Step Inside The Malibu Home of Kelly Wearstler

Stretching across a triple lot on Malibu’s Broad Beach, this 1953 residence is a blissful mid-century modern retreat, and home to American Designer Kelly Wearstler.

This house is the kind of rare find that sets the imagination racing. A timber-sided structure stands out among its more contemporary neighbours. Furthermore, the four-bedroom house comes with generous gardens at one end and a spacious deck, rolling sand dunes and unobstructed ocean views at the other. It also has a Hollywood pedigree: believed to have been built by Frank A Garbutt, a co-founder of Paramount Pictures, for his daughter, it was later acquired by actor Carroll O’Connor, star of the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. Yet, before designer Kelly Wearstler moved in, the house had been on the market for three years, drawing little interest.

Wearstler, like many other affluent Angelenos, was in search of a beach house where her family could pass the pandemic months. She had already seen this property from the outside, as a good friend had once rented three doors down, and she was charmed by its original architecture, expansive windows and scenic location. ‘It even has a driveway where you can take your boat down from the house and just go all the way to the ocean,’ she explained. Kelly’s family are avid surfers and the idea of being this close to the water was certainly appealing. She tracked down the owner of the house and asked if he might be willing to let it for a few months; he agreed, with the caveat that he’d still be able to show the house to potential buyers.

Knowing this would be a fixed-term stay did not prevent Wearstler from giving the house an extensive overhaul. Out went the white shag carpet, and in came a mix of Californian and European midcentury pieces. These were right at home amid the original timber panelling and shoji screen doors and ceilings.

In the living room, for instance, Wearstler put 1970s seating by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for Cassina, and a 1950s ‘Control’ lamp, by American designer Mitchell Bobrick, that she has had for 12 years. Many of these were drawn from her extensive collection of vintage pieces. This is also a reflection of Wearstler’s upbringing (her mother worked as an antique dealer) and longtime passion.

‘I shop all over the world, and anytime I see anything that is unusual, I buy and store it in my warehouse,’ she explains. Having selected key pieces that would set the tone, she turned to Joel Chen, owner of fabled LA antiques emporium JF Chen, for the rest.

‘I’ve been purchasing things for projects from him for as long as I remember. He has a 30,000 sq ft store that stayed open [during the pandemic] because there’s a lot of room for social distancing. So I went and got a few pieces from him.’

This quickly became an inviting home for lockdown. The home adds charm with earthy and rustic tones (and some shades of palm green) and plenty of sculptural furnishings. In addition, the designer went for a mix of vintage and contemporary furniture and artworks that helped to revive and celebrate the historic architecture and soul of the beachfront property.

Working with landscape designer Art Luna and local nursery Inner Gardens, Wearstler introduced lush tropical foliage in and around the building. Plants were particularly abundant in the solarium-turned-dining room, housed in a mix of early California and contemporary pots. These overrun the dining table and huddle up to an enormous Isamu Noguchi lamp suspended in the centre. With the windows open, they would sway in the ocean breeze, further blurring the boundaries between outdoors and in.

The house is an apparently effortless melange of design styles, rich in texture and mindful of context.

Via