Just an hour due east of Beverly Hills, Malibu’s dramatic coastline and exposure to the Pacific ocean make for its legendary point breaks — that’s surfer for rideable waves (the movie wasn’t called Point Break for nothing). Here, although the beaches are public, direct access to them is rare, which was a big part of the appeal for the owners of this Point Dume Malibu home.
As designer Saffron Case recalls from the original conversations and briefing sessions with the owners, “They wanted their children to remember salt air, open doors and the rhythm of the ocean just beyond the trees.” Given that within the property’s garden is a discreet path that meanders down the cliffside and onto the beach, it felt like the perfect choice for the couple and their family.
Before you even begin to revel in the house’s interior decor, it’s worth taking a tour outside. This is cliff-top living in its most laidback yet elegant form, making best use of the abundant nature and woodlands surrounding the house. The backyard lawn drops down to a large teak wooden deck inset with a free-form pool surrounded by immaculate black-fabric sun-beds, giving an Aman touch to this California garden.
The virescent green pool house with its mesmerising back wall of Verdure wallpaper designed by Melissa White for Zoffany is accessed across an Alice in Wonderland-style grass and stone checkerboard courtyard, and the sauna room has an adjoining outdoor plunge pool discreetly hidden by high-rising hedges.
Surprises hide around corners in the two-acre lot, one of the most fun being the elaborate tree house, built into a miniature cliffside recess. Rising on stilts and incorporating two vast trees as part of its design, it is, as Case notes, “by far and away the most popular part of the house!” When the children aren’t having a Magic Faraway Tree moment, they can be found outside their own miniature surf-shack, roasting s’mores on the roaring fire pit, while a classic Airstream offers full 1960s surfer vibes.
It’s a true childhood nirvana, and Case has cleverly continued the joyful theme inside with playful blue circus stripes in the boy’s bedroom, while in the girl’s room, against the wraparound backdrop of Kit Kemp’s Mythical Land wallpaper, a custom bunny rabbit bed in pink upholstery is a kitschly sweet touch.
Still, there is a chance for adults to have their own fun. The main living area brings kitchen, dining and lounge together as one relaxed family space that’s also suitable for adults once cocktail hour kicks in. From the dining room’s apexed ceiling hangs Apparatus’s Arrow pendant, whose glowing glass drops and patinated metal gives just the right sense of occasion without tipping the room into formality. Beneath it, the aptly named Community Harvest dining table from Nickey Kehoe invites guests to linger.
The kitchen’s island and wraparound backsplash are cut from white marble dramatically veined in green, echoing the outer foliage, and there’s a cleverly concealed sink in the island that preserves the clean architectural line. For Case, while durability and function were always present, “it was important to integrate seamlessly into the aesthetic”, a principle that allows this shared living space to move effortlessly from sandy-footed breakfasts to evening gatherings.
Getting to the moment of being able to host friends and family, however, was no small feat. Building a Malibu home is rarely straightforward — fires, floods, windstorms and the labyrinthine permitting process all stretching what became a three-year renovation. By the time the family could finally move in, Case admits there was “a huge sigh of relief”; it had, she says simply, “been a journey.”
Yet that long gestation explains the home’s assured presence today. Nothing feels rushed, and ultimately, continues Case, “the emotional goal was to create a place that feels like a deep exhale — a forever summer house.” Mission achieved. And just beyond the garden lies a beach you might recognise, from the iconic final scene of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, when the broken head of the Statue of Liberty reveals to Charlton Heston that it was indeed Earth that he’d returned to from space. We’re sure he’d have preferred to have discovered this joyous family home.
- 转载自：AD(admiddleeast)
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- 国家：美国
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