When a young couple saw this 3,000-square-foot home on a hillside in the Mission Canyon area of Santa Barbara, California, it had almost everything they wanted. It offered year-round sunshine in a peaceful rural setting, spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, abundant space for them and their two wirehaired pointing Griffon dogs, and a perfect indoor-outdoor feel. The only problem? The interiors didn’t match the couple’s style. 

“It was a nice house before the renovation, but it lacked functionality and warmth in many of the spaces,” says the wife. Indeed, the two-level home, built in 2011, had great flow and a spacious, airy feeling. In addition to open-concept space, the property had floor-to-ceiling windows and doors that fully opened. What the couple needed was a designer to overhaul the interiors. 

Enter Corinne Mathern, a California-based interior designer known for creating serene, elegant environments inspired by the natural world. “We feel so lucky to have been introduced to her by our architect, and from the start, we had a very natural rapport,” says the wife. “After discussing the design direction we hoped to go in, Corinne used the term ‘organic modernism’ as the aesthetic. We felt like, ‘Yes, you get us!’ and that’s what drove the project.”

Mathern used various raw materials to soften the architecture’s sleek lines and add a welcoming feel throughout the house. On the ground floor, white oak warms the ceilings of the great room, a free-flowing space composed of the kitchen, bar, and dining and living room areas. The wood also accents many of the furnishings, including the chairs and dining area table topped with obsidian quartzite. White oak stools tuck under the quartzite island in the kitchen area, which has two-toned walnut cabinetry. Walnut also graces the cupboards of the nearby bar, appointed with a sea pearl quartzite countertop and charcoal plaster backsplash.

“I’m not afraid of mixing woods and bringing in a lot of natural elements,” says Mathern, who used creamy, natural plaster to surround the living area fireplace set with a chunky stone hearth chiseled from an 800-pound block of Indian Buff limestone. “The natural plaster and stone hearth give the space a calm, earthy feeling, and we brought those same natural elements into the downstairs guest bath.” The bathroom sink was chiseled from the same Indian Buff limestone as the hearth and has a white oak apron. An oak mirror hangs above the sink area, tying the two elements together.

A huge priority for the couple was remodeling the primary bedroom and bath, a fully detached space above the garage about twenty yards from the main house. “The wife really wanted the space to feel like an elegant hotel, where they could lay their heads and feel calm,” says Mathern. “The couple has traveled extensively, and a big source of inspiration for the home and their bedroom was the Aman Kyoto in Japan.”

White oak flooring and a custom white oak wall behind the couple’s bed give the room an earthy warmth. A wheat-colored area rug softens and grounds the room, while natural linen drapery offers privacy. Other than two oak bedside tables, the room is soothingly minimalist.

White oak millwork also adds an organic glow to the primary bath, separated from the bedroom with pocket doors. Next to a large window that ushers in views of nature and copious light sits a luxurious soaking tub. Large-format floor tiles in a warm gray anchor the space.

An expansive deck off the suite lets the couple savor morning coffee or twilight drinks al fresco. In a nod to the concept of staying in a hotel, Mathern furnished the guest suite next to the couple’s quarters with a full bar, refrigerator, and coffee maker. 

To enhance the home’s natural flow, Mathern used the same floor tiles in the primary bath as the ground floor’s surface. The tiles even extend outside to a covered patio area and around the lap pool, creating a seamless link between the inside and out. Shrubs, flowering plants, and grasses add color and soften the architecture’s clean edges. A chunky stone firepit in a gravel “garden” offers a secluded place to contemplate the views and hang out with friends. 

Given the couple’s love of entertaining, Mathern created a media room on the ground floor to the left of the entry. The husband, who retired from the Dallas Cowboys in 2021 after an eleven-year career, now has a place for movie nights and game days. A ten-foot pocket door gives the space a cave-like feel, further enhanced by forest-green walls and a pine-colored linen sofa. “Green was really the only color we worked with, except for some blues,” says the designer. Most of the home’s colors come from natural materials, like wood, stone, clay, and plaster. 

“It’s so wonderful to finally feel the home’s full realization with comfortable spaces that fully function,” says the wife. “To be able to cook in our kitchen with our doors wide open to the views of the Pacific Ocean is such a privilege that we don’t take for granted. We are particularly pleased with the primary bedroom suite, which feels just as luxurious as a hotel, but homey, cozy, and completely ours, in a way that a hotel never can.”

For more information visit corinnemathern.com

Located 30 miles north and west of the Golden Gate Bridge, Stinson Beach hugs the Pacific Ocean and sits in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, which rises dramatically in the background. Here, the heartbeat of the Seadrift community is outdoor recreation—swimming and sailing in the lagoon, surfing and fishing in the ocean, bicycling and hiking through the hills. Houses, modest in size and eclectic in style, sit on narrow lots with close property lines that impede complete privacy but foster a neighborly bonhomie. Seasonal renters, enchanted by the cadence of the neighborhood, turn into people determined to own a home in the coveted development of Seadrift.

One such family, a couple from Palo Alto with two teenagers, approached architect Cass Calder Smith to design a weekend house on one of the rare empty lots facing the lagoon along its shore. They would use it as a family gathering place for casual living, entertaining, and connecting with nature.

“This area within West Marin is the more bohemian, agricultural, and coastal part of Marin County,” says Smith, who collaborated with project architect Björn Steudte on the 2,100-square-foot house built in a “casual contemporary” style, as the architect puts it. “[Seadrift] is mostly weekenders, and the scene isn’t fancy,” he says. “Most people have dogs, boards, and boats.” Everyone has sand and sea air.

To accommodate this easygoing lifestyle, the shape of the house—two volumes straddling a three-sided courtyard—and the location of spaces maximize indoor-outdoor connections. To the north, the rooms are oriented toward the water and the mountain beyond. To the south of the main living area, the courtyard serves as an outdoor room, with views to the west and back through the house. 

In terms of an entry sequence, Smith explains that the size of the house precludes a formal entryway. “[With houses of this size], there is not enough room for a dedicated foyer or a coat closet, which you don’t need here anyway, because it’s very casual living. But we do like the idea of a transition from the outside world to the domestic one, so there is a breezeway into the courtyard, and from there you go directly into the house.”

The house’s exterior of horizontal Accoya wood siding painted white references traditional white beach houses. Contrasting black anodized aluminum windows evoke a distinctly modern appearance, while a multileveled flat roof establishes a sense of midcentury modernism with calm, clean lines and simple sculpted forms. 

Straight ahead across the courtyard, one in a series of large sliding glass doors leads into an open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living room, all of which face the lagoon through another set of large glass sliders, as does the primary bedroom, also located in this north-facing volume. The second volume of the house, not as tall and more private, comprises a guest bedroom and a bunk room for the kids, which can sleep seven, and a sofa-centric family room for watching TV, playing games, and overflow sleepovers. 

The spare, modern interiors are primarily a combination of painted sheetrock walls, concrete floors with radiant heat, and wood. “With the concrete floors, a lot of glass, light colors, and aluminum-framed doors and windows,” notes Smith, “we’re always on the lookout for where we can put wood to warm up the feeling—cabinets, ceilings, furniture.” This house has instances of all three and a sculptural piece of walnut at the hearth. An attention to detail is very apparent, and hence the overall impression is Scandinavian.

In addition to the windows, long skylights along the living room and kitchen walls bring in light, and, depending on the time of day, render unique geometric shadows as the light filters through the wood ceiling. A contemporary Henrybuilt kitchen system features handcrafted cabinetry consistent with the uninterrupted flow of interior spaces; stools tuck out of the way beneath a Caesarstone island countertop. Smith custom-designed the living room seating to fit the space and make the most of the views. He favors rectilinear forms for the homes he designs, and here the gas fireplace echoes that shape. Modulated ceiling heights are based on the hierarchy of spaces, with the highest for maximum spaciousness in the waterside living areas and primary bedroom.

Everyday life for this household, like for most in Seadrift, revolves around the outdoors, near or on the water. Once you pass through the main living spaces of the essentially see-through house, the upper deck seamlessly connects to the inside and terraces down to the lagoon deck, creating two seating areas to enjoy. The lower deck and floating dock mainly serve the launching of boats and boards and have a fire pit and Jacuzzi to further celebrate being near the water. 

“It’s a bit like an East Coast lake house because the lagoon is warm enough to swim in,” says Smith. But here on the West Coast, he continues, “People open their houses up all the way; the weather is frequently nice enough to do that.” 

For more information, visit casscaldersmith.com

An out-of-date, 1950s Laguna Beach home has been recast from a less-than-stylish, imposing structure into a graceful, Cape Cod–like residence.

It took a dedicated team of architects, interior designers, and landscape architects to make that happen for their Arizona-based clients, a family of five in search of a summertime retreat.

Architect Chris Light, principal in the Newport Beach firm that bears his name, led the charge. “They were looking to purchase this property on the ocean, and I toured it with them and their real estate agent,” he says. “We talked a lot about its potential.”

Light was familiar with the complex Laguna Beach zoning restrictions imposed by both the city and the California Coastal Commission. “I explained what they could and couldn’t do, and they talked about what they wanted to do and see,” he says. “It seemed like a good match, and I started working on floor plans and elevations.”

The original, 4,000-square-foot house boasted good bones and a traditional form, all on a 5,500-square-foot lot. The architect took it down to footprint and walls, then rebuilt atop its rock-solid foundation. “The lower part is bedrock, which is unusual to find these days,” says landscape architect Mike Dilley at MDZA Landscape Architecture in Laguna Beach. “It sits on rock and not on sand.”

The three-level home rises from beach to courtyard and then to upper levels. “You park and enter the courtyard, and then you’re into the main floor of the house on the ground level,” he says. “Then you’re just a few steps down to the beach, and that’s the most engaging part—the interface with the water.”

Dilley’s been practicing landscape architecture on high-end residential homes for more than 30 years now. He specializes in exteriors, infrastructure, lighting, planting, and designs for fireplaces, barbecues, and outdoor dining areas. But he’s also got an eye for a lasting material palette. “We used bluestones for paving, and the planters were made in Detroit with galvanized ironwork,” he says. “It’s very classic, and much more of a timeless house because of that.”

Timeless is the keyword for this project, from both architect Light and interior designers from Laguna Beach-based Fullen Enany Design. Founded 20 years ago, that firm works mostly on custom homes in Dana Point, Corona del Mar, and Newport Beach. For this project they tapped into the talents of a trio of interior designers, including founder and owner Michael Fullen, owner and interior designer Omar Enany, and interior designer Kelsey Bigelow.

The three were tasked with creating a conservative home on the often uber-modern California coast, and establishing the tone of the new house with harmonious intent. “They gave us architectural plans, and we had a couple of interviews,” Enany says. “They said they wanted a more traditional interior because it’s traditional on the exterior.”

It may be a three-story affair, but atop the home’s roof deck sits an office and bath. Below is the second floor with master, laundry, and three bedrooms, and the ground level offers kitchen, dining area, family room, and patio.

Aligning it all to the human scale was a paramount goal—especially on the lower level. Rooms are comfortably sized, with openly proportioned seating. “We maximized the space—there are different seating groups to accommodate everybody,” Bigelow says. 

The color palette is fairly neutral, with beige and off-white tones, white oak floors, and white marble. “It’s clean and minimalistic,” she says. 

Interestingly, their clients chose not to fill their walls with works of art. “They thought the ocean was enough,” Fullen says.

Light’s major architectural challenge was to open up the narrow spaces inside so that the family’s living experience didn’t feel tunnel-like. “The biggest thing I do is scale spaces together so there’s not a giant living area and small bedrooms,” he says. “I try to proportion it so overall it’s a big house, but the rooms all feel related to each other.”

He opened up walls and reconfigured the interiors with a two-story stairwell and the entry on one side. “We pulled the walls down so it feels like you’re circulating into a great room,” he says. “We opened up the kitchen, dining room, and living room instead of leaving them all separate, like they were.”

By adopting the Cape Cod style outside, Light broke up the middle portion of the entire compound with a different slope of roof, also articulated for a more human scale. “It looks now like it’s been there forever—and has been nicely taken care of all that time,” he says. “We didn’t make it look like it flew down from space and landed there, or even like it’s a redo or a remodel.” 

Instead, it looks timeless on its oceanfront site. And that, Light says, is the goal of all his architecture. 

Learn more about the project team

Architect: C. J. Light Associates
Interior design: Fullen Enany Design
Landscape architecture: MDZA

When architect Grant Kirkpatrick met his new clients, a young married couple, his ears perked up at their unconventional approach: There were no demands, no preset notions. They were ready to hear any and all ideas. 

Their only wish for their new oceanfront home was that it offer easy movement between indoors and its nature-oriented setting, on The Strand in Manhattan Beach, a quintessential stretch of lovely Southern California coastline. The couple knew that freedom and space to play—inside the home and beachside—would be ideal for their children. 

“For the most part, they had no agenda,” recalls Kirkpatrick, the founding partner of KAA Design Group in Los Angeles. He and his staff were delighted with the world of possibilities set before them. 

The goal of establishing an easy transition between the house and outdoors was perfectly in sync with KAA’s philosophy of placing as much importance on a property’s setting as on the house itself. “Our work always starts with the architecture and the landscape architecture. It’s all about the indoor and outdoor environment and taking advantage of the beautiful setting,” Kirkpatrick says. “It’s interwoven.”

Today the airy three-story, five-bedroom home is warm, comforting, and elegant all at once. Louvered shutters both inside and out give an expansive feel. Other large features—such as the outdoor room that tops the home and offers a stairway to the pool—make the spaces even more accessible. Below the middle floor, where visitors enter the home, is a playroom with a pool table and bar. 

Many layers of materials give the home interest and a dash of sophistication. “Chiseled stone forms the walls for the home, indoors and outdoors,” Kirkpatrick says. “We used the warmth of the stone to provoke the notion of indoor-outdoor living. The stone is interrupted only by doors or beautiful millwork.” Interior décor, by Lynn Pépe of Pépe Studio, Inc. in Manhattan Beach, embraces the tones and textures of the rugged yet refined architecture. 

Custom-built cedar louvered screens by Louvertec, are an easy-on-the-eyes way to control the effects of weather and address privacy concerns. The louvers work in a “lift and slide” system, which seals tightly. As Kirkpatrick says, “You want the views and breeze, but need some privacy and sun control.” Limestone floors are refined, sturdy, and easy to clean.

In close collaboration with KAA Landscape Architect Michael McGowan, Kirkpatrick and his staff created the symbolic and physical center of the home: a private courtyard, which replaces a traditional front yard. All the rooms revolve round the courtyard, a beauty with a gentle tropical feel and shade-loving plants such as bamboo and philodendron. The courtyard brings in light and provides a sheltered outdoorsy space where the couple’s three small children can play. It also offers a pleasing view through its interior and toward the entry gate and a linear garden. 

Nearby is a swimming pool with a hydraulic lift that can lower a stone roof over the pool when more standing space is needed. Within view of the pool is the top-floor outdoor room, located off the primary bedroom suite. Covered with Alaskan yellow-cedar stain for a light driftwood effect, the space gives the parents a view toward both the pool and the ocean.   

At its heart, the house is very family-centric, Kirkpatrick says: “The clients were very interested in exploring ways for young families to live. Everything is about ease and flow.” 

For more information visit kaadesigngroup.com

It’s one of Southern California’s most coveted beachfront enclaves and Dana Point’s most exclusive gated community. The Strand at Headlands is prime real estate, situated in the Monarch Beach area halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles. Developed on land that was privately owned by one family since the 1920s, the transformed 121-acre parcel now boasts custom homes, a beach club, walking trails, and one mile of pristine coastline.  

When interior designer Megan Dufresne’s clients purchased a waterfront lot in The Strand, they envisioned a generational home for themselves and their three college-age children. The resulting 7,000-square-foot, three-story home, designed by architect Geoff Sumich and built by RJ Schwinn Associates, was finished in 2015. Leaving the traditional tone of their previous residence behind, the couple eagerly embraced Sumich’s modern sensibility. 

After living in the new home for a few years, they hired Dufresne to help finish the home in 2021. “The modernity was a departure for them, so we had to phase out some of their traditional pieces and introduce more contemporary elements,” explains the designer.

“Since the structure is super modern, with living spaces spread across multiple levels, the interior felt a little cold, and there was a lot of blue in the existing furnishings,” continues Dufresne. “My goal was to strengthen the palette by introducing warmer tones: browns, greens, and mustard. My clients knew they loved color; they just didn’t fully know how to execute it,” she adds.

The main floor is anchored by a cool, contemporary kitchen, with a bank of white oak cabinets finished in a striking black stain. Leathered quartzite on the perimeter counters and backsplash mimics the black wood’s look, maintaining a crisp, cohesive presentation. “The cabinets are encased in a waterfalling frame of untreated white oak to lighten the effect and keep the mass from feeling overly heavy,” says Dufresne, adding that the bank’s opposite side doubles as a butler’s pantry. 

Dufresne left the adjacent dining area simple, partnering upholstered Restoration Hardware chairs with a reclaimed oak table. In the family room, which is open to the kitchen, a painting by contemporary artist Andrea Welton inspired the overall blue-and-green color scheme. “This room is all about kids and pets,” notes the designer, who covered the custom sectional and swivel chairs from CB2 in performance fabrics. A hefty Restoration Hardware coffee table matches the sectional’s oversized scale. 

Since her clients love to entertain, the main living area includes a bar, enclosed on one side by a three-quarter-height wall that challenged Dufresne to get creative with wall décor. She explains: “We scattered petrified wood mirrors by Palecek throughout the space. The idea was that guests could be facing the wall with the ocean behind them but still see the water’s reflection.” A built-in cabinet keeps glassware and accessories neatly organized and out of sight. 

This bar destination opens to the formal living room, where the low profile of the Restoration Hardware sofa and chairs helps maintain sightlines towards the view. “This part of the house faces west and receives constant sun,” says Dufresne. In response, she chose a Holly Hunt swirl area rug executed in Sunbrella yarns and had most furnishings reupholstered with fade-resistant indoor-outdoor fabrics. 

A preferred hangout spot for the kids and their friends is the theater room on the lowest level. Working with an existing white leather sofa, which reclines, Dufresne created a refined seating area with green velvet ottomans, a comfy armchair, and upholstered coffee table. “We wanted to avoid that typical look of recliners, recliners, recliners,” says the designer with a smile. An ivory Flokati rug adds decadent texture. 

Behind the main screening area is a kitchenette hidden behind barn doors. Dufresne’s woodworker, Orin Shochat, crafted the doors as well as the front entry’s sideboard out of bleached walnut. Also in the front entry, a live-edge console table—“essentially a half-moon slab of wood,” notes the designer—introduces a rustic California vibe.

Sculptural furnishings continue in the powder room, where the pedestal sink is no less than a basin of formed marble. Limestone tile lines the walls. “We partnered a few materials in this small space, but it still reads as modern and clean,” says the designer. 

Dufresne, who founded her firm in 2007, is currently hard at work launching a showroom in Rancho Mirage. When she’s not traveling to destination projects across the country, she typically works in the beach cities of Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, and Manhattan Beach, among others.  

A SoCal native who grew up visiting job sites and drafting blueprints with her contractor father, Dufresne was perfectly positioned to elevate the aesthetics of this modern masterpiece. She deftly maintained its spareness and restraint without sacrificing warmth, color, or comfort. 

For more information, visit geoffsumichdesign.com; mcdesignshop.com

A neglected 1970s beach house in Malibu now has a sleek new look, thanks to the collaborative efforts of interior designer Madeline Stuart and architect Paul Williger.

“It was a hot mess,” Stuart says. “Our assignment was to use our instincts and take a funky, beaten-down house and create something marvelous.”

The trick was to hang onto the midcentury magic, and get rid of the superfluous. “The architecture drove the design,” she says. “It was an opportunity to explore and respect the 1970s-era quality of the house—to honor the best parts and cast aside the funky parts.”

Los Angeles–based Stuart has been in business more than 30 years, working on interiors and ground-up projects. She creates a one-of-a-kind vocabulary for each. “For me, it’s fun to work in all these different styles, whether Art Moderne, Spanish Revival, or Usonian,” she says.

Here, the client was retired and had moved from Brentwood to Malibu for his main home. “Once you move out there, you don’t go back into town,” she says. “You put up with the highway and the traffic and the weather—he’s up for the challenge and loves it on the ocean in his outpost.”

Stuart brought Williger on to help with architectural details—he worked on the stairs and windows, while she took care of the millwork, furnishings, and fixtures. They took the interior of the 3,500-square-foot home down to its studs, added more glass in the living room, and captured more of the sky to enhance the view.  

“There are new stairs when you walk in, with open risers,” Williger says. That means the primary view today looks straight through the risers to the ocean. 

Decking runs along 80 feet of the home’s beach frontage, with shades to screen views to adjacent property. “Everything is cheek-by-jowl,” Stuart says. “You have to get to know your neighbors, because you’re going to be up close and personal with them every day.”

The house is 3,500 square feet on two stories, with three bedrooms, three baths, and a powder room. “It’s one level down to the beach and one up to the primary bedroom,” Williger says. “There are two secondary bedrooms—one is accessible from inside and the other has a separate exterior entrance also.”

The first-floor entry opens to the kitchen, living room, and dining area. The ceiling in the living room is high, so Stuart added vintage Danish light fixtures to bring the room down to human scale. Modern sofas ground the space, and other pieces are light on their feet. 

She eschewed drywall for the most part, using textures and woodwork instead. “I love all the textures—the cork and woven matting and fabrics especially,” Stuart says. 

They tore out a wall that divided kitchen and living room, including a fireplace and enormous flue that ran up to the ceiling. “No one cried bitter tears when we took that down,” she says. “We kept the ’70s vibe without being ironic about it.”

They retained the existing beams in the living room, but added new wood there and in the kitchen. “We got a greater range of wood tones,” Williger says. “The whole kitchen is in walnut, with lighter oak floors that are more interesting and add a visual variety.”

The client’s office is next to the living room, and because he spends a lot of his time there, Stuart and Williger were careful to create a warm, enveloping space with walls, cabinetry, objects, and books. “We wood-paneled the office, with vertical slat patterns in walnut,” he says. 

The designers understood that although this home is on the ocean, it’s not a weekend house, but the client’s main home, for his family and grandkids. “Still, it’s a beach house,” Stuart says. “But it had to be fabulous and bulletproof.”

Besides, this is Malibu. “The minute I come through Lincoln Tunnel and I’m on the highway, my pulse quickens,” she says. “The light is different, the colors are more vibrant, and there’s something about the proximity to the ocean that’s life-affirming.”

Then there’s the vista from the home’s deck. “You get a view up the coast all the way up Malibu to Point Dune as it curves out into the ocean,” Williger says. “And that’s where you get the sunset.”

Sure, Brentwood has its charms—but none to match that one.  

For more information visit willigerarchitect.com; madelinestuart.com

Anthony Grumbine, senior principal architect at Harrison Design, likens the process of remodeling a 1960s pseudo-Mediterranean style house in Santa Barbara to pulling a thread on a sweater and watching the whole thing unravel. “As we opened up the house layer by layer, we found that it was in a lot worse shape than we originally thought, and the project mushroomed,” he says. “There was really nothing that we felt warranted saving.”

The poor condition of the house—antiquated infrastructure, outmoded aesthetics, and ill-advised upgrades—were actually a blessing in disguise. “Because it was in such bad shape, we were able to do the beautiful things we wanted to do,” Grumbine shares. “Officially, it was a remodel, but in the end, it was the equivalent of rebuilding the whole house,” which was taken down to the studs and rebuilt with all new doors, windows, roof tiles, eaves, and cornices, among myriad other elements large and small. 

Located in Montecito, just north of downtown Santa Barbara, the house had one critical saving grace: the view. Nowhere else in the area offers such a wide-ranging perspective of the entire cityscape and beyond, with unsurpassed views of downtown Santa Barbara, the Pacific Ocean, and the Channel Islands. This house is unique in that it also has views of the Santa Ynez Mountains. “Not many properties have both, especially not so close to the ocean,” explains Grumbine. Previously, the best views were blocked by walls and oddly placed small windows.

Keeping the overall outline of the building, Grumbine and his team, with William Hull as project architect and builder Giffin & Crane, began by stripping everything down, knocking out walls, and changing openings. “Stylistically, we wanted it to be classic Santa Barbara but also wanted it to be timeless and have the house respond to the location,” says Grumbine. “The Spanish Colonial dial can be adjusted up or down as far as level of detail and ornamentation.” In this case, the owners asked the architect for “elegant simplicity,” so the frills were kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, judicious details—columns, pilasters, wrought-iron handrails, and plaster moldings—imbue the house with a Spanish Colonial presence, however subtle, starting with the arrival sequence. 

Once you pass from the auto court and through an opening in an outdoor accent wall, an entryway featuring a patio and fountain—both octagonal in shape—greets you and ushers you into the main foyer, where a skylit custom iron stair leads to the master suite, which occupies the entire second floor. The rest of the house is on one level. While the rooms here are quite large, “it’s not an open plan where people are in each other’s space,” explains Grumbine. “Each room—living room, dining room, and kitchen—has its own parameters, but they’re strongly connected so you can flow through them nicely.” 

The architect’s favorite room, connected to the living room by a five-foot-long hallway, is what he calls the “man cave that’s not so cave-like,” a high-ceilinged entertainment room, outfitted with an antique pool table and a bar, and with the biggest glass opening in the house. 

Collaborating with interior designer Shannon Scott of Shannon Scott Design, Grumbine says the house is “meant to be very livable, relaxed, and beautiful.” In the living room, an awkward black tray ceiling was replaced by a more symmetrical ceiling vaulted in both directions and detailed with nonstructural distressed beams. The fireplace in this room, one of several in the home—each one different and custom designed for its respective setting—is plaster with classical moldings. “The furniture and the finishes become the interior, which is calm and uses simple materials,” notes Grumbine.

Off the living room in one direction is a reading nook with a leaded window crafted by a local artisan, and in another direction, a trio of stately arched doors leads to the main terrace. Situated next to the reading nook, the dining room looks out to the fountain. 

The combination of wide-plank wood floors, white walls and black steel windows and doors is carried throughout the house and, in the big, central kitchen, this motif is complemented by pops of bright blue that nod to the custom Lacanche range in that color. A generous marble-topped island with custom built-ins sits below a decorative beam, a beefy horizontal piece of wood whose shape and reclaimed texture are echoed by a trellis just outside. Visible from the kitchen, whose windows stretch down to meet the countertop, this shaded dining area with columns and aged limestone pavers entices people to go outdoors. Similarly, an open-air fire pit off the main terrace beckons you to step out through the living room’s arched doors. 

“We asked ourselves how we could maximize views and outdoor living,” says Grumbine. “This house is a great example of the particular Santa Barbara Spanish classical language in which indoor-outdoor living isn’t about having a blurred line between the two. Instead, it’s about big views and the things and spaces that draw you out visually. It’s all about baiting people outside with beautiful things.” 

For more information, visit harrisondesign.com; shannonscottdesign.com

As the age-old saying goes: “A mother always knows best.” In the case of Los Angeles resident Jonathan Nutter and his recent home purchase, this proved to be true. The Oahu, Hawaii, native had no intention of buying his first single-family home overlooking a lagoon in the nearby quiet beach community of Playa del Rey, situated approximately 15 minutes from Los Angeles International Airport. That is, until fate intervened and his realtor led him to an unexpected house, followed by a chance online search conducted by his mother for design help.

“I was looking for about two years for a place with a balcony and some place that was dog-friendly and had a backyard,” says Nutter, who owned a condominium nearby at the time. “I wasn’t looking here [I was looking on the bluff above], but the views at this house were amazing with Catalina Island on one side and Malibu on the other side. It definitely felt very dark, closed off, and claustrophobic with low, popcorn ceilings, and it just had very weird construction. I was trying to figure out how to open it all up [and stay within my budget], especially the living room. I had my parents over, and my mom said, ‘Let’s get an architect.’”

After diligently researching, they chose May Sung, founder of SUBU Design Architecture in Pacific Palisades, whom his mother found online. “When you first walked in, you couldn’t even tell it was a beach house,” explains Sung, who also worked with general contractor Gregorio Patino of Build Right LA. “It had this heavy roof, and there was no relationship to the outside. All of the spaces were chopped up. In the backyard, there was a filled-in sunken hot tub with a hut over it, and during demo, we discovered standing water beneath. It was on a slope, so the actual living room was lower than the backyard, so you had to go up four steps to get to the backyard. So we leveled the whole thing so we’d have the indoor-outdoor flow. There was a sunken tub in the primary bathroom, and the whole thing had shag carpet.” 

Nutter, a tech professional who lived in the home’s approximately 500-square-foot basement during construction (an area that was remodeled along with the outdoor space first, followed by the two top floors), had a few initial requirements on his wish list. “I really wanted to build a house for entertaining,” says Nutter, who frequently hosts gatherings for neighbors and friends. “I wanted a more modern meets farmhouse feel, but I wanted her to tone down a few of my preferences, and I think modern is a little sterile. I wanted the house to feel lived-in and bright, and the whole thing to be indoor-outdoor.”

They also knew they had a kismet client-designer connection when they shared a passion for a few key items: the black-stone countertop (a leathered Quartzite Portoro from Tri-Stone & Tile) for the center kitchen island; a striking primary bath with a bathtub by Signature Hardware and custom barn door wall with Emtek hardware; and a pair of French midcentury chairs Sung found at a Los Angeles antiques store, Lucca. “Those were the first pieces of furniture he bought before the project even started,” recalls Sung of the three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath residence with three outdoor areas for lounging. “The chairs were there as a placeholder for the longest time. They inspired a lot of the details from the leather and steel throughout, and it all creates a dialogue.”  

To maximize the ocean view, create privacy, and align the indoors with the outdoors and nearby beach setting, Sung selected long-lasting materials such as performance fabrics and scratch-proof surfaces for Nutter’s rescue dog, Koda, that he adopted two weeks before the project was finished. “He wanted something that could grow with him, because this is also where he was looking at maybe later starting a family,” explains Sung. “One of the things we talked about was giving it that loft feeling, but then still feel like you’re connected to the coast with natural materials and a natural palette.”

For the dark and enclosed area between the stairs and the living room, they needed to create additional natural light. “Because of the proportion, one idea was to build Japanese tansu furniture [a type of traditional mobile storage cabinets],” says Sung. “So we ended up making a whole bookcase display in front of the stairs so you could still see movement and bring in more natural light.”

In the living room, Sung outfitted the space with pre-finished white oak plank flooring also used as paneling on the wall as a cost-saving solution; a burnt red Sargent sofa by Stahl+Band in a performance velvet Pescia in Spic by Opuzen; and a deep sand-and-white Stripe Break rug by Sarah Sherman Samuel from Lulu and Georgia. “I love the palette that he let me experiment with,” explains Sung. “He was very open to creating something cool. Even the backsplash mosaic in the kitchen [Ann Sacks’ Selvaggio Mosaics] and how we changed the material from the perimeter to the center island, he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ When we found it, that was it. And, when I brought him the burnt red sofa, he said, ‘That’s not really me, but you know, that’s something my mom would do,’ so we said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ It turned out really well. I felt like everything was so neutral, and we needed a pop.” 

All moved in, Nutter has a deep-rooted appreciation for the redesign process and the result. “I have a lot of neighbors come up to me and say things like, ‘We saw the house for sale, and I don’t know how you did this, but it’s amazing,’” adds Nutter. “The view was what I bought it for, and May helped me figure out the rest. I’m very lucky and I consider her a friend. We bonded. My mom loves the final design too. May’s probably not going to like this, but I want to get a pool table-dining table conversion. It’s the ultimate bachelor pad—built for both living and entertaining.” 

For more information, visit subuda.com

Creativity is a wellspring that frequently bubbles up where it is least expected. When Hillary Stamm was working in production at Sony Pictures—and wrote a how-to book about her experience there—little did she imagine the skills she honed in movie production would translate to residential interior design.

As it turned out, it was a natural fit. “At Sony, I was surrounded by beautiful places and beautiful people. I took that love of creative set design and aesthetics and applied it to my design,” says Stamm, the principal of HMS Interiors in Manhattan Beach, California. Working with homeowners along the West Coast, Stamm and her crew specialize in beach houses that use space wisely and pack a dreamy mix of high-end coastal design laced with a light beach vibe.

Stamm’s recent project in Hermosa Beach, perched over the Pacific Ocean, projects a breezy, stylish ease. “We wanted to build it as a beach house but with more of a modern sense, fresh-forward and different,” she says. The three-story house was a collaboration with the builder RJ Smith Construction in Manhattan Beach and architect David Watson, also in Manhattan Beach. 

The home’s kitchen and five bathrooms are especially polished departures from more traditional beach houses. Thanks to intriguing lighting, a variety of materials, custom cabinetry, and Stamm’s bold use of tiles, each of the rooms is a spectacular design statement but still highly functional.

“We set out to make the kitchen the anchor of the house,” Stamm says. The room’s eye-catching visage begins with an elegant mix of shapes and colors in bold black and gray hues. A slab of Calacatta marble—its creamy base offset by sweeping veins of gray and brown—tops the island. Throughout the space are black-framed custom windows and black cabinetry, custom built by VSI in Los Angeles and covered with Farrow & Ball paint. Strategic lighting beams from artisanal pendant fixtures from L’Aviva Home in New York City, casting a glow off the marble at twilight. The stovetop hood, over the Thermador range, is covered in eco-friendly Portola Roman Clay paint.

Another eye-catcher in the open kitchen space is the abundant use of Moroccan four-by-four black tile, installed by Westside Tile & Stone in Beverly Hills. The Moroccan tile establishes a presence through the home, an important design statement. As Stamm says, “We took chances with the tile.” 

A bar is located on the third floor, just off a great room. The arresting feature here is the panoramic view, ranging from Palos Verdes to Malibu, a quintessential Southern California ocean-rimmed skyline. It is a perfect gathering spot; the deck is set up with a firepit and grill and a window for passing drinks from kitchen to outdoor guests.

Stamm’s ambitious take on tiling converts what is sometimes a ho-hum feature to a standalone design feature in each of the home’s five bathrooms, providing a luxurious, artful touch. 

The primary bathroom, off the second-floor bedroom, is decadent but understated. A beautiful gray-toned fiberglass tub from Victoria & Albert rests under a black-framed window. Nearby is a full steam shower with cream-white tiles and, again, custom cabinetry.

A secondary bedroom, on the second floor, shows another arresting use of Moroccan tile. The green-blue shades and uneven texture “make it pop,” Stamm says.

A first-floor powder room offers a different mood, with soft-gray, custom-cut horizontal tiles, and a delicate circular mirror with scalloped edging from Serena & Lily. Walls shimmer quietly with a coating of Portola paint in Bardot, another of the company’s Roman Clay blends. 

Each of the bathrooms has its own personality. “Each is its own departure, has its own flavor,” Stamm says. As is the house itself: “It has soul to it the minute you walk in, which is what every good house should have.” 

For more information, visit hmsinteriordesign.com

How do you turn a Mediterranean, stucco-style three-story in Manhattan Beach into a modern showstopper that would feel as equally at home in coastal California as in Sydney, Australia? Luis Murillo makes it look easy. 

Taking cues from the wife’s New Zealand roots and the couple’s time together in Australia, the LMD Architecture Studio principal streamlined the exterior, opened up the interior, and suffused the entire structure with warmth, employing a palette of plaster, blackened steel, and natural wood. “They wanted modern lines, simple materials, and lots of natural light,” Murillo says, noting that they were inspired by the indoor/outdoor lifestyle prevalent Down Under.

The home is an ode to indoor/outdoor living. There’s a patio off the ground-floor den, a balcony off the second-floor primary suite, and balconies off the front and the back of the third-floor gathering spaces. All enjoy privacy and perks, be it an outdoor kitchen, lush greenery, a spa, or an ocean view. “The owners were more interested in creating integrated indoor/outdoor spaces than they were in maximizing indoor square footage,” Murillo says. 

Strategic plantings draw visitors up exterior stairs along the east side of the house for entry on the middle level. Here, a slatted cedar door pivots and large-format, porcelain tiles flow seamlessly into the foyer. “The floor-to-ceiling door appears to be a continuation of the horizontal siding, as though it’s a moveable wall” Murillo says. 

A sleek built-in with forest green and ochre-colored niches, compliments of interior designer Kellie Eserts, is the entry’s focal point. The children’s bedrooms are at the back of the house, and the primary suite, which boasts a boutique hotel-style soaking tub that is visible from the bed, overlooks the ocean. 

Rather than demolishing the dark stairway to the third floor, which would have pushed the project from remodel to tear-down territory, Murillo opened up the surrounding walls, designed a graceful, modern rail, and created a two-story lightwell to draw in southern sun. 

The top floor is the heart of the home. The curved stair leads into the dining area, in the center of the linear floor plan, where the owners’ existing glass table keeps the space feeling airy. Open and closed rift white oak storage compartments disappear into the walls, punctuated by half-moon, black iron pulls. “It’s the only hardware, so we made a shape,” Eserts says. “When schemes are simple, every decision must be intentional.” Above the built-ins, a ribbon of six windows stretches across the western façade, where foliage peeks up from outside. “A view with greenery is rare in Manhattan Beach,” Murillo says. “We created a long ledge for planters.” 

The windows are also the backdrop to the living room, where a sectional that fits the whole family is oriented toward a gas fireplace with a plaster surround and an integrated TV. An abstract painting by Aboriginal artist Kudditji Kngwarreye enlivens the wall behind the Eames lounge. Bifold doors open the space to the ocean-facing balcony, where the family entertains often, and the slatted cedar screen on the home’s front façade provides privacy. 

The hemlock ceiling, meanwhile, runs north-to-south, piercing the exterior on both ends of the house, accentuating the indoor/outdoor connection. It also adds texture and warmth, and imbues the Australian vibe the clients craved. “To be an effective architectural element, a material needs to be carried in and out,” Murillo says. 

Inky blue paint punches up the palette in the kitchen. The dark, slab-front upper cabinets and matching hood sit back between the refrigerator and towers made from sandy, rift white oak. To keep the presentation clean, the team used a charcoal-colored composite for the backsplash and countertops. “We went to numerous stone yards, but the stone slabs all seemed too busy,” the designer says. Matte black faucets tie to the windows and help illustrate the owners’ allegiance to simplicity. “They’re classic modernists who don’t follow trends,” Eserts asserts. “They didn’t want to hide the fridge or use any brass.”

The center island sits under a skylight that brings light into the middle of the floorplan. A rift white oak bookcase that morphs into a breakfast table wraps the island, breaking up the block of blue with a playful geometry. “It’s a nice, artistic moment that you see coming up the stairs,” Eserts says. The opposite wall is packed with function, including a wet bar, a walk-in pantry, a powder room, and a desk. 

Finally, past the kitchen is another covered balcony, this one with lounge chairs and a spa. “We reduced the interior square footage up here 20 percent to create the front and back decks,” Murillo says. “When you open the doors, everything flows.” 

Learn more about the project team

Architect: LMD Architecture Studio
Interior Designer: Kellie Eserts Interiors
Contractor: DMiles Group, Inc.
Landscaper: Jones Landscapes
Millworker: SMI Custom Cabinets and Millwork