A 1957 Charles Du Bois Sunrise Serenade

A 1957 Charles Du Bois gets a mod Hawaiiana makeover to better fit into its iconic mid-century Palm Springs neighborhood.

There’s one piece of advice that design-build duo Kevin Kemper and Howard Hawkes of H3K Home+Design always give to their clients: Live in the house for a little while before making any changes. “If there’s the opportunity to live in the space and use it, it’s really valuable,” they say. “How are they using it in the summer? How in the winter?” When it came to their own home, a 1957 Charles Du Bois in Palm Springs, circumstances led them to take their own advice to a new level: 12 years of waiting to make renovations happen. “Would we recommend waiting 12 years? Probably not… that might be a little excessive,” they say with a smile. But returning this beautiful Hawaiiana Charles Du Bois to its mid-century glory was worth the wait.

art work and geometric accents in living room of renovated 1957 Charles Du Bois home — For the home’s color palette, interior designers Kevin Kemper and Howard Hawkes took inspiration from the mid-1970s and the colors of the sun on the mountain behind the house. “We have sand, taupe and brown accents around the house,” they say. “When we did the furniture, we looked at it as if it was in the ’60s, ’70s and maybe a little ’80s. So we took the mid-’70s as the vision.” The sofa is from H3K, while the unique portrait is of Dory Previn. “We had tried at one point to retire her, but we missed her and it’s a great conversation piece,” Howard and Kevin say.

yellow framed front door with large starburst metal sculpture and snake plants in entryway — The front doors are not original to the home, but they would also have been double doors. “That’s a common Du Bois feature,” Howard and Kevin say. They decided on glass doors with welcoming, sun-inspired handles. “In an ideal world, we would have had solid doors and painted them a bright color, but we really liked the light that comes through on the other side,” they say. “There’s no privacy issue because of the hedge in the front yard.”

Iconic Neighborhood

Between 1957 and 1963, the Alexander Construction Company built out the neighborhood of Vista Las Palmas, which sits at the foot of the mountains on the western edge of Palm Springs. The company was founded by father-and-son team George and Robert Alexander, and between 1955 and 1965 built over 2,200 homes in the desert. Many of the builds were modest vacation homes that started at a price point of $19,000. Tragically, the company’s output came to an abrupt halt when George, Robert and their wives were killed in a plane crash in 1965.

Vista Las Palmas is an “Alexander” neighborhood that grew in phases, with two main architects: Palmer Krisel and Charles Du Bois. “This phase was called the Las Palmas Summit Estates and had 20-ish houses,” Howard and Kevin say. “It’s a little bit higher than the rest of the neighborhood.” It was also a bit more expensive. “They were changing their targeting customer to full-time and year-round,” they say. “The houses started at $45,000-$55,000. That was a lot of money back then. These were very high-end homes at the time.”

Amazingly, most of the neighborhood has stayed intact. “In the ’80s and ’90s the neighborhood was ignored, when people were wanting Spanish, Tuscan and golf-course homes,” Howard and Kevin say. When appreciation for mid-century style rose in the 1990s and early 2000s, the neighborhood grew in popularity, especially since most of the homeowners had kept the integrity of the mid-century feel. “It created a fairy-tale neighborhood,” Howard and Kevin say.

backyard with pool, pergola and lounge chairs — The backyard is roomy, with a pool that overlooks the mountains west of Palm Springs. “The original pool was a kidney shape with a slide,” Howard and Kevin say. “But that was long gone by the time we bought it.” Just behind the lot is a wash for flash-flood control, but that doesn’t worry Howard and Kevin. “We’ve lived here through Hurricane Hilary and a record-breaking rainfall in 2019, and we’ve never had any flooding issues,” they say.

wooden room divider and rust colored sofa in 1957 Charles Du Bois home — The wood screen divider is a vintage piece by Ludvik Volak from the Czech Republic. “These screen dividers were commonplace in public places in the Soviet Union,” Howard and Kevin explain. “When they were taking them down, some were salvaged. We found some in Poland and we were fortunate that they were in such great shape. They’re more of a blond wood that didn’t go with our chestnut, but we kept it as is. We just wiped them down with a rag and installed them.”

Seeing Potential

Howard and Kevin have always seen the appeal of living in Vista Las Palmas. “We’ve always lusted after being here,” they say. “We moved [to Palm Springs] part-time in 2004 and we always would try to drive through [the neighborhood].”

This particular unit was the model home. “It was the first one finished, easy to see on the corner,” Howard and Kevin say. By the time they bought the house in 2010, however, it didn’t look mid-century at all. “The previous owner before us went more contemporary,” they say. The lot was in foreclosure, so Howard and Kevin snatched it up. “We were the winning bid out of 14 offers,” Kevin says.

But even though they didn’t love the contemporary skin on this mid-century home, they were busy with other projects as well as their furniture and design showrooms. “It’s the shoemaker’s story: The last thing you can ever do is work on your own place,” they say. “The house had been redone, so it was a nice house, but it wasn’t our style.”

dining room with view to backyard pool and lounge area in renovated Palm Springs home — In the dining space, Howard and Kevin ordered a custom dining table with a solid-surface Corian top. “We had a large dining room, so we wanted something unique,” they say. The chairs weren’t their first pick—in fact, they originally intended to replace them. “They started out as temporary for an event. We were going to switch them out, but we love the swivel. It makes it easy to get in and out, and you can lean to hear someone down the table,” they say. The larger chairs at the head and foot of the table are inspired by Platner. “We’d like to reupholster them to match the jeans of Dory Previn [in the living room print],” they say.

pooka wall showcasing decorative objects in dining room of renovated Palm Springs home — This unique niche, or “pooka” wall, is not part of the original home’s design. “[The previous owner] put in the pooka, but we liked it,” Kevin and Howard say. “We debated getting rid of it, but we like that it’s very simple and a blank space that focuses on smaller objects. It’s the largest single wall in the house and you’d usually put a large piece there, but we did the exact opposite and focus your eyes on a small slit that holds the weight of the room with the bespoke vintage pieces that are in there.”

kitchen with textured yellow backsplash and island with Eichler style siding — This kitchen is part of the updated floor plan from a previous homeowner. The previous kitchen sat where the home’s third bedroom is now. “This kitchen would have been an outdoor patio,” Howard and Kevin say. “There was a slider from the current dining room to the patio.” They kept the new layout but redid the look of the kitchen with new cabinets, quartz countertops and a green backsplash that works with the rest of the home’s vintage color palette.

Dreams Come True

Howard and Kevin were finally able to return their home to its Hawaiiana roots with a full remodel in 2022. “We tried to be sensitive in having the features, especially the exterior, enhanced with Mid Century Modern,” they say.

Key to that enhancement was the roof. When they moved in, it was a composite roof. But they knew that wasn’t the original roof, thanks to an old picture. “Right after we moved in, we heard a knock [at the door],” Howard and Kevin say. “It was someone from the Preservation Foundation. ‘We’ve been looking for this house for so long,’ the woman said. She had this photo from Palm Springs Life in 1963 of the house after it was finished.

It’s one of the few photos of Bob Alexander standing in front of a project house.” That photo showed Howard and Kevin that the original roof had been cedar shakes. “When it had a regular roof, it looked like a regular tract house,” they say. “But the cedar-shake roof is what gives it the Hawaiiana vibe.”

primary bedroom in 1957 Charles Du Bois home with art accents — The primary bedroom features a few oversized pieces. “There’s less, but more oversized furniture,” Howard and Kevin say. “There’s not a lot of space for side tables and ottomans, so we did a big dresser that anchors the room with a TV over it, which isn’t a great design feature, but it’s nice to have.” The print on the wall is a Carlos Mérida piece from 1982.

Inside, the layout was already slightly different from the original because a previous owner had enclosed a back patio to make a larger kitchen. Howard and Kevin only made one additional footprint change, to the hallway bathroom. “There was one bathroom for the two bedrooms,” they say. “That bathroom was so large that we could create an en-suite bathroom and a powder.” Now, each bedroom has its own bathroom, including a powder room for guests to use. “You don’t have to have someone go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom,” Howard and Kevin explain.

For the interior design, they took inspiration from the colors of the desert sun. “The [color] palette is inspired from the mountain behind us,” Howard and Kevin say. “The name of the house is ‘Hi, Sun’ because at sunrise the mountain range turns yellow and orange.” The interiors feature many new pieces from their H3K collection, as well as authentic mid-century accessories. “It’s always good to have a mix of vintage and new,” they say. “If you go too vintage, then you’re just living in a museum.” Between the enhanced mid-century architecture and the tasteful furnishing and color choices, the Hi, Sun home was worth the wait.

renovated primary bathroom with view to backyard pool — The original primary bathroom would have been smaller and with a drop ceiling. “We liked the way it is now; it lets a lot of light in,” Howard and Kevin say. They also took out the original Roman tub. “After the ‘Cleopatra’ movie came out, Roman tubs became a design trend,” they say. “Half the tubs in town were Roman tubs. They’re ok to look at, but they don’t function great. You can’t use it as a bathtub. It became a slip hazard with the tile around it, so it wasn’t worth it for safety’s sake.”

guest bed room in renovated 1957 Du Bois house — Howard and Kevin have a nickname for each bedroom, and this one is the Holiday Room. The inspiration piece is a Gary Dorothy print of a 1960s hotel in Las Vegas. “We’ve had that print for a long time,” they say. “With artwork, no matter what piece you put up, you should have some sort of connection or memory to the outside world. Some of our clients want us to pick out art for the whole house, but we encourage people to do it over time. We’ve been working on our collection for 20 years.”

Hawaiiana Style

Charles Du Bois spent time in Hawaii and was fascinated by the architecture there. Here are five iconic Hawaiiana designs the Hi, Sun house showcases.

Cedar-shake roof. Hawaii is a beachfront location, so it makes sense that wood shakes work with this particular Mid Century Modern vibe. “There are some shakes that are fire-treated,” Howard and Kevin say. “If you take a piece of it and throw it into a fire, it will take up to two hours to light, but it’s not a fake shake.” A shake roof will give off a bit of a tiki feel without being too ostentatious.

Polynesian influence. Charles Du Bois is known for combining Hawaiian with Asian and Polynesian influences. In the architecture, this can be the siding or shape of the roofline. The Hi, Sun house has gables with rounded uplifts that look like an Asian pagoda. “There are some A-frame houses [elsewhere] in Vista Las Palmas too. That was a very Hawaiian influence,” Howard and Kevin explain. Interior decisions can include elements like tile and fabric patterns and pottery choices from Asia.

Rockwork. Hawaii is made up of volcanic islands, so there’s plenty of lava rock. “Rock work…is common on a lot of the Du Bois homes,” Howard and Kevin say. “The lava rock look.” Whether as exterior siding, a fireplace or in another form, using large-scale rockwork will help create that Hawaiiana feel.

Screen dividers. Using screens to divide rooms is a design element that started in Asia. “Du Bois had this fascination with Asian culture,” Howard and Kevin say. They played with this concept both outside and inside their home, including using breeze-block walls both in the front and back of the house as well as a vintage wood screen divider they found from the Czech Republic.

Wood slats. Picture a bamboo forest where the bamboo shoots create vertical striped lines. This is the influence that wood slats add to a mid-century home. From a 1963 picture of their home, Howard and Kevin could see that there were vertical wood slats on the exterior gables. They replicated those in the remodel by putting them on the garage door outside as well as walnut slats inside on the kitchen island and range hood.

Inspired by Hawaiiana and Charles Du Bois? Read on for A Rescued Alohaus with Modern Hawaii Vibes. To tour more homes designed by H3K, see The Perfect Palette in a 1957 Twin Palms Home. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube for more Atomic Ranch articles, house tours, and ideas!