REVIVING A MALIBU MIDCENTURY

AN INTERIOR DESIGNER AND AN ARCHITECT RESCUE A BEATEN-DOWN 1970S HOME ON THE PACIFIC.

- J. MICHAEL WELTON

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.