A visit with a Palm Desert Interior Designer

It feels more like someone’s home. On the immediate left is a sleek dining area, its table--used mostly as a drafting board--is now heaped with an unpretentious miscellany; there’s a modest work station just beyond that with phone, notepad and pen--that’s about all; and finally the living space to the right--also doubling as a conference area--where several cozy chairs face a comfy couch over an attractive coffee table. This entire area overlooks the street below, where a quaint little trolley--pulled by two mismatched horses--passes by beneath the window making its way leisurely up Palm Desert’s most impressive boulevard.

This is Louise Neyer’s radiant El Paseo office suite. Just walking through the door makes you feel you’ve been invited into an old chum’s private loft. Upon meeting Louise, she at once makes you feel as if you’ve been her good friend forever. This well-groomed yet unassuming Coachella Valley business woman who specializes in interior design has been operating successfully in the Palm Springs area for over 17 years. Her enterprise, Louise M. Neyer Interiors, deals with all aspects of custom design. What makes Louise’s creations unique from other interior designers’ is that in addition to Neyer’s poetic imagination, she adds a hidden casual comfort to her individualized achievements.

All of Louise Neyer’s home furnishings are created from her original designs, along with custom finishes and fabric. Her furniture is calculated to fit within the space it will require, with each distinct piece sized to agree not only with the room it will occupy and its decor, but with the clients’ needs as well. An inch or so can be added or taken off to custom-fit the primary user of that particular item. “Everyone sits differently,” she says. “If there’s a special sofa that is essentially used by the gentleman of the house, I can adjust the length accordingly. If the lady of the house happens to be on either the short or tall side, I can take off an inch or two or even add some height to her favorite chair, making it a perfect fit.” Visually, no one will be able to notice any difference, but when her clients personally utilize the furniture, the enhanced comfort is sensed immediately. As far as selecting fine art for the home, she will often leave that choice to her client’s liking. Actually, she prefers to use local artists who will visit the client’s home with her; that way they can walk casually through every room discussing the possibilities that will allow the artist to create original works that will coincide pleasantly with Neyer’s unrivaled creations.

“I use a lot of natural fibers,” she says. “Silks and linens, chenille cottons. There are so many fabrics that contain a blend, but that’s only for durability; for that reason nylon is combined with natural fiber.” Louise enjoys working with textures, not necessarily in patterns--she’ll do that as an accent--but she mainly prefers the heavier textures. When it comes to colors she sticks closely to monochromatic themes--with touches and dabs of color to accentuate the accessories and artwork. Neyer also offers her own unique approach to interior space-planning, exterior landscape-design, and special lighting. In the past few years business for her has been on a continual rise. In addition to her private clientele, she is presently involved with several projects for local developers--The Reilly homes at P.G.A. West, and the Montecito Homes.

Louise Neyer’s personal approach is to unobtrusively let her clients lead her toward the image of the home they have always dreamed about. She then combines her own distinctive ideas to create a theme which will complement the clients’ lifestyle. She brought simple elegance into one home by using etched glass and mirrors, with furniture that spoke of soft and comfortable luxury. In another client’s home she included original art along with leather, hand-carved furniture pieces and chiseled glass to accent the home’s Spanish appearance. She enjoys taking full advantage of natural lighting to open up a room.

“My business is my lifestyle,” she likes to say, “and that lifestyle consists of dealing with my clients and their lifestyles on a daily basis. I take great care to assist my customers in achieving their goals.” In helping them to make their homes much more than just a beautiful showplace, Neyer continually tries to make their personal living space functional as well as giving it a homelike feel. Louise has found that in the year 2000 people want to have more than just a showplace, they also want to live in their homes, and by that she means they want to live comfortably. Almost all of her clients have families who visit often and that can usually mean kids roughhousing. Neyer chuckles, “Many of my clients have grandchildren; you know how they can tear a place up.” To forestall any problems, all of Louise’s fashionable home furnishings are designed with durability in mind--as well as their impressive beauty.

She’s originally from Pennsylvania, coming to the Coachella Valley with her parents 27 years ago as a child. A local high school graduate, Louise earned her degree in interior design at our own College of the Desert. “Simply graduating from college didn’t automatically make me into the designer I am today,” she says, “though it helped a great deal. I believe that you either have it, or you don’t.” In the previous statement, she’s talking about the creative element, those little gems she has been blessed with from birth. Just look around her imposing office--not only at the impressive photographs of her many accomplishments, proudly displayed on every wall, but at the office space itself. It shouts creativity! “When I was barely 10-years-old I was already sketching out my own ideas, drawing floorplans for my dream house.” Many of her youthful illustrations included a phone room, “where I would be able to talk to all my girlfriends in complete privacy without my parents listening in.”

In her off time, Louise likes very much to involve herself in the community. She’s an ardent supporter of Shelter From The Storm, a local facility for victims of domestic abuse. She has helped them with their new counseling center and will be involved in the near future when they add their transitional housing. Recently Ms. Neyer was honored by having two homes that employ her elegant interiors chosen to be part of The Parade of Homes, The Arts League of La Quinta Arts Foundation’s Home Tour 2000, that’s the annual fund-raiser wherein people are encouraged to take self-guided tours of several individually selected high-end Coachella Valley dwellings. Louise’s designs were for the exquisite desert retreats owned by Maxwell & Patricia Foust of Rancho La Quinta, and Dr. Mark V. Sofonio, who lives in the Clancy Lane section of Rancho Mirage.

The little Palm Desert trolley and its inharmonious team of horses clip-clops past the window again, now headed in the opposite direction on El Paseo. The phone rings, interrupting. It’s Neyer’s secretary letting her know that her next appointment has arrived, a new client with whom Louise will be discussing an abundance of ideas. From there she will be able to outline a basic theme for the home involved, then be able to put those little creative gems of hers into action, bringing them to life by transforming the pictures in her mind into tangible furnishings and decor--in fact, very comfortable ones at that.