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Palm Springs time capsule: Birth of the 70s

pam kueber - Updated: June 25, 2021

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

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SOCK IT TO ME baby: Thanks to Frank for sending us this 1965 time capsule in Palm Springs. All the furniture comes with the house, which is for sale for $796,000. –>

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The more I do this blog, which started with a fondness for 50s and early 60s interiors…the more I slide oh so easily right into the 70s…which seems to have been born in 1965. In. This. House.

Here’s the appropriately sauve prose from the listing:

Smashing, Splendid, Brave, Daring and Unspoiled describes this masterpiece of seventies decor – Plus Offered Turnkey Furnished! Visually stunning custom velvet walls with vibrant colors of reds, pinks, fuschias and oranges.A unique and wholly functional residence in impeccable condition set up for full time living but with all the enchantment, allure and fantasy of a Moroccan palace. Bedrooms are canopied, swagged, with gold vein mirrored walls, ceiling to floor drapes creating an exotic and opulent atmosphere. The furnishings are custom in matching materials and colors,the pool is gorgeous, the grounds are impeccable, and the piece de resistence, a Pink Princess telephone in the master bedroom!….

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Thanks, too, to real estate agent Diane Flaherty for giving me permission to feature a few photos.

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  4. madsarah says

    I’m in on the time share. And I’ll come in the off season when it’s cooler and my skin won’t stick to the velvet.

  5. super kawaii mama says

    Palm Springs Steven makes a good point, velvet in the desert? I want to rip out all my carpeting every summer here in Australia so I know that the reality wouldn’t work for me. But the dream… the perfect Diva hideaway!

  7. Palm Springs Stephan says

    I have such trouble imagining why anyone would decorate a house in the desert using so much velvet. Our high temperature here today is supposed to be 99 degrees! And it’s only May! Imagine sitting or laying on all that velvet in July and August when it is over 110 every day!

    This “lovely” (hideous!) treasure is within walking distance of my own place. I will watch for a real estate agent’s Open House sign and drop by to get some details on who owned the house.

    As you can tell by the listing price, it is in a posh neighborhood, called Deepwell Ranch Estates. The subdivision was built on land that had once been the Deep Well Ranch and Guest Hotel, a kind of “dude ranch” during the 1930s popularized by the cowboy and western movie industry. Many of the old westerns were filmed in the Palm Springs area, so the stars and crews of those movies stayed at Deep Well, neighboring Smoketree Ranch (part of which still exists), or Gene Autry’s ranch further east (now the five-star Parker Hotel).

    During the Palm Springs tourism boom of the 1950s and 1960s, Deep Well Ranch was redeveloped as Deepwell Ranch Estates. The area became home to the likes of Liberace, Jerry Lewis, Jack Webb (Dragnet’s “Sgt Joe Friday”), William Holden, Gavin “LoveBoat” McLeod, the famous Mid Century Modern architect Donald Wexler (who still lives there), and Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens.

    If I can get any more information on this explosion of velvet, I will post it here. I will also send some more photos, if I can get them.

    • Denise Cross says

      I’m with YOU Stephan, this decor is a desert COPD/Asthma/Choking nightmare. I live here too, 33 years. We’re in the No Fabric Zone for sure and somebody should tell the newbies. We have outstanding 30’s – 60’s homes, and tons of them. They were all built mostly not for year round residents, but second home winter escapes from L.A. > Smaller kitchens (by today’s standards), lack of storage, often a bar larger than the kitchen and you can throw a back yard party and seat 150 people around the pool. Somebody went bonkers here with the idea … 60’s Vacation Rental? None of this is original decor. Original ‘decor’ deteriorated… long, long ago.