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Making a splash on the market in Palm Springs is the party-friendly property of Spa Girls Cocktails founder Karen Haines and her husband, Chris Haines. Located in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood, the Hollywood Regency-style residence was built in 1962 by local real estate developer Robert Marx for himself and his wife.
The son of Gummo Marx of the famous Marx Brothers comedy act, Robert Marx partnered up with modernist architect Val Powelson in the late 1950s to form the MarVal Construction Company. Among the company’s notable projects are the Indian Wells Country Club and the Leo Maranz House in Rancho Mirage, which, with its distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid roofline, has become a perennially popular location for photo shoots and commercials.
For his own personal residence, which was featured in the September 1962 issue of Architectural Digest, Marx veered away from the futuristic aesthetic exemplified by the Maranz House. In what was perhaps a nod to the desert resort town’s indulgent attitude toward bacchanalia, the developer took a scroll from classical Greco-Roman architecture instead, outfitting the 4,278-square-foot house with numerous Corinthian and Ionic columns, as well as a pair of cast iron fountains with cherubs carved into them. After acquiring the low-slung midcentury in 2010, the Haineses shook-and-stirred it up to give it more of a Hollywood Regency flavor, a process they recounted in a 2015 Palm Springs Life profile.
Surrounded by tall hedges, the home is accessed by a pair of carved Pullman-style doors flanked on both sides with sizeable walls of glass. Inside, a substantial wall of raw marble serves as both a divider between the entry foyer and the living room and as the backdrop to a fireplace on its interior-facing side. Bordered on one end with an extensive wall of built-in bookcases and on another with a wall of mirrors, the dining room features a theatrical concave dome ceiling with a vintage chandelier that’s been embellished with an array of silver Christmas tree ornaments. Elsewhere, there are built-in bars, an open-concept kitchen, and a British-themed den where the vintage motorcycle collection of Chris Haines, owner of an off-road motorcycle tour company, is on display.
Two of the four bedrooms have been converted, one into the fuschia-walled office where Karen Haines first launched her popular line of low-calorie ready-to-drink vodka cocktails aimed at the female market (as the Spa Girl Cocktails website, her social media, and her home’s decor make abundantly clear, Ms. Haines is very into pink). Another bedroom was transformed into a state-of-the-art sound studio for Chris Haines’ extensive collection of vintage guitars and stereo equipment.
Throughout the home are floor-to-ceiling glass walls that open to the striking harlequin-patterned patio and inviting pool, from where one can drink in glorious pink-hued sunsets as well as cocktails.
Asking price for the .45-acre property is $4.8 million; John Campbell of Keller Williams Luxury Homes holds the listing.
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