Our home, a mid-century modern beach shack built in 1960, provided the perfect canvas for our renovation, drawing inspiration from Palm Springs vibes with a touch of coastal style. We aimed to capture the essence of Palm Springs living, characterised by sleek lines, vibrant colours, and a seamless indoor-outdoor flow.

Design Elements

To evoke the quintessential Palm Springs feel, we incorporated iconic design elements such as a breeze block screen in our front yard and a cactus garden featuring a statement palm. The existing clerestory windows, typical of Palm Springs homes, accentuated the architectural authenticity of our renovation.

Inside, we played with textures and colours reminiscent of the Joshua Tree National Park desert hues. Soft sage greens, pastel peachy tones, and geometric patterns adorned the walls, complemented by round orb pendant lights and terrazzo-look tiles, echoing the style prevalent in Palm Springs homes.

Flooring and Carpet Selection

The brief was to keep it feeling high-end and luxurious. In our bedrooms, we already installed "Lake Chalice" in Bisque. It’s a warm beige with little flecks of different colours to create a natural look. It’s made from 100% wool and feels luxurious underfoot. I like the different colour variations that you get with a wool carpet. I also like that it’s a more sustainable product.

Originally we had red timber hardwood floors. We had to cover these up due to lots of different plumbing changes throughout the house and they had to cut the flooring up to make way for new pipes. I knew that if we were going to cover them up it better be with a premium product so decided on an engineered timber floorboard. We wanted the overall feeling to be light and bright so a lighter flooring was the best option to achieve this.

I wanted to select a flooring that also went with our decking. I borrowed some samples from my local Carpet Court store which was a massive help in deciding which to go with. In the end, I chose the “Refined Oak” in Hamptons. The white-washed blonde look was a great match for our ‘Backbeach’ composite decking. It really does create a seamless look from indoors to outdoors.

Installation Process

To install the carpet, it was a quick and easy process. Our installer first installed the Airstep underlay. This was a crucial step as our carpet was installed over the top of the existing floorboards. You can get a lot of cool air coming in through the gaps in the winter, so the underlay will help to insulate the room. I think it only took a couple of hours to do the entire bedroom.

For the engineered timber flooring installation it was a little more complicated due to the nature of our home. As it’s a 1960s home built on stumps, we had some levelling issues. In the areas where the floor was uneven, self-levelling concrete had to be poured over the existing hardwood floors. This really helped to give the floor layers a more flat and level surface to lay the new engineered timber flooring.

We also had holes in some areas of the floor, where the new plumbing was installed, so these also had to be patched before the new flooring could go in. This process took two days in total, which I thought was pretty quick considering the amount of preparation work involved.

Budgeting and Overcoming Setbacks

We had numerous budget blow-outs when it came to our reno, we had some rotting timber joists which needed to be replaced, plumbing that had to be moved due to being located where our deck joists had to go, etc.

But the biggest blowout was having to replace our original set of timber awning windows in the front living room which was a massive cost.

This was unfortunately unavoidable due to new structural beams that had to be installed right where the old window was! In the end we had new replica awning windows with matching clerestory windows made slightly smaller to allow for the new beam.

Cost-saving Tips

You always need to set aside some contingency funds in case anything unexpected comes up during the reno (and trust me, the older the house, the more problems).

In the end we went about $30,000 over our initial estimate from the builder. This meant we lacked the funds to finish landscaping and affording kitchen cabinetry, so we had to take out a personal loan to fund that.

Renovating is so expensive, and you really do need a healthy budget if you’re attempting a big reno like ours (basically our home was gutted down to the studs and re-built, all new plumbing, electrical, plasterboard, cladding to front and back exterior etc).

It starts with picking a home with the right bones – a brick home that is on a concrete slab, and that has plasterboard walls is a lot cheaper to renovate than a fibro asbestos home. If you need to move walls, then you need to remove the asbestos, and that all takes money. So it really starts with picking a good home with good bones.