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The first time I visited the Little Beach House in Malibu, I fell in love with their covered terrace that feels like a real dining room—but with the gentle waves. Sitting under a beautiful wooden pergola, the sea breeze blows, the boundary between the house and the outside feels completely blurred. I remember thinking, This is the most beautiful dining room I have ever seen. And let’s face it: if you have 300+ days of sunshine a year, why not make your main dining area outside?
So when our architect showed us his plans to renovate our Malibu, we made a decision that might seem unusual: our main dining room would not be indoors at all. Instead, we created an outdoor dining room that connects directly to the Great Room through a 30-foot wall of glass Marvin pocket doors—a space designed specifically for the slow weekend breakfasts and golden hour dinner parties that make California so special.
What makes this outdoor room work is how it seamlessly connects to the Great Room inside. We add a motor to the glass doors so that with the push of a button, the entire wall disappears from the building. Suddenly, the kitchen island, indoor living area, and outdoor dining room become one continuous flow.
Idea: An Outdoor Room That Feels Like a Living Room
I have always been attracted to spaces that challenge the traditional indoor/outdoor divide. The restaurants and hotels that stay with me long after I’m gone are the ones where you can’t tell if you’re in or out—where the fabric is breezy, where you sink into soft enough cushions in the living room, where design is considered as much as any interior. That’s my goal with this space—the real outdoors the roomnot just a patio with furniture.
The centerpiece of this space is an overhead pergola, inspired by the stunning terrace at Little Beach House (see above where it was built!). We use rich, warm wooden beams that will create a beautiful diffused light during the day and an intimate, enclosed feeling at night.
We install two Infratech heaters (one on each side of the balcony) directly into the upper frame. This means that we will be able to use this space comfortably even on a cold Malibu night. The lighting is deliberately minimal: small sconces mounted on the pergola beams cast a warm, ambient light that will feel like candlelight.
For decking, we use ipé wood—an incredibly dense, weather-resistant hardwood that ages well over time. It has a rich, warm tone that complements the pergola beams above, and is recognized as one of the most durable outdoor decorative materials available. As the weather changes and develops the silver patina, it will become even more beautiful.
El Chiringuito in Ibiza inspired the residence I am designing.
Venue: Ibiza Banquet Vibes
Another source of inspiration was El Chiringuito, a beach club we loved on our trip to Ibiza a few summers ago. Instead of regular dining chairs, there were these comfortable banquettes with soft cushions and tons of pillows—the kind of chairs you sit in for hours, moving seamlessly from dinner to drinks to hunkering down over wine as the stars come out.
That’s the feeling I want to recreate here, so I’m looking for a banquette/love seat to go along one side of the dining area, upholstered in Perennials fabric, designed to withstand the elements while still feeling comfortable and soft. I’m still hunting for a 12 foot teak table to match it with, so we’ll have seating for 10-14.
Paradero Hotel in Todos Santos—this drapery is everything.
Outdoor Curtains: Should We Add Them?
When we stayed at the Paradero Hotel in Todos Santos, I was fascinated by the way they used plain fabric to create definition and block the wind in the exterior spaces while maintaining this ethereal quality. The way the cloth moves in the air, the way it filters the light—it transformed the place into something almost like a festival.
I’d like to add something similar here, but I’ll be honest: we don’t quite understand it yet. It is one of those details that may come as a “second stage” development, once we are in the space and can really understand how the wind patterns work, where we need more protection, and where we want to preserve the view. Sometimes the best design decisions come from sitting in the space first.
Landscape: Beach Grass and Stone
To make this feel like an outdoor room, we partnered with Fiore Landscape Design to plant beach grass throughout. These will sway in the wind and soften the edges of the hardscaping, creating that natural, coastal feel that is so important to the overall aesthetic. Combined with the stone paths and surrounding olive and orange trees in the area, the dining room will feel surrounded by the landscape rather than placed in it.
Where We Are and Where We Are Going
The pergola frame is complete (I love how it looks against the mountains), and we’re about to start laying the ipé decking. Every time I visit the site and stand under the wooden beams, looking at the view, I already think about how it will feel to gather here.
A slow Saturday breakfast with coffee and fresh pastries, everyone still in pajamas. Summer dinner parties with friends, a table full of family style dishes, wine flowing, the sky changing as the sun sets behind the mountains. Quiet weeknight dinners, just the four of us, with the heat lamps shining overhead.
This is my California dream wrapped up: taking the indoors outside, erasing boundaries, creating spaces that invite you to stay, be happy, and be fully present. We can’t wait to start making memories here!