The following article is a write up on one of our Luxury Vacation Rentals in Palm Springs. Sierra Grand, a 4 bedroom plus den, 4-ensuite bath Hollywood Regency-style home, is located in Palm Springs and features breathtaking open spaces with Turkish marble floors and a stunning outdoor theater with Bose sound system that's ideal for entertaining guests. View photos and details of this luxury vacation rental here on our site or reserve this property today!
Embrace the Outdoors
Los Angeles interior designer Moises Esquenazi
creates an outdoor space that sets the scene to enjoy
the deserts magical starry nights.
It’s dark out, a wind whistles through the trees and
at any moment a giant monster is going to jump out. You
can feel it. This is not necessarily an experience for the
faint of heart.
Actually, it’s not all that bad. Sitting under the stars in the
backyard at the Palm Springs home of Moises Esquenazi
and Bryan Graybill is both an adventure and sheer luxury.
Set on two and a half lots, they’ve transformed what was
once a tennis court into an outdoor “living room,” which
includes a large video screen at one end of the yard.
“People come over to watch movies. We’ve had 1920
Italian movies and some sci-fi, but watching horror movies
out there is really fun,” says Esquenazi. “Palm Springs
doesn’t allow many street lights, so it’s very dark, and
watching a thriller is kind of cool.”
Of course this is relative, depending on your tolerance for
slasher cinema, and even Esquenazi admits: “It’s pitch
black out, and when the movie’s over you want to go in
and turn on all the lights and say, ‘OK, all better now.’”
Esquenazi is a designer and founded Le Oob, a lifestyle
design firm in Los Angeles, last year with Graybill, who
handles the company’s business side, but they’ve been
working on luxury interior and exterior design projects
across the nation for many years.
The Palm Springs home
is one of several that they have renovated for re-sale,
even if they aren’t quite ready to part with the outdoor
movie theater just yet.
When they found the 1971 Hollywood regency-style home in the Canyon Country Club neighborhood, the couple knew the tennis court had to go. In its place Esquenazi created an open-air living room—a rather spacious one—incorporating all of the elements he felt were necessary for the outdoor lifestyle the desert dictates. “When you are outside you want to feel like you are outside, but you should be comfortable,” he says.
So, he designed a large, U-shaped sofa that is set under a cabana. It is deep enough for lounging, and he says, “when we have parties, everyone ends up there.” The grass beneath the cabana is the deceptive synthetic substitute for the real thing, which otherwise wouldn’t grow in the shade. “It’s tall grass, but it’s plastic. It’s funny because it really confuses the dogs,” he says, but the humans simply admire the unblemished deceit. |
Once a dilapidated tennis
court, this Palm Springs backyard
has been transformed into
an outdoor “living room” with
a big screen that’s perfect for
prime-time entertaining.
The pool Esquenazi designed is 60 feet long and 12 feet wide. Its three parts include a hot tub, a lap pool that’s deep enough for diving and a section with a tanning shelf perfect for perching a chaise just above the water line. He also created a kitchen and dining area, which will be added to the Le Oob line of lifestyle accessories. “I try to build custom pieces that fit into each of my projects, and in this case, one is the barbecue and bar with a sink and grill. I’m creating it as a modular piece that clients can buy and put together,” he says, and he’ll also offer a modular version of his capacious daybed in the cabana. All of these areas—from bar to hot tub—provide various destinations within their outdoor living room for mixing and mingling and an unfettered vantage of the big screen for a future Esquenazi and Graybill viewing party: Oscar night. |
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Moises Esquenazi’s
Essentials for an
Outdoor Room
“I think ‘outdoor room’ is a recent term, but not necessarily a new thing. Backyards have been around forever, and any space is possible for an outdoor room,” says designer Moises Esquenazi, partner of Le Oob, a lifestyle design firm in Los Angeles. Esquenazi shares some guidelines in creating a comfortable and functional outdoor living room:
Establish borders:
Like any enclosure, you need a sense of being enclosed. Use a fence, hedges or the exterior walls of the house to define the space.
Provide shelter:
Create different covered places to go within the outdoor room, even if just to get out of the sun. Defined spaces within the backyard are a good thing and provide different destinations. A porch, canopy of trees, cabana or umbrella provide a room within a room.
Don’t disguise the fact that you’re outside:
Leave the best views intact. Allow for a great view of the sky at night and natural light during the day. While enclosure and cover are important, the focus is on the fact that you are indeed enjoying the outdoors.
Use the right furniture:
Outdoor furniture today is anything but metal lounge chairs and folding lawn chairs. What looks like traditional indoor furniture is now moving outside, so include a couch and a couple of comfy, substantial chairs. Fabrics specially made to resist the elements come in a variety of styles and textures— there’s no need to feel like you’re going to get stuck to a plastic seat cushion. And, always, always use outdoor foam; it won’t get moldy, and you don’t have to wait days for it to dry out after a washing.
Lighten up:
Good lighting is essential, but you don’t want to feel like you’re in a parking lot. Create enough light so that you can see and feel comfortable when it’s dark out.
Stay out:
Create spaces that are fully functional once you’re outdoors because you don’t want to have to run back inside the house for the things you need. For example, create a stocked kitchen around the barbecue with a small sink, a refrigerator and seating area.
Sound it out:
Good acoustics are tricky outside because the sound drifts away. You will need a number of speakers distributed throughout so that the volume dial doesn’t have to be in the red. And of course, you don’t want the neighbors to complain. “When you have a comfortable space and the appropriate furnishings in your outdoor space, you won’t have to bring everything in when you are done,” says Esquenazi. “This encourages you to be outside more often.” |
