Malibu Ocean View Villa Renovation

 Malibu, California, United States

Architecture and Interior Design: Oliver Furth

Photography  ©  Roger Davies

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An original and comfortable home full of modern art and antiques for a glamorous client and designer muse. Contemporary ideas expressed through tone and materiality. 

Oliver Furth: For this Malibu Villa, overlooking the Pacific, we mused an ancient seashell washed up onto shore -spaces informed by modernity but also rooted in antiquity. My studio oversaw a full renovation and we devised a clean architectural plan with thoughtful, sensual details rendered in integral materials like solid wood, carved stone, cast bronze, and ceramics shaped by hand.

My studio completely redesigned this multi-structure compound, on a spectacular site overlooking the pacific -refining and clarifying the existing architecture. Our touchstones were 19th-century Japanese architecture and Belgian design of the early 2000s, as well as the rhythmic repetition of Agnes Martin’s poetic geometry, all remixed to a distinctly California ethos.

Theres a certain tension to the compositions and details unfold slowly. The ancient mixes with contemporary, and solid elements play with fine, but our completed juxtaposition is balanced. Nothing shouts. This home whispers.

As an antidote to today’s copy-paste, beige-on-beige trends, I opted for integral materials in a nuanced palette of complex earth tone, inspired by the shore and surrounding mountains.

Ceilings of hand-troweled plaster have been raked into combed sand, and walls are waxed with subtle sheen bouncing Malibu’s warm sunlight. Textiles were custom-woven in Guatemala or Japan in subtle shades of indigo, amethyst, or salt. A pair of walnut tables by Nakashima are complemented by those of cleft-cut stone, or contemporary cast-resin in the precise shade of Eau de Nil.

This bathroom looks inward. A sanctuary for reflection and a respite from the superficiality of the outside world. Cleftcut stone grounds the space. A mix of objects, including an incense holder pedestal handcarved by the artist Minjae Kim, a spectacular Line Vautrin mirror, and a humble raffia pendant that I designed brings levity and charisma.

This new home was designed as a private sanctuary, a respite from the superficiality of the outside world. It was envisioned to be a place for reflection, meditation, and casual gatherings of intimate friends.