My House: Designer Jessica Pell’s Desert Retreat Came With Her New Hotel Project

Manola Studio founder Jessica Pell is no stranger to renovations. But purchasing and renovating a run-down desert motor lodge was a first. In 2017, Jessica partnered with friends who ran a hospitality brand and purchased the lodge in Twentynine Palms, California with the plan to turn it and the accompanying back house into Hotel Wren. However, during Covid, ownership consolidated and the project evolved. "I was one of the people on Redfin looking at remote cabins in Colorado and Big Sur," says Jessica. "I realized I had this charming two bedroom, two bath house with incredible bones." She decided to make the 1,900-square-foot house her own personal retreat and sometimes artist’s residence called Wren House, and the lodge, Hotel Wren, will open this fall.