Channeling Our Inner Mad Men

Our house in 1959

I think there's a distinct possibility that Mr. W and I were a married couple in a past life in the 1960s. We probably had one too many gin and tonics at a key party and crashed our Stingray into a tree, not making it back to earth until the mid 70s. But I digress...

Last weekend, we took a little road trip to Palm Springs to embark on a tour of midcentury architecture throughout the city. Being current owners of a midcentury ranch house and previously living in a midcentury "drive under" in Hollywood, we have great affection for the aesthetics of that era. Our tour with Palm Springs Modern (which offers seriously amazing excursions if you're in the market for one) was my Christmas gift to Mr. W. To top off the experience, my girlfriend hooked us up with a killer room at The Parker—which I had no idea is also an incredible spot for vintage lovers (and by that I mean lovers of vintage, not people who get it on old timey style).

As we both expected, driving around for 3 hours inspecting cool houses from the 1950s-70s got our design wheels spinning full speed. We weren't able to go inside any of the properties, but the yards alone were enough to inspire ideas. Here's a little taste of what we saw (it doesn't at all do the tour justice)...

All those clean lines and almost sculptural landscaping got our little hearts twittering so! I just love how the midcentury style mixes sleek modern finishes with natural elements like wood and stone. We learned that a lot of the angles are designed to catch the light and cast shadows in different ways throughout the day. So cool. Of course we were like "How can we built some sort of awesome wall somewhere in the yard that casts shadows?!" We don't actually think we'll build a wall, but Mr. W has started playing around on Sketchup, redesigning the backyard and patio and making upgrades to the front. Here are just a few things we've talked about:

Yes, I know I spelled "stones" wrong but I'm too lazy to re-Photoshop the picture...

We're hoping to break ground on our master bathroom add-on in the next few weeks, so that'll obviously be taking precedence over yard updates. Maybe if we throw a fondue soiree with cigarettes and martinis, we can get people to come over and help work on the yard when the time comes. After all, who could resist helping out this husband and wife team?