sunnylands - a mid-century modern for the rich and famous

As a side trip during the AYSO State Soccer Championship tournament in Palm Springs on Mar. 18, 2012, my mom and I got tickets to tour Sunnylands. Sunnylands is the Walter & Leonore Annenberg summer residence, designed by A. Quincy Jones in the traditional mid-century modern style with interiors by Billy Haines, in more of a Hollywood Regency style.

It is absolutely spectacular. The art collection was donated to the New York Metropolitan upon Walter's death, but reproductions were created and are hung in the right spots, with the right frames. Most of the statues and figurines inside the residence are authentic, and the residence is still set up to host visiting dignitaries.

I was able to get some outside pictures, and I have linked to some fantastic inside pictures as no indoor photography is allowed.

Property sits on a private golf course designed by DickWilson

toilets, faucets and showers in a mid-century modern

This was plumber week. Good news is we have working toilets, faucets and showers. I'll get to the bad news towards the end. Alex's bathroom first.

Alex's Bathroom!

Kohler Santa Rosa toilet, which is considered a compact size. We like that it is sleek and modern.

hooking electrical to mid-century modern fireplace insert

We were pretty annoyed when we purchased a fireplace insert to heat the front of our house and it got installed with a big black electrical cord hanging out of it, running over to the outlet. We had specified with Wilshire Fireplace Shops that we wanted the fireplace hooked directly to the electricity (electrical starter), but the people sent out for the $400 install from the shop weren't contractors and couldn't take care of the electrical.

See the big black electrical cord to the right? Really?

mid-century modern bathroom counters

Typical, back-in-the-day, mid-century modern bathroom counter tops were some sort of cool pastel shade  like pink or turquoise. Learn more about pink retro bathrooms at savethepinkbathrooms.

avoid remodel rework; check your bathroom parts

When remodeling any space, parts pile up. Plumbing parts, doors, sinks, toilets, hardware and the like. I haven’t really been paying much attention to them, except when they get installed.

Parts stacked all over the master bedroom.

check tile specs and measure very carefully during a bathroom remodel

There is a pattern to the contractor’s communications. First the text, “Call me when you get a chance.” Usually I drop everything and call immediately. “What’s up?”

“Hi Rebecca, we have a little problem.”

It appeared that the plank tiles specified in the plan and that the contractor special ordered from Italy were not exactly 6x24 inch; they were instead 5¾ x 23½ inch. The 6x6 inch white semi-gloss tiles had already been installed in both showers. The white squares were supposed to line up in perfect rows with the 6x24 inch planks (the tile feature wall). That just wasn't going to work.

In hind site, there was a clue to the size difference. On the spec sheet for the 6x24 inch tiles, it also listed the metric size, in perfect centimeters, 15x60. Were the tiles 6x24 inches or were they 15x60 centimeters? Can't be both. The tiles were manufactured in Italy, so a good guess would be that they were made in centimeters. 

Here is the spec sheet for the tile we ordered. Can you see what is wrong?