Palm Springs paradise
When drummer Matt Sorum left Los Angeles for the desert, he shifted more than locales; his priorities radically changed.
It’s a big deal for a rock star to leave Los Angeles. A drummer for bands like Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, and the Cult, Matt Sorum had lived there for 40 years — recording, touring, “all that rock ’n’ roll stuff.” But in July 2020, everything changed.
Matt and his wife, fashion designer Adriane (Ace) Harper, were already splitting their time between L.A. and a second home they’d bought in Palm Springs when Ace gave birth to their daughter, Lou Ellington. “As soon as the baby came, it was a complete shift,” Matt says. “We loved L.A., but we didn’t want to raise a family there.”
Matt and Ace sold their home that summer and spent the next five months transforming the Palm Springs ranch — a classic “Desert Modern” in a neighborhood full of iconic mid-century homes — into their ideal family-friendly home. “We decided to get it done while Lou was an infant,” Matt says. “We took everything out and gutted it completely.”
The house was originally designed as a family home, with the dining and living rooms together in the center, but the kitchen was closed off. “We opened it up so it’s one big area,” Matt says. “You know, modern living.” A bar in the back of the house looks out through big sliding glass doors to the pool area, where they added a pizza oven, a fire pit, a movie theater — and two more bars. “With the mountains in the background, it’s Shangri-la,” he says.
“I used to feel like if I wasn’t in Hollywood, in the mix, that I’d be out of sight, out of mind. But now my friends come here to write and record music.”
Also modernized: the closets. “These homes were not designed for people with a lot of clothes,” Matt says. “In the ’60s, women owned only a few cocktail dresses and guys had two or three suits. The culture has changed. It’s called consumerism.” Indeed, clothes are “a huge factor” for a performer and a clothing designer. “My wife has a lot of beautiful clothes,” Matt says. “I have a lot of stuff too. And the kid’s got so many clothes, it’s crazy!"
In keeping with the home’s mid-century aesthetic, Matt wanted the interiors to feel modern, simple, and clean: “A lot of people in Palm Springs do a kitschy 1960s interior. We wanted a retro feel, but we wanted to go more chic.” They decided on what he describes as “a ’60s influence with more of a ’70s vibe,” with lighter woods, parchment-white floors, and white walls. “The idea was to brighten everything up for the baby, and we just kept going lighter and lighter,” he says.
Matt and Ace were involved in every detail of the renovation, from every stone to every surface to every fixture. “We wanted to love everything around us and have the nicest things to share with our family and friends,” Matt says. “I’m a super-detailed guy.” It also made him appreciate their home that much more: “We’ll be sitting in our living room and my wife will say, ‘I love this house.’ It’s like our reward for being so hands-on.”
Since leaving Los Angeles, Matt also has found a creative hub in the desert. “I used to feel like if I wasn’t in Hollywood, in the mix, that I’d be out of sight, out of mind,” he says. “But now my friends come here to write and record music.”
It’s a refreshing change for Matt, who admits, “When I was younger, there were people in the industry you didn’t want to deal with, but you sort of had to. I don’t have time for that anymore. When I keep the slate clean and only have good people around me, better things happen. It’s important to create an environment that speaks to that; that’s what we’ve done here.”
CC Design Consultants
Preston Mitchell
Photographers
Stefan Radtke & Lance Gerber
