Most vacation rental design starts inside and works out. You pick the couch, the rug, the kitchen tile, and then you get to the backyard and realize you have a concrete slab and a hose bib and not much of a plan. We did it the other way. The outdoor space at Terra Luz was the first conversation, and everything else followed from it.
Dawn Asher at The Olive Jar asked early on: what do you want people to do here? The answer was clear. We wanted guests who never felt like they had to go anywhere. Wake up, coffee, pool. Cook outside, eat outside, stay outside until the 10pm curfew pushes everyone back in. The design brief for every decision was: does this make it easier to spend the whole day outdoors?
The pool. Frida Kahlo blue, terracotta deck, ring floats ready. The lounge chairs built into the shallow end are just out of frame to the left.
The pool color was not a negotiation
The pool is Frida Kahlo blue. Not "a vibrant blue" or "deep cobalt" or any of the polite color names paint companies use. That specific blue. Named for her specifically, because the palette at La Casa Azul is exactly the kind of saturated, unapologetic color that the rest of the house is trying to earn.
The color shifts through the day. At noon it's electric. By late afternoon it goes warm and a little purple. At night with the pool light on it looks like something from a film set in Havana in 1958. The terracotta deck around it is warm enough that the two colors fight each other in the best way, and the Talavera tile border along the pool edge ties back to the same tile we used on the kitchen backsplash inside.
In-pool loungers are built into the shallow end. Not floats, not inflatables — permanent built-in ledge seating that puts you horizontal in the water with zero effort. In 108-degree heat, this is not a luxury. It's the point of the pool.
Color drenching the exterior: Orange Flambé
The block wall that wraps the backyard was beige. Not bad beige, just nothing beige. And the whole point of the outdoor space was that it should feel like an extension of the interior — the same warmth, the same deliberateness — not a place where the design stopped at the sliding door.
Dawn pushed for a full color drench on the exterior wall. Meaning: not an accent, not a trim detail, the whole surface saturated in one bold color. The idea was that the orange-terracotta family inside the house (tile, pillows, the terracotta deck) would bleed outward. You'd stand in the living room and look through the glass doors and see the exterior wall and feel like you were still inside the same palette.
That color ended up being Orange Flambé, but we didn't land there quickly. We tested five or six swatches directly on the wall and on painted boards at the pool edge, which was the only way to see what we were actually getting. Paint chips lie. A swatch on paper looks like one color in the store and something completely different against concrete block and terracotta tile in 100-degree afternoon sun.
We checked the swatches in three different light conditions: early morning when the sun is coming over the east roof, midday when everything bleaches out, and twilight when the desert light goes golden and shifts every color warmer. Most colors that look rich at noon go muddy at twilight or washed out in morning. Orange Flambé held across all three, which is why it won.
The before-and-after was total. The natural block wall reads like a generic masonry fence, fine but invisible. The Flambé wall reads like something from the courtyard of a Havana guesthouse. The bougainvillea that climbs the far corner pops against it in a way it never did against the original color. The wood slat fence makes more sense next to it. Everything got more coherent as soon as the wall changed.
The wood slat fence was the move that changed everything
The original backyard was open on the far side. You could see into the neighbors' yard. It wasn't bad, exactly, but it made the whole space feel like a yard rather than a room. A yard is somewhere you pass through. A room is somewhere you stay.
We built a horizontal wood slat fence along the back perimeter. Cedar, stained a warm walnut, with the slats spaced just wide enough to let air through but close enough to give full visual privacy from both sides. The transformation was immediate and total. The fence stopped the eye, closed the space, and created a backdrop that the rest of the furniture could read against. The two wire rattan chairs on the far side of the pool — the ones that face nothing but water and the fence — exist because of that fence. Without it they'd float. Against it they anchor.
The fence also holds the string lights. The lights run from the house eave to the top of the fence on both sides, creating a canopy effect over the pool. At night, with the pool light on and the string lights overhead, it's one of the best-looking outdoor spaces I've seen in Indio at any price point.
The wood slat fence. Wire chairs face the pool on the far side. String lights run from the eave to the fence top on both sides.
The patio and outdoor kitchen
The patio runs the full length of the back of the house under the pergola, shaded from overhead, open on the pool side. String lights from the pergola to the fence span the full space. The outdoor sectional is teak with white cushions, dressed with Business and Pleasure pillows in blue, navy, and mixed pattern — the same color palette as the pool and the fence, which was not an accident.
The grill is positioned directly behind the sectional against the terracotta brick wall. The round wood coffee table in front of the sofa and the brass garden stool to one side keep the layout from feeling too formal. It's set up so the person cooking and the people sitting are in the same conversation. Nobody's isolated at the grill while everyone else is poolside.
The patio. Teak sectional, Business and Pleasure pillows, grill built against the brick wall so it doesn't eat up patio space.
The spa and pool heating
The spa is separate from the pool and complimentary with every stay. It heats up in about an hour and seats four. Most guests use it more than they expect to, especially on the spring and fall evenings when the pool feels cold and the desert air drops faster than you think it will.
Pool heating is available November through May at $75/day with a two-day minimum. In summer the sun handles it. Give 24 hours' notice before arrival and it'll be warm when you get there. The pool temperature without heating in summer hovers around 84-86 degrees, which is comfortable for most guests but cooler than the spa.
The in-pool loungers built into the shallow end. The pool is cleaned Monday and Thursday.
A few things that are easy to miss
The blue and white striped umbrella over the in-pool lounger area provides shade without blocking the pool view from the patio. The striped pattern runs through the outdoor space: umbrella, pool towels, some of the pillows. It's not a "look," it's more of a thread. Once you notice it you can't unsee it.
There's a Sonos speaker wired to the patio from the indoor system. The same speaker that plays inside continues outside when you open the glass doors. You don't have to re-pair or switch inputs. It's a small thing that matters when you're moving in and out all day with a group of eight.
Outdoor curfew is 10pm per Indio city ordinance. The neighbors are close enough that a speaker outside at midnight is a problem. Everything wraps at 10, which in practice means the party moves inside, the AC comes on, and the living room gets its turn. Not a bad trade.
The full picture
The outdoor space is what makes Terra Luz work for the groups that book it: friend groups, bachelorette trips, festival weekends, milestone birthdays. A pool alone doesn't make you want to stay outside all day. A pool plus shade plus seating plus a working grill plus a space that feels intentional — that does it. The design decisions are all pointing at the same thing: make it easy to stay.
For the inside of the house, the three bedrooms each have their own story. The Wild Tropics bedroom is the boldest room in the house. The Cali Room is the most flexible. The full amenity breakdown is at what I built at Terra Luz. Book direct at indigopalm.co/terra-luz.
Frequently Asked Questions
What color is the Terra Luz pool and why does it look different in photos than in person?
The pool is painted Frida Kahlo blue, a specific saturated cobalt named for the palette at La Casa Azul. It shifts through the day: electric at noon, warm and slightly purple by late afternoon, cinematic at night with the pool light on. Photos usually catch it at one light condition, so it looks different depending on when the shot was taken. In person the shifts are part of the experience.
Is the spa included or is it an extra fee?
The spa is complimentary with every stay, no add-on fee. It heats up in about an hour and seats four. Pool heating is the separate cost, available November through May at $75 per day with a two-day minimum and 24 hours notice before arrival. In summer the pool holds around 84-86 degrees from sun alone.
What is the outdoor noise curfew and how does it affect the stay?
Indio city ordinance sets outdoor noise curfew at 10pm. That includes the outdoor speaker, which is connected to the same Sonos system as inside. In practice the group moves indoors at 10 and the living room takes over, which is a natural transition rather than an abrupt stop. For Coachella and Stagecoach weekends most guests aren't back at the property until late anyway, so the outdoor window is typically the afternoon before shows.
How many people does the outdoor space comfortably fit?
The patio sectional, pool deck, and in-pool lounger area are designed for groups of six to eight, which is the max occupancy for the house. The grill is positioned so the cook stays in the same conversation as the people sitting rather than off to one side. The wood slat fence along the back perimeter closes the yard into a room, which makes a full group feel gathered rather than spread across open space. See the full outdoor setup and book direct at indigopalm.co/terra-luz.