Tucked into the Rancho Palmeras Estates neighborhood of Indian Wells, this home has worn two great design legacies in its lifetime—and is about to reveal a third.
The home was custom-designed around 1960 by architect and interior designer Walter Dunivant, and is locally known to have been built for a Radio City Rockette. In 1983, new owners brought in Steve Chase—one of the defining creative voices of luxury desert design—who reimagined the interiors around what would become his signature philosophy: nature, light, and material truth. Natural stone, wood, granite, and leather dominated.
Today, that legacy is being restored and reinterpreted by Michael Norpell of Michael Norpell Wall To Wall. Rather than recreating the past literally, Norpell's approach preserves the essence of Chase's original interiors while refining them for contemporary desert living—restoring existing built-ins and architectural detailing wherever possible, and layering in a palette drawn from the surrounding landscape: cream, warm brown, black, soft gold and muted green. He's reviving Chase's lighting language, which was never an afterthought; Chase treated illumination as architecture, using warmth and intensity to guide the eye through a room. Vintage and one-of-a-kind pieces sit alongside refined Modern furnishings, creating interiors that feel collected rather than decorated—the glamour of 1980s desert luxury without the nostalgia.
Your session includes:
Whether you're a devotee of Steve Chase's work, a student of desert design history, or simply curious what it takes to restore a home this significant without losing its soul, this is an afternoon built for you.
Atomic Ranch