Joshua Tree shack turned into a vintage modern retreat

A vibrant enameled fireplace, purchased unused for $200 at a swap meet, stands in the corner of an outdoor living room. The rattan chairs were purchased at a vintage store on Perez Road in Cathedral City. Says Steigelman of the space: “It looks like a paddlewheel barge that washed up on the rocks.”  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Halterman, pictured here, and Steigelman bought the house as a weekend getaway in 2006. The Midcentury shack had been remodeled in the late 1970s to add a guest bedroom, a kitchen and a screened-in porch that Halterman, a filmmaker and set designer for magazine fashion shoots, has turned into a studio in which he makes Modernist stained-glass lanterns and windows.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Halterman’s stained glass hangs in windows decorated with skateboard wheels. Outside is a vintage patio dining set designed by Danny Ho Fong for Tropi-Cal. The yard gets its share of wildlife, including rabbits. “We’ve had mountain lions sunning on the rocks and a roadrunner in the kitchen,” Halterman says. “It’s like ‘Bambi’ around here.”  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Halterman’s studio work table.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Halterman’s mother, Laverne, owned a custom stained-glass design firm called Glass With Class in the 1970s and ‘80s. “I was looking for a new craft and decided it would be neat if she could pass something down to me, so we made the window together,” he says of the fanciful panel in the master bedroom. “It’s a landscape of alien flowers with big stamen.” On the left: a vintage table lamp manufactured by Martz. On the right: a Robert Maxwell ceramic lamp. “I love the warm handmade feel to them,” he says of his pottery pieces. The bed cover is from Ikea.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Thrift store paintings and desert-themed wood carvings from tropical décor supplier Oceanic Arts introduce humor and a sense of place to the master bathroom.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Steigelman, left, and Halterman sit in the dining nook of their wood-paneled 1970s kitchen. The school library table was found in an alley off La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. The plastic yellow Plia chairs made by Castelli were found at a Yucca Valley yard sale. The Martz light pendant was bought on EBay for $125. On the wall behind Steigelman, a wood carving incorporates multiple portraits of E.T. -- a testament to the pair’s pop-culture-influenced tastes. In the foreground: A bowl by Midcentury ceramist Robert Maxwell sits under a painting of a mountain lion that once hung in Twentynine Palms City Hall.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In the kitchen, vintage furnishings mix with modern electronics. The Midcentury hanging cabinet with a tomato red drop-down desk cost $7 at the Golden West College flea market in Huntington Beach. The copper enamel farmyard scene on the wall was bought for $5. “The way we decorate is finding something at the thrift store,” says Steigelman, who is currently renovating a vintage gas station in Joshua Tree to turn into a cafe. “The more we brought our collections and aesthetic into the house, the more warm and natural it felt.”  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“At first, we thought we would change everything,” Steigelman says. Instead, they the kept wood paneling, tiled floor, kitchen counters and red mini-blinds that came with the house.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The kitchen’s pass-through counter frames a hearth and mantel lined with ceramics. The maple cabinets with iron hardware remind Steigelman of his childhood home in rural Wisconsin.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Between the living room and kitchen, art books and collectibles fill shelves above a pass-through counter. The barstools were bought for $30 apiece at the Angel View thrift shop in Yucca Valley. The green vinyl sofa was a $100 swap meet find. Halterman had the pillows made from vintage fabric at BFR Upholstery in Los Angeles.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The rug is a vintage Scandinavian piece from a swap meet. The glass-topped iron table was $15. “I saw the same one at H.D. Buttercup recently for $700,” Halterman says.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Halterman found the dining table by Midcentury legend Greta Magnusson Grossman and chairs for $100 in San Diego. “My dad was getting his heart valve replaced,” he said. “I was in the waiting room and I was bored and went to a thrift store.” The George Nelson bubble lamp is one of two purchased for $125 at the Golden West College flea market in Huntington Beach. “I only really like the old George Nelson lamps,” Halterman says. “The color of the light is so much better when the shades are used and filthy.”  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“We call this our Midcentury cowboy room,” says Steigelman, in the doorway leading to the outside living room. The wall art is an early 1950s Levi’s poster printed on corrugated board that cost $600 on EBay. Halterman framed it in pine planks that were left over from replacing a drop ceiling in the kitchen. Below the poster: a 1950s slat bench and cactus soft sculpture. The jack doorstop, one of several used throughout the house, was a Golden West College flea market score. Each door in the house is different, and most were purchased from Silverlake Yards in Los Angeles.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In the guest room, Halterman stripped down a chartreuse and white lacquered dresser to give it a more rustic appearance. On the wall to the left, a work of art titled “BowiE.T.” depicts the movie extraterrestrial in David Bowie‘s theatrical face paint.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Two of Halterman’s stained-glass redwood lanterns hang in a tree. In the distance: a handmade daybed. “We spend a lot of evenings out here, just watching the stars,” Steigelman says.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A close-up of the rustic daybed that Halterman built and upholstered with fabric found at a yard sale.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Steigelman cools off in the pool, a converted corrugated-steel water tank surrounded with multilevel decks.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A rustic getaway from Halterman and Steigelman’s weekday home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Even a storage shed gets a touch of decorating: a vintage metal shell lounge chair and a matching turquoise barbecue grill.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

At the back of the shed, Halterman (shown in silhouette in the window) has arranged scrap metal into an abstract geometric composition.

More profiles: California homes in pictures”
L.A. at Home: Our blog covering the California scene  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)