A taste of desert at Sol to Soul
Pioneertown, California is a surreal place. Built as a film set in the 1940s by Hollywood moviemakers to provide an 1880s themed live-in Old West living, breathing motion-picture set, it was originally designed to provide a place for production companies to enjoy while also using their businesses and homes in movies.
Hundreds of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid and Edgar Buchanan’s Judge Roy Bean. However, that heyday has long past, and the four street town is the only civilisation amongst the miles and miles of dusty mountains that make up the Mojave Desert, and provides necessities for most visitors to stock up on their way hiking to the famous Joshua Tree.
The vast California desert is your only neighbour for miles as you leave the town, and the sparse shrubbery leads you to your new home for the duration of your stay. Located away from the civilisation of the town, Sol to Soul is an exclusive residence situated in the heart of the boulders which are on the route to the legendary Californian desert.
By day, the state of the art designed home is a luxury suntrap, with cowboy tub pool and salt water hot tub which can be enjoyed on the outdoor decking. The barbeque pit allows for communal outdoor cooking both day and evening, and when the sun goes down, cosy up under a blanket or huddle around crackling logs in the fire pit, taking in the local nature of hawks, rabbits, lizards and cawwing birds which scuttle between boulders. At night the desert is pitch black, so you can appreciate this hidden sanctuary at its best, with nothing to separate you from the stars and sounds of nature.
Offering total privacy for four guests, the two double bedrooms offer a cosy base for two couples or singles; large enough to accommodate four for dinner in the bespoke communal kitchen, the adjoining lounge is a sanctuary for reading and playing board games. However, your days will be best spent exploring your surroundings by foot, and hiking in every direction to check out the impressive scenery.
With it’s secluded location- three miles down a dirt road, the remote property is surrounded by cactus, juniper, mesquite, scrub oak, Joshua trees, and dramatic piles of boulders and the result is a modern two bedroom Californian home- ideal for guests keen on escaping into nature and enjoying a few solitary days in the desert.
The interior is perfectly executed with comfortable design touches such as an Opium day bed and Christian Liagre chairs for Holly Hunt, and a Longworth furnished dining area with a teak table by e15 and Voxel chairs by Karim Rashid for Vondom, providing all mod cons in the off the beaten track location.
Along with the floor-to-ceiling windows which ensure you can see for miles, this deceptively expansive home is the ideal base for exploring, and this contemporary utopia makes the most of natural light and privacy. Whilst the simple yet eclectic furnishings see Californian art mingle with vintage Moroccan rugs. Make sure to clear an evening for a Star Tour – the Milky Way which envelopes the the house every evening.
