They Run Hedley & Bennett. Naturally, Their Yucca Valley Airbnb Is Simple But Stylish Too

Floral, polka dot, jalapeño orange—there’s no shortage of color when it comes to the popular aprons and cooking accessories from kitchenware brand Hedley & Bennett. Bright hues and functional details define not only the products, but also the creators behind them. Since founder and CEO Ellen Marie Bennett and her husband Casey Caplowe met in 2012, the two have combined their creative and entrepreneurial spirits both professionally (Casey works as the brand’s chief creative officer) and on other personal passion projects. In their decade together, they’ve sketched, built, and remodeled their home in Los Angeles; designed custom treehouses that function as hybrid workspaces at the brand’s HQ; and, most recently, flipped a 1960s Yucca Valley homestead into a colorful Airbnb.

The two met when Casey, who studied architecture at Brown University (but didn’t pursue it for his career), was about halfway through the three-year process of rebuilding his Echo Park home that had been damaged in a fire. A mutual friend sat them next to each other at a group dinner; they started dating shortly after, and Ellen jumped right into helping Casey bring the house back to life. Since then, collaborative design ventures have punctuated nearly every stage of their relationship. "There hasn’t been a year that Casey and I have been together that we have not done a project of some sort," Ellen says. 

The two leverage their different perspectives and strengths to complement each other. Casey thrives in concepting; he brings the technical details into focus, sketching and building rooms and structures. Meanwhile, Ellen transforms ideas into actions, coordinating with contractors or finding the exact blend of paint colors to get the perfect tone. "A lot of the time it starts with Casey’s concept," she says. "We just kind of finish each other’s sentences on the pieces where we’re not as strong."

The couple’s latest design overhaul started a year into the pandemic. They were seeking out a new side project for Casey to pour into, and after visiting a friend in Joshua Tree, they worked with a real estate agent to scout properties in the area. The agent showed them an off-market ranch house in nearby Yucca Valley that Ellen felt had a lot of potential. They bought it in early 2021 with the intention of turning it into their vacation home; about a two-hour drive from L.A., the pair thought it would be a great place for them to unwind and host friends. But two weeks after closing, Ellen found out she was pregnant. The couple realized that frequent getaways would be challenging with a newborn, so they decided to transform the 750-square-foot desert home into an Airbnb that reflects their personal styles and the surrounding landscape.

It took Ellen and Casey just over a year to renovate the house in weekend bursts, loading up their car with swatches, tile, and any other materials they needed to make the trek to the residence and slowly chip away at their project. "We’d work all day and then we’d come back," Ellen says. "It just became this insane weekend thing that we’d do, but as two entrepreneurs, that’s kind of what you need to stay sane, to be honest."

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Though the duo felt the pressures of pandemic-related supply chain issues during the rebuild—materials like plywood and windows were expensive or unavailable—they say, for the most part, they seemed to somehow dodge the major challenges of buying in the red-hot local market. (An April 2022 New York Times article about Joshua Tree’s "short-term rental gold rush" reported that demand for local vacation rentals surged by 54 percent between 2019 and 2021, largely fueled by investors and transplants who raced to buy property there during the pandemic, specifically for Airbnb and Vrbo.) While Ellen and Casey bought their Yucca Valley property squarely within that time frame, they remember the experience actually feeling fairly simple, especially compared to the buying process for the Pasadena home they moved into this April, where they found themselves competing with a host of other buyers, some of whom made cash offers without contingencies or paid far above asking price to win the sale. 

The couple wanted their Yucca Valley residence to be distinct from the recognizable pared-down boho aesthetic that characterizes many rentals in the area. They were careful, for example, to avoid buying furniture from the same major retailers they spotted in other listings. Instead, they had a few pieces of furniture custom-built—the kitchen table, bench, and cabinets are made from Baltic birch—and incorporated spare vintage pieces from their Echo Park residence to make the space feel like their second home. They relied on the expansive landscape to inform the overall look of the space, opting for muted, earthy hues like sage, pale pink, and sandy brown. The couple organized the home’s indoor/outdoor layout into what they describe as "stations" that guests can rotate through during their stay—there’s a large picnic table on the porch for dinner at sunset and a hammock outside the bedroom. There’s also a spacious outdoor shower. 

While designing in the desert offered a lot of inspiration, it wasn’t without challenges. The climate itself wasn’t a barrier to the renovation, but the couple say that "desert time," or the slower pace of life in the area, was particularly noticeable when scheduling contractors. During the renovation, it was sometimes difficult to get workers to show up on time, which was also a logistical challenge for the couple, as they had to carve out time to make the drive out from the city. In some cases, it even took a while to find the right people for specific jobs. They struggled to find a contractor to overhaul the faulty shower, which wasn’t draining. After trying to work with a series of different people (to no avail), they finally found a former Disney set builder who was able to fix and finish the shower. Like many others in the Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley area, he had relocated to the desert for a change of pace and was taking care of his grandmother’s house there. "It’s a peculiar ragtag crew of creatives and people that want a change of life," Ellen says. "And that’s kind of who helped us finish the house." 

These types of local connections came in handy when working around supply chain issues, too. There were long delays on windows from large suppliers, so Ellen and Casey connected with a nearby desert contractor who could source the glass and aluminum himself to fashion the windows in weeks instead of months. "That felt very Joshua Tree scrappy vibes," Ellen laughs. "You just wouldn’t even think of doing that in L.A."  

Working through their latest design project together taught Ellen and Casey that nothing is as straightforward as it seems—from renovation costs and timelines, even to the idea of what it’s like to own a desert getaway. "The concept of having a place in Joshua Tree was very idyllic," Ellen says. "It’s kind of like your own dreams: They seem really idyllic, but then you get on the road and you start building the dream, and you’re like, ‘Oh damn, this is hard work.’’’ Still, the couple says their hard work made the project feel that much more satisfying to complete.

Soon after they completed the renovation, in December, the couple listed the Yucca Valley property on Airbnb. Within a few days, it booked up through June, so they haven’t even been able to soak in the finished product for themselves, but they hope to slot in a stay sometime in the next couple of months so they can drive back out to their secluded homestead—this time as guests.

Top Image: Casey Caplowe

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