To craft a personal desert hideaway—and love letter to his spouse—designer Sheldon Harte threw convention to the wind

“I’m the worst client there is,” says AD PRO Directory designer Sheldon Harte about his recent makeover of a 1941 Spanish-style Palm Springs, California, home he shares with his husband. “I can make decisions all day long for other people, but when the world is my own oyster, there are just too many choices—I ponder, I think, and because the project is also a kind of design lab, I take pains to make sure every decision is right.”

Any analysis paralysis notwithstanding, the result is a multilayered, highly personal haven filled with contemporary art, antiques, texture, pattern, plenty of space for entertaining, and punches of color. “I can’t match a pair of socks,” admits Harte’s husband, John Combs, a commercial real estate executive who gave his husband carte blanche on the design. Harte, the principal of Laguna Beach, California–based Harte Brownlee & Associates, harnessed his ingenuity and reimagined their second home into something that honored the roots of its Spanish aesthetic while adding a contemporary twist.

Situated in the city’s Old Las Palmas enclave, an oasis originally developed for the Hollywood set in the mid 1920s that features both Spanish Colonial and midcentury-modern homes, the house is within walking distance from downtown. Renovations over the years stripped the home of its integrity and sense of place, says Harte, who reconfigured the rooms and separated the primary suite from the rest of the house. For cozy effect he added an additional fireplace. He also installed steel windows, replastered the walls for a smoother finish, beefed up the size of the ceiling beams, and created arches between rooms. Then he pulled out the buckled wood floors and installed French black limestone with off-white grout throughout. It created a stylish backdrop for the couple’s art collection and newly acquired decorative pieces from Harte’s go-to dealers including Blackman Cruz, Obsolete, and Lee Stanton.