Introduction - Restoring a Midcentury Modern Meiselman
When my wife Susan and I first laid eyes on our 1960s Jack Meiselman home in Palm Springs, we knew we’d found something special. Tucked away in the quiet neighborhood of Oasis del Sol, this mid-century modern gem had all the hallmarks of Meiselman’s distinctive design: clean lines, thoughtful integration with the desert landscape, and unobstructed views of the mountains from both the front and backyards.
It also hadn’t had out-of-date appliances, worn natural stone floors, and outdated systems that hadn’t been touched since the Regan administration. We were equal parts thrilled and terrified.
We closed in March, 2025 and over the next nine months, we embarked on a comprehensive restoration of this remarkable home. Now, we’d love to share that journey with you.
Whether you’re considering your own midcentury modern restoration, dreaming of buying a home in Palm Springs, or fascinated by the process of bringing these architectural treasures back to life, this series is for you.
Why We're Sharing Our Story
Restoring a midcentury modern home isn’t like renovating a typical house. These homes were designed with specific philosophies and intentions—emphasizing indoor-outdoor living, using inexpensive, readily available materials, integrating with the landscape, and rejecting unnecessary ornamentation. Getting it right means understanding not just what these homes looked like when they were built, but why they were designed that way in the first place.
When we started our journey, we devoured every resource we could find. We read books, scoured online forums, attended Palm Springs Modernism Week events, and picked the brains of tradespeople and fellow homeowners. What we discovered was that while there’s plenty of inspiration out there, there’s a shortage of comprehensive, step-by-step accounts that cover the entire process from search to completion.
What we hope to provide is an honest, detailed chronicle of what it actually takes to restore a midcentury modern home in 2025, complete with the victories, the setbacks, the budget realities, and the thousands of decisions—big and small—that go into honoring these homes while making them work for contemporary life.
Before
After
We hope you’ll keep reading this series as we reveal in each articles the changes we made and the final results.
What You'll Learn
This isn’t just a “before and after” story. Over the course of 10 or so installments, we’ll walk you through every stage of our restoration:
The Search and Purchase: How we found our Meiselman, what to look for during inspections, and the realities of buying a fixer-upper in one of the country’s hottest real estate markets.
Planning and Budgeting: The hard truth about costs, how we prioritized what to restore versus what to update, and how we assembled our dream team of contractors, service professionals, and specialists who truly understand midcentury modern homes.
Major Systems Overhaul: From HVAC solutions for desert living to modernizing electrical and plumbing systems, we’ll detail the surprises and how we brought the house’s key systems up to current standards.
Design Decisions: The constant balancing act between honoring Meiselman’s original intent and meeting modern needs. Should we restore or replace? How do we add modern conveniences without compromising the design? Where’s the line between restoration and renovation?
The Details: Flooring choices, lighting design, kitchen and bathroom transformations, window and door restoration, furniture selection, landscaping for desert modernism, and even installing solar panels in a way that respects the roofline.
The Landscape: Creating outdoor spaces that truly embody the indoor-outdoor living philosophy central to midcentury modern design, finding a landscape designer, designing a spa, fire pit, and bocce ball court, and creating a lush, spa like retreat.
Permits and Regulations: Navigating Palm Springs’ preservation guidelines and building departments—an essential but often overlooked aspect of any restoration project.
The Surprises: Because no restoration goes exactly according to plan, we’ll share with you the many unexpected challenges we faced and how we overcame them.
What Makes a Meiselman Special
Jack Meiselman built over 200 homes in Palm Springs during the 1960s and early 1970s, primarily in the Twin Palms and Indian Canyons neighborhoods. While he may not be as widely known as Alexander or Krisel, Meiselman brought his own vision to desert modernism—homes that were elegant without being ostentatious, comfortable without sacrificing style, and surprisingly livable even by today’s standards.
Our home embodies these qualities. The layout flows naturally from public to private spaces. Post-and-beam construction creates soaring ceilings and unexpected volumes. Walls of glass dissolve the boundary between inside and out. The attention to detail in the original hardware, built-ins, and material choices reveals a designer who cared about how people actually live.
But like many midcentury homes, ours had been “updated” over the decades in ways that obscured rather than enhanced these qualities. Our mission became clear: remove what didn’t belong, restore what remained, and thoughtfully add what was necessary for twenty-first-century living—all while remaining faithful to Meiselman’s original vision.
Who This Series Is For
We wrote this series for several audiences:
- Prospective buyers who are considering a midcentury modern home and want to understand what they’re getting into
- Current owners in the middle of their own restoration journey who need guidance, inspiration, or just the reassurance that they’re not alone
- Design enthusiasts who appreciate midcentury modern architecture and want to understand it more deeply
- Anyone who’s ever watched a renovation show and wondered what really happens behind the scenes
You don’t need to be an architect, contractor, or design professional to benefit from this series. We certainly weren’t when we started. Susan is a teacher, and I work in marketing. What we brought to this project was passion, patience, a willingness to learn, and an unwavering commitment to getting it right.
What to Expect
This series will be honest about everything—the joys and the frustrations, the budget wins and the cost overruns, the decisions we got right and the ones we wish we could do over. We’ll share actual numbers, recommend specific products and professionals, and provide detailed explanations of why we made the choices we did.
Most importantly, we’ll document how this process transformed not just our home, but us. Restoring a midcentury modern home teaches you to see differently, to appreciate craftsmanship, to understand the relationship between form and function, and to become a steward of something larger than yourself.
By the end of this series, you’ll have walked with us from our first viewing to our final walkthrough, from empty rooms to a fully furnished and functioning home, from uncertainty to confidence. You’ll see the house as it was when we found it, follow along as we carefully brought it back to life, and ultimately understand what it takes to create a restored midcentury modern home that honors the past while embracing the present.
We’re Susan and Rich, and this is our Meiselman journey. We’re thrilled to have you along for the ride.