Luxe Life (Caballero a Go Go), Las Vegas, NV
CLIENT: undisclosed
When we first approached this house, it was pretty shot in many ways, so rather than try to be architecturally pure with it – we decided to take some risks. One issue was this ethnic looking carpet glued to the wall of the family room and it was so over the top, the owner didn’t have the heart to rip it down right away. Plus, every inch of this house seemed to be covered in either wallpaper or decorative bric-a-brac.
The address was 1977 and so we went for a 1970s theme ala something that the nightclub playboy, Carlos Ramirez, from the Flying Nun would live in. So it got the nickname Caballero a Go Go.
Luxe Life Evolves
Eventually, this “Go Go” theme quickly wore thin. So when it was time to tear out the hideous paver tile floors and go for tried and true VCT.
The new nickname for the house was “Luxe Life,” inspired by the work of Kelly Wearstler, Trina Turk and the Palm Springs Hollywood Regency Viceroy look. We laid down some wonderful grey flooring with black outlines. Nice regency wallpapers finished off the look and the door was stripped and re-painted the front door a rich Chinese red with black medallions.
Front
Like every other embellished surface in the house, the front was no exception. The facade had been covered with very thick stucco and medallions. There was a giant fir tree that we suspected was right over the sewer line and provided no shade, because it was on the north side of the home. a master plan was developed and we worked toward that goal. First by removed the plants which could cause future damage to the roof or structure, then by removing the stucco and cleaning up the paint and siding.
Huge oleander root-ball left a giant hole in the ground and the fir tree rootball was just HUGE. Lot of trash left this house…
Main Living Area
In keeping with the Luxe Life look, we inherited a bunch of 1970s gold veined mirror tiles. We covered the entire far wall with a random pattern of these tiles which made this room look twice as large and open!
Fireplace
The fireplace had wood paneling over where the original tile was supposed to be. The concrete cantilever hearth and metal surround had been wallpapered over! We stripped all of this and installed new black, white and grey 1″ mosaic tile.
Floors
Once of the most rewarding jobs was replacing the various ceramic tile (several different cheap tiles has been used in different rooms) throughout the house with a continuous grey and black VCT.
Kitchen
A very dramatic change happened in the kitchen. The previous owner had ripped out the open plan floating cabinets and walled in the kitchen – leaving a little pass through window between.
Luckily, the original top and bottom floating cabinets were found outside in the illegal covered patio room! Since this cabinet appeared to be original, we went with this darker wood finish for the rest of the refinishing, although I wish we had gone lighter now… These are some before – during – after photos.
The original wood cabinets all had little brick-a-brac trim glued to them. But once these were removed and sanded and refinished, we were left with the original 1964 solid wood cabinets!
Master Bedroom
the Master Bedroom simply needed wallpaper removal, new floors and some swanky vintage curatins that came out of a Holmby Hills house from the annual Moderinca garage sale.
Master Bath
The master bath had the classic Paradise Palms sunken tub – with of course sewer issues. Our rock star plumber Ricardo got that mess all sorted out and we went onto the finish work. Fresh paint, new fixtures, retro rescued sink, wraparound Formica countertop, What a difference that made!
Guest Bed 1
This room was dark due to the weird screening they put over the clerestory windows. this was unnecessary as these windows were under an overhang – plus they face north where no direct sunlight ever came in! It is difficult to see the wallpaper we put on the single accent wall due to the poor photograph – but here is the cool paper we used.
Guest Bed 2
The fun new wallpaper and VCT really made this room pop!
Guest Bath
More wallpaper – this time over the shower and glued right over the wall switches and receptacles!
We had the tub re-enameled and knocked out the drop ceiling. We installed 3/4″ mosaic tile and a free-floating fiberglass counter with a vintage sink rescued from a Paradise Palms I vintage home. the result was clean and bright!
Recreation Room
We painted the ceiling in the family room – which was clearly an addition – with black paint and applied our signature gold glitter! Since the house was rented out to some swinging bachelors for a while and we bought them a house warming present of a portable stripper pole! And yes, it did get used 🙂
The far which used to be a closet was intended to be a wet bar – as there was sewer and water lines directly outside this wall that backed up to the kitchen.
Details
an illegal patio add-on room made the dining room and kitchen incredibly dark and claustrophobic. This room consulted of a metal patio roof, flimsy built and stuccoed walls and a couple of layers of carpets laid over the bare dirt. The carport roof required a whole new post due to wood rot and we never did resolve the roof issues prior to losing the home. So we wish the new owners well…
In addition, this home was badly infested with roaches, to the point where they were out in the middle of the day. Our realtor, Mark, tucked his pants into his socks so they would not crawl up his legs!
Lastly, the Tortoise
Our friend and tenant Tim found what we thought might be a desert tortoise in the back yard. Tim tried to feed him a strawberry, but I think he liked the lettuce Cary fed him better. We were thrilled to find him and were going to ask the conservation folks how to take care of him. But a few days later he sadly disappeared.
