When Dann Foley first spotted the badly neglected 1961 tract house for sale in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, he knew that an average dose of tender loving care - a coat of paint here, new cabinets there, maybe a spray of Weed-B-Gon on the lawn - wouldn't do much for its charm, much less its marketability. Built by famed Alexander Construction Co., the house had a pedigree. Despite 18 years of experience, the Palm Springs-based interior designer could not see beyond decades of bad renovations. Scars included poorly installed air-conditioning duct that lowered the Alexander's characteristic 13-foot post-and-beam ceiling to a claustrophobic seven feet and a dungeon-like addition to the rear of the house, topped with a thatched - as in straw - roof (dubbed by project manager Beau Stinnette as the Children of Corn room). Turning to his business partner, Roberta Temple, who discovered the house on the market in 2004, Foley asked, "Are you sure about this?"  

The 40-year-old Philadelphia native knew he wanted his work to stand apart from the rash of bad "flip jobs" on Alexanders in Palm Springs. " I told Roberta, "If we're going to do this, we're going to set a standard," recalls Foley. The Drexel University interior-designer graduate brought his business to the West Coast in 2000 (having previously opened branches in Philadelphia and Chicago) and debuted his Palm Springs showroom in April of this year.

"Flipping houses is a big business here, and people always suggest keeping it neutral so that it will appeal to everyone," says Foley.  "Well. I'm not interested in renovating or designing homes for the common beige-loving man." It was clear from the beginning - even before the 1,860-square-foot house was gutted down to its frame, before the 1970s combination of crackly blue-and-brown tile was scraped from the pool, before the concrete RV parking space was landscaped out of the side yard - that Foley would not compromise his concept with hackneyed mid-century fakes or a lackluster color palette. "I was determined not to design a house that someone would raise their kid in," he laughs.

In the Southern California desert, an indoor/outdoor lifestyle is the primary pursuit for weekenders and retirees alike. Noticing that the home's low ceilings and superfluous walls obstructed views of the San Jacinto Mountains, Foley removed the walls that divided the living room from the kitchen and raised the roof back to 13 feet by transferring the air-conditioning ducts to the attic. Mountain vistas now dominated the common areas.

"That kitchen was so unbelievably bad I don't even know how people prepared food in it.' says Foley of the former "dark little corner," with its peeling cabinets, laminated countertops and vinyl floors. Opening up the kitchen to the living room, Foley outfitted the new space wit custom-designed hardwood cabinets. A showpiece countertop of Absolute Black granite not only plays up the sleekness of the new stainless steel-finished tile backsplash and appliances but also provides a stark contrast to the white Carrara marble floors. The walls of the adjacent dining room - as well as those throughout the house -  are painted in Foley's custom-blended "true vanilla."  "It's a very Palm Springs white," he says. "It's not too harsh or antiseptic or too off-white."

The pool - once resembling a murky lagoon - was freshened up with white mosaic tile from Bisazza. The new concrete patio, painted white, replaced an unsightly plain of gray pebbles. Beds of desert plantings, also designed by Foley, are filled with mature ocotillo, cacti, succulents and palm trees, and set in a plush carpet of grass. "I need that deep green to help define all of the white," says Foley. Even the white stone fireplace - "Palm Springs is probably the only place on earth where painting stone is not a sacrilege," - in the living room benefits from a verdant backdrop courtesy of the picture window, previously obstructed by the Children of Corn room, and new French doors.

There's a lot of mid-century kitsch out there - plastic tables from IKEA, garish shades of aqua and chartreuse, harsh fabric patterns. I wanted nothing to do with it," explains Foley, who filled the house with pedigreed classics from Mies van der Rohe, Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier. This tenet extends to his selection of artwork as well. "I'm not a fan of fakes," says Foley. "Just like the furnishings, that painting in the living room is original."

The art throughout the house is spare in quantity and simple in style - a series of 1950s floral prints in the dining room, a single vintage Murano glass vase in the master bath. But one particular piece in the master suite offers a touch of opulence: Foley discovered the antique Japanese silk print of a crouching tiger at a local gallery, the Artful Garden. "I wanted something more exotic and rich for the room," says Foley. He also added clerestory windows to the French doors that open onto the backyard and pool, so that the weekender's dream of spending the day in bed can be an outdoor experience.

The ultimate extravagance, however, might be the sizable plate-glass window in the master bath, original to the house and large enough to offer an unrestricted view of the pool and mountains from the shower. "What can I say?" Foley says with a laugh, when asked about the privacy issues this picture window might present. "You can't be a shy person if you're going to live here."