours (soft, dusty tones), shapes (40×80 cm planks and an extra-large 60×60 cm square format) and textures (hi-tech 3D solutions) that vary according to the spaces. The result is an unusual, aesthetically striking and highly personal fusion effect, ranging from the three-dimensional patterns of the Round and Line series used on the walls to the precious elegance of marble, recreated to perfection in terms of colour and veins on the floors (Motif Extra series) and with metal details that enhance its glossy look. But it is above all the use of colour that lends personality to the spaces. While the bedroom and kitchen are dominated by pink (Marsala version), the bathroom also introduces a green tone (Sage version) in bold and pleasantly contrasting fields of colour.
The custom furnishings are made from silk-effect lacquered wood in the same vintage colours as the tiles, while the furniture reveals a surprising jungle-effect wallpaper lining featuring leaves and flowers in the same colour.
This is all rounded off by a skilful mix of contemporary and vintage items to create an overall effect that has plenty of character but is never excessive.