I am so excited to invite you on a tour through the outdoors of my largest design project to date, Oeste, with my good friend Yayo. The vision for our Yucca Valley oasis was heavily inspired by our travels to Mexico and Morocco—two places we absolutely love for their rich culture and eye-catching colors. With Yayo’s Mexican heritage and the locale, it was important for us to lean into that. That’s why I was really excited to work with Home Depot on this project. They really met all of our landscaping and DIY needs making it possible for us to customize our dream destination.

One of the main ideas behind Oeste was to not only be a place to stay and eventually host events, but a place for photography as well. We looked to one of the most popular photoshoot locations in Los Angeles, the Philip Dixon House. When it came to the design, we loved how adaptive the spaces were and Home Depot gave us the tools we needed to create really unique experiences with different areas like the mood-lifting patio and all the way up to the stock tank pool overlooking the gorgeous Yucca Valley landscape.

For the patio, we wanted it to feel polished and complete, so we started by filling the backyard with Home Depot’s decomposed granite. To keep it sleek, we used rakes to flatten it out and hosed it down to keep it compact. We enhanced it with these incredible agaves Yayo scored on sale at Home Depot, which we potted and finished with pea gravel. We upped the green-life with these amazing cacti our landscape designer, Haley McMillen, cut from someones euphorbia, which have blossomed really beautifully.

The patio design hails from my love of colorful tiling and vibrant hues found in Marrakesh and throughout Mexico. I have this philosophy that when creating a home, especially one that isn’t your primary residence, it should really transport you. To do that, I brought back some of the really cool things that stood out to me on my travels like the amazing dual purpose triangular tiled lounge area inspired ny a rooftop in Marrakesh. One side serves as a place to sunbathe directly under the hot desert sun and the other to gather around for a relaxed floor level meal and libations. Because it was virtually impossible to find a dining table that fit our vision, we ended up making our own with leftover concrete from Concrete Collaborative, which we used throughout the entire home, and some hardy wood and plaster from our good friends at Home Depot.

The outdoor dining room sits beneath a pergola that Yayo masterfully built using ocotillos, 6’x6′ redwood pieces cut to the exact dimensions we needed, and connecting plates. What was really nice about working with Home Depot on this is they have a great selection of wood and we were able to choose one that’s weather safe, which is perfect because although the desert is hot, it can get really cold too, so we needed something that would withstand the climate. To achieve the perfect color, we applied Behr’s Nutmeg wood stain, which I love so much because of its natural tone that doesn’t feel too dark or too yellow, which takes away from an organic aesthetic. We loved the stain so much we used it on all of the wood for our projects.

The patio is really dressed up with all of its stunning tile work. The patio floor is made up of non-slip Fire Clay tiles in Taxi, a lovely mustard yellow, and City Lights, which matches almost perfectly to the Morocco-inspired exterior of the home. We painted the house in Rose de Mai by Dunn Edwards—a beautiful Marrakesh pink. What’s incredible, is that the sky turns that color for just a moment every night when the sun sets, which makes for a really special and photogenic experience.

I’m obsessed with tiling so I had a tile wall created, which was influenced by one of my favorite places to go in Mexico—El Moro. Not only are they famous for their churros, but are also known for their beautiful patchwork tile wall that I admire every time I visit. So, when thinking of Oeste, we knew we had to create our own using Concrete Collaborative. We went down to their warehouse in San Diego a number of times to explore their tiles and see what patchwork we loved the most. The design is so lively and fun, which proves that you can use more traditional color ways, patterns, and textures without coming off fussy or old-fashioned.

At a certain point everyone at Home Depot knew us because we were there everyday gathering tons of materials for our inventive DIY projects like the hillside fountain Yayo’s parents surprised us with, the bocce ball court, and swimming pool—one of our favorite features of the home. We used Home Depot’s flagstone and gravel for the foundation and opted for one of their stock tanks as a budget-friendly solution to a pool. We spruced it up with one of their beautiful umbrellas for a real R&R getaway feel. It’s the perfect place to unwind looking out over the vast valley and watch the sunset.

Thank you so much for joining me on my tour through the grounds at Oeste and stay tuned for more from my Yucca Valley project!