Malibu House

A house on the Malibu coast, planned around the water. The roof reaches well past the glass, so the rooms are in shade before the sun gets to them.

About 4,600 square feet: four bedroom suites, a media room, and a bonus level over the main floor.

The idea is simple: live outside. A deck runs the whole sea side of the house on a stone base, shaded by a timber screen, and the glass slides away behind it.

Inside stays warm and quiet. Wood, marble, plaster, and nothing that competes with the water.

The living room runs two storeys and the fireplace runs with it, one wall of veined marble from the floor to the top of the room.

Everything else stays low: velvet chairs, a brass light drawn across the glass, and the terrace carrying on beyond it.

Around the dining room the walls turn to fluted wood and a darker stone, and the light drops the full two storeys onto one long table.

It is the one part of the main floor that turns away from the water and looks at itself instead.

The kitchen sits behind the living room under a slatted wood ceiling, marble on the island and marble on the wall.

Brass lights are strung the length of it, and the stools face back into the room rather than the wall.

The family room is the quieter half of the house: green marble around the fire, leather chairs, and a sofa long enough to lie on.

Blinds instead of curtains, and a television that sits in the wall rather than on it.

The bedroom keeps the light out: warm plaster overhead, heavy curtains, and stone behind the television.

The bathroom does the opposite: black marble on every surface, and a gold tub standing in the middle of it.