Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/13/26 – For David Rios, creativity has never been confined to one room, one profession, or even one idea.
The Palm Springs designer and real estate professional has spent decades combining an instinct for interiors with a sharp understanding of property, helping clients not only find homes, but imagine what those homes can become.
That eye for design appeared early. As a child, Rios was already rearranging furniture and accessories in his grandmother’s home, experimenting with placement and presentation long before he knew those instincts could become a career.
Today, more than 25 years of experience have given him a distinctive place at the intersection of real estate, renovation, design, and hospitality.
What separates Rios from a more conventional designer is his ability to adjust his approach to the personality of a property. A historic residence may inspire him to respect period details and Art Deco influences, while a vacation property can send him in a completely different direction — playful, glamorous, colorful, and unapologetically Palm Springs.
For Rios, the process begins with listening.
He believes successful design comes from understanding what clients want, then combining their ideas with his own experience to create something that feels personal rather than predictable. Whether working with a buyer, seller, homeowner, or hospitality project, collaboration remains central to his philosophy.
Rios arrived in Palm Springs in 2015 and quickly connected with the city’s distinctive architecture, history, and personality.
The desert offered exactly the kind of creative environment that appealed to him: classic glamour mixed with experimentation, preservation alongside reinvention, and a community that appreciates design as part of its identity.
Palm Springs also gave Rios an opportunity to introduce newer generations of homeowners to the city’s architectural heritage.
Rather than simply updating properties, he has emphasized understanding where they came from, the architects, eras, materials, celebrities, residents, and cultural influences that shaped Palm Springs from its early Hollywood playground years through the height of mid-century modernism.
That history remains an important part of his work.
Rios has described his aesthetic as capable of moving between edgy and elegant, dramatic and timeless. That versatility makes Palm Springs an especially natural fit.
While Rios works across a wide range of styles mid-century, modern architecture holds special appeal.
He is particularly drawn to the way classic desert homes combine different textures and materials — wood, metal, concrete block, glass, stone, and architectural lines — into a unified statement.
For a designer, those houses offer both opportunity and responsibility.
The goal is not simply to make something look newer. It is often about recognizing what made a property special in the first place and finding ways to preserve that character while allowing the home to function for contemporary life.
Ask Rios what he enjoys most about his profession and the answer comes down to variety.
His work can move from demolition and construction to staging, real estate negotiations, design decisions, listings, closings, and new development — sometimes within the same week.
That constant movement seems to suit him.
Creativity, in his world, is not limited to choosing furnishings or colors. It can involve determining how a property should be positioned for sale, how a renovation should unfold, or how an overlooked space can suddenly become the focal point of an entire home.
It is a career built around transformation.
For those hoping to enter real estate or interior design, Rios emphasizes passion first.
A career, he believes, can begin with one specific interest — furniture, architecture, renovation, staging, sales, or another piece of the larger design world — and grow from there.
But enthusiasm alone is not enough.
Real estate demands personality, communication skills, organization, and the ability to handle multiple priorities at once. Design requires imagination and a willingness to take risks.
Rios believes individuality emerges when designers stop being afraid of making bold choices.
Just as importantly, he stresses listening to clients rather than simply imposing a personal aesthetic. The designer’s role is to understand someone else’s vision and then help elevate it.
The work can be stressful, but the reward is unusually personal. A home may become a client’s retreat, investment, retirement plan, vacation property, or place where a family spends decades together.
That gives both real estate and design an emotional dimension beyond the transaction itself.
One of the projects that brought wider attention to Rios was his involvement with the Palm Springs property that became the now-famous Trixie Motel.
The former Coral Sands Inn in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood was purchased by entertainer Trixie Mattel and partner David Silver and transformed into an exuberant boutique hotel.
Rios became involved in the redevelopment process, drawing upon his experience with renovations, interiors, contractors, and property transformations.
The project later became the centerpiece of the television series Trixie Motel, introducing audiences around the country to another colorful chapter in Palm Springs hospitality.
For Rios, projects such as these represent the natural evolution of a career that has never fit neatly into a single category.
Real estate led to design. Design led to renovation. Renovation expanded into hospitality.
And Palm Springs provided the canvas.
Today, David Rios continues to represent something deeply connected to the desert itself: respect for the past combined with a desire to make something new, memorable, and occasionally a little outrageous.
In a city famous for reinvention, that may be the perfect job description.
For more information: DavidRiosDesigns.com
By Valerie Milano, The Hollywood Times
