This Iconic Palm Springs Home is an Oasis in Every Sense

Rip & Tan: It’s not every day you find siblings that work together willingly—what has this journey been like as a trio? Did you grow up in a design-minded household?

David Lucas: We love working together! We are so lucky. The working relationship is a natural extension of being siblings. Our mom was very creative and interested in design, so I think it was something that we picked up from her. Our dad had more of an engineering brain so between the artistic side of our mom and the engineering side of our dad, the natural spot to land was architecture and interiors.

Rip & Tan: Whether design style or preferred work style, what are a few words you’d use to describe your studio’s ethos?

David Lucas: We like to temper high design and really great quality with a casual lifestyle and realistic expectations around use. We like to set people up for success in their interiors. As a studio, we aim to create beautiful, timeless interiors and we don’t really follow fads and trends.

Rip & Tan: Let’s talk about the Meriwether Way. The space is heavily influenced by Japanese design. Was this a vision of your clients’ or a natural progression based on their unique interior needs?

Suzie Lucas: It felt appropriate to draw from Japanese sensibilities for the clients’ aesthetic and material functionality. Our clients wanted a tranquil oasis and the house is so connected to its environment that it felt necessary to let this drive decisions around materials and color as well. Broadly speaking, we embraced the concept of Wabi-Sabi as a macro influence on the house. We wanted forms and materials to feel beautifully imperfect and simple.

David Lucas: Given the climate and possibilities of the site and the clients’ desire for a place to enjoy time with their family and friends, we spent a lot of time looking at successful examples of combining gardens and water (both for viewing and entering) which led us towards zen gardens and a Japanese aesthetic. BYLA Landscape Architects, who we worked closely with, was a big part of this process. It is not so literal in most of the home, but it is a spirit that can be felt throughout. The Landscape Architect, Chase Gouley, did an incredible job of taking this concept and embracing how this could manifest over the entire site. The central courtyard water feature and stepping stones that connect the four wings of the house, for example, are really unique and set the Zen mood for visitors entering the home.

Rip & Tan: The desert cities have such a distinct personality and point of view—does this house pay homage to the locale in any way? 

David Lucas: We didn’t want to fall into the Palm Springs kitschy vibe. We really wanted this house to feel like a desert oasis. We leaned into that rather than the typical mid-century approach.

Rip & Tan: In a place where summer heat and nighttime temperature drops can be equally as brutal, how does indoor/outdoor flow factor into design?

David Lucas: Our clients use this house in the seasons when it’s most comfortable to really take advantage of the indoor/outdoor lifestyle when the weather is permitting in the desert. When they’re at the house, they’re able to keep the whole house open. It was built to adapt to the weather so as it gets cooler, they can bring the entertaining inside. They can expand and contract depending on the temperature but there’s always a visual connection to the outside.

Rip & Tan: In terms of process, you take great care to ensure transparency and collaboration from start to finish, and then some. How did that play out with this particular project?

David Lucas: Meriwether was a brand new house and I was honest with our clients about the flaws in the flow of the plan in the existing kitchen and existing master bath. To really make this a great house, these spaces needed to be redone. The house itself is very rectilinear and has very strong lines with a limited number of materials. We felt that we needed to introduce organic forms and texture to soften up the architecture, but it needed to be done in a way that wasn’t jarring to the eye. We also incorporated gutsier materials such as steel, wire brushed woods, and large format stone to give the house more depth and interest to elevate the overall design.

We love to collaborate with other design professionals. We worked really closely with BYLA Landscape Architects who gave us some really thoughtful ideas to build upon the Zen themes we were using throughout the house. Chase Gouley was a terrific collaborator—he really understood the vision and brought some innovative solutions.

Rip & Tan: For a family splitting time between properties, which rooms or interior elements tend to take priority? 

David Lucas: The kitchen, speakeasy, and all entertaining spaces are a huge priority. Our clients’ time spent down in the desert is a retreat meant for entertaining. They’re getting away, nesting in the house, and entertaining in public spaces which is why we gave them a speakeasy to have a second spot to entertain in.

Rip & Tan: As a studio that’s well-established at this point, do you remember your first “we’ve made it” moment? What kind of projects inspire that same feeling these days? 

David Lucas: I think our first real “we made it” moment is when we were able to move our office out of my home in 2014, and set up a proper design studio with room for employees. We’ve since moved to a larger space that works really well for our studio size & needs.

In terms of our work, the first big moment for us was seeing our Gallery House project on the cover of a magazine.

We’re very inspired when we’re brought on to architecturally interesting projects or when we’re blown away by a site. We’re inspired by the quality of projects that are brought to us more so than one hyper-specific aesthetic.