Malibu Living with Sarah Solis | Her Own Family Home Tour

I'm Sarah Solis of Sarah Solis Design Studio. Welcome to my home in Malibu, California. Can't wait to show you inside. And I feel proud to have reclaimed pieces throughout the house. I basically drenched it in white oak, which creates this incredibly meditative space. My vision out here was really to create magic. The front of the house has some beautiful, lush, mature landscape, but we'll get to that later on in the video when we see the rest of the exterior. First, let's talk about the entryway. I really wanted this space to feel understated, relaxed, comfortable, inviting, but in a innovative and fresh modern way. So one of the issues that I am constantly battling is specifying the finishes for the flooring. Typically people use marble or wood floor, but I really wanted this to be a special statement. So we sourced this reclaimed Belgian blue stone from Europe, and I think it provides a really beautiful textured layer to a very special entryway. My goal was truly to provide an entry in a home that had layers of warmth, texture, and patina. So to do that, I brought in antiques that are really beautifully storied. You know, one part of that was the reclaimed Belgian stone floor. And then I complimented that with a primitive Welsh entry bench, which has like beautiful organic shape and texture and warmth to it that really tell a story. At the entry here, I found this Swedish console table from a auction in France. And then I brought in these beautiful stone platters and collected vessels, layered some glass and patinaed sterling with florals. I always like to have a candle by the entryway because I think it sets a sensorial experience. It gives you, first of all, the warmth of the candlelight, but it also awakens the senses of scent and associating a space with a smell. Before we move into the library, I'm going to show you my formal living room, which is one of my favorite spaces at the house. I'm very proud to say that I furnished this space with most of the pieces from my furniture collection from Gallery Solis. I am completely in love with this sofa, which we call the classic sofa. It is one of the first pieces that we designed for the collection along with this table, which we call the relic table. We make all the linen in a small factory in Belgium. And it's, it's just one of my favorite elements of the space. This fireplace mantle, we salvaged from a farmhouse in the South of France. It's limestone. And again, it just has so much story to it. I really feel connected to it and I feel proud to have reclaimed pieces throughout the house. This little chair was my grandmother's and she kept it in front of her fireplace. So it was something that I felt really prideful to bring into our formal living room as a piece of art, but also both of my kids sat in it when they were little too. It was really important to us to capture that indoor outdoor feeling in all of the rooms on the front and the back of the house. So we've got big sliders that don't take up much space on the inside of the house. Cause they're not swinging doors, but they still have that like beautiful traditional divided light window feeling. These open up onto the back patio and we replicate that in the dining room, which we're walking into next as well. This piano has been in our family and both of our kids have learned to play piano on this. We've always had pianos in our homes because I come from a musical family, both my dad and my sister are musicians and singer, songwriters. So it's really meaningful to keep a piano in our home and to have that constant access to, to music. This is our formal dining room. I think that one of the beauties of this home is that even though it's technically a more formal space, it's really, really comfortable and warm. So it was so important to me to balance both something that is luxurious, but also really livable and comfortable and artful. So I think we really achieved it in this space. And I did that by using a collected antique chair by Pierre Genere, also one of the more special pieces. I think some people tend to look at antiques as being precious, but I think they only become more beautiful, the more you live with them and the more you use them. So I teach my children to treat them as precious, but like respect what they are and what came before us, but live in them, like do your homework on the table and, you know, please use the spaces. Another, another special piece is this buffet by Charles Udoit. I have an obsession with his work from the thirties and forties. Uh, this is white Oak. And I think that we really leaned into the texture and story of it and let it just do its thing without refinishing it. I think it's absolutely stunning the way it is. It feels like a rustic elegance that I think is really important and consistent throughout this home specifically. This is a, another collected piece that I'm in love with. It's a Swedish barrel chair. I actually picked this one up at Browntop and when we got it home, I had my workshop, uh, strip it and really pull the grain and texture out of the chair. Because at some point in its life, it ended up with someone that tried to make it feel more pristine. And I really wanted to see more of the life that came before it. When designing my furniture collection for gallery Solis, it was of the utmost importance to me to design a collection that pairs beautifully with antiques and doesn't feel too modern or too much of anything. So this is our story table. It's a beautiful round table that I'm in love with. And I love the way it pairs with these Généré chairs and the Murano glass, um, the vintage Murano glass dining chandelier that we have in here. A bit obsessed with Murano glass, um, and always have been. So I've had a, uh, a collection of them. And so I finally got to use one of these chandeliers in this space. And I think it's just perfectly pairs with the plaster walls and the, and all the beautiful antiques in the space. So from here, I wanted to transition into our kitchen and in our kitchen, we've got a, a bit of a jewel box here. And I think that we were really able to achieve this by drenching the counters and the range backsplash in this Calacatta Viola marble. These slabs are absolutely incredible. And every time I walk into this space, I get a little bit of that wow feeling from the marble. It's, it's beautiful and storied. I really wanted the marble to have an opportunity to shine and stand out without competing with other elements. So I think the plaster really enables it to have its moment. It's something calm paired with something more artful that really stands out. I went a little bit more extra on the cabinet hardware because I thought that really paired well with the French range. The hardware is actually imported from France. It's a custom hardware that I get from a local company here, but they custom make it in France. I would say that my design philosophy is built on a few very important pillars. It's a combination of warmth, texture, calm, and most importantly, comfort. Nature and art inspire me the most. I think that I really feel the well when I connect with nature, but it's also important to me how my interiors connect with the exteriors. Two signature elements that I use in my design are plaster and natural wood. You can see it in, in this space, uh, with the combination of the natural wood island and using the butcher block surface here, plaster walls, plaster hood details, a lot of plaster elements throughout the space, a lot of natural wood, these natural wood casing, um, white oak and exposed beams where I can find the place for them. We're moving into the family room and this is where we have sleepovers and probably spend the most amount of our time in our house. I wanted this space to really expand. Previously when we bought the house, it had really low ceilings. It had like eight foot ceilings and it was this nice big space, but it felt like it was just containing you. And in a way that didn't work for us. So I discovered that I could bolt the ceilings and it changed the space entirely. So we bolted the ceilings. We added some cool lighting completely in love with this window niche over here. It's like the perfect window seat where we can sit and read or watch the kids play in the pool or out in the garden. It's one of my favorite like meditative spots in the house as well. Even though this is the room where we probably hang out the most, I feel like it's a really, you know, calm opportunity to just kind of take in what's happening out outside. We get a lot of bunnies in the yard, hopping around. One detail in this house that I'm especially proud of is the trim details that we did throughout the house. I eliminated all of the door casing and did what is called a kerfed detail. So this is that kerfed detail. So it's when the drywall wraps back into the doorframe. And so rather than having a big wide casing, this is very minimal and clean and beautiful. And I paired that with the V-groove doors, which is just a really nice fresh perspective on treating a door jamb. Before we go upstairs, I want to show you my go-to space in the house. It's our library. I basically drenched it in white oak, which creates this incredibly cavernous, warm, analog meditative space. So we designed these, uh, this incredible down cushion bed with lots of pillows and it's built in under the window. And then I did these custom cabinets that are, you know, built for our library collection and all of our books. And this is, this is our real collection. These are all of our real books that we've collected over the years. My husband and I are both, um, art book fanatics and our kids love to read and we have all of their books in here that they've read throughout the years. I even have books in here that my grandmother gave me and passed on. One of my faves here is this original, um, Don Quixote. And, uh, my grandmother gave this to me when I was quite young, but pretty cool. Throughout the home, I used a unlacquered brass finish on most of my hardware, like my lighting and also on, um, the switches. As you can see, I did this custom light fixture flush to the wall. It's very cool and reflective. We can make faces in it. It's pretty fun. Uh, this is, uh, another piece from my gallery Solis collection. It's called the crown chair. I try not to play favorites, but this is the favorite chair of the collection. Now we're going up to the primary, but first let me speak on the stairs because we did something really unique here because we eliminated the handrail on the open side of the stairs. After numerous iterations of handrails that I really liked, we had been living with it open for a couple of months and we just fell in love with it being open. The way it opened up the space and how we had this like beautiful pattern that came down the stairs here. And we started using it in a super functional way too. Like I'll set my purse here or the kids set their shoes there to grab it before they go upstairs. So something that, you know, I hadn't half hadn't planned on became this beautiful surprise design element that we fell in love with and has been a functional dream. I designed this, uh, this custom bent, uh, iron handrail, and I really wanted it to feel like it was floating in the space. And so we seated the posts into the wall here so that you don't have big fussy brackets. And I think that complements the plaster finish. So you've got this like really beautiful textured plaster and then a very simple curved handrail. And for all of our switches, we built out trim around the boxes so that it showcases quite minimally the brass patina rotary switches. So all of these switches are, are made of a brass that has been antiqued and they have a rotary dial that dims all of the lights. This look is more popular and throughout England and throughout Europe, but I've been using it in my projects here and we, we use it throughout the house and it's been a really beautiful action item and actual sensorial element of using the space. These light fixtures are really special pieces by studio Giancarlo, who is a fellow artist and designer and they're absolutely magical. My bedroom is my sanctuary of calm. There were several things that I did in here to really bring out those senses. The first thing I did is I really leaned into a neutral color palette and it's, you know, it's not necessarily white, but it's tones of white because we've got creams and we've got these nice natural linen tones and then it's complimented with a deep, more sensual tone like chocolate. I did plaster throughout and then we had our friend James Mobley come over and create the most incredible mural that I've ever done with him. He's so talented and I said to him, I said, James, I want it to feel like a monochromatic version of what's happening outside. Like what's happening around our home. So when you look above our bed, this is the hillside scene that is happening outside the house. So he created the natural environment outside our house surrounding our house on the walls of our bedroom, but it's in this beautiful monochromatic tone. So it feels subtle. It feels sensual. It feels calm and inviting. I also did that by using materials that feel incredible underfoot. This rug by Armadillo is a silk rug. It's their Sistine rug. I'm completely obsessed with it. Underfoot it's like a marshmallow. It's like it's so soft and comfortable. We used our Gallery Solis Italian mohair on our bed. That's on the headboard and the frame itself. This is a design that will be coming out in our collection soon. The bedside tables are also by our furniture line Gallery Solis. And then I love to accessorize with more analog features in my bedroom. So this is a Cartier clock that I collected a few years ago, but I love having a timepiece rather than a digital clock by the bed. I think it feels much more calming. I have a lot of crystals around my space because it's just something that I really connect with and then always have fresh florals. Moving into the primary bathroom, we have this sweet little alcove to the left. I have my dressing room and to the right we have my husband's. And I love this view from the primary bedroom directly into the bathroom of the tub and the beautiful light and nature that spills into this space. It makes for a very serene backdrop when I'm getting ready in the morning or, you know, drawing a bath in the evening. The vanity is a unique perspective on a primary bathroom double vanity. I built the marble counters and sink into the top of the vanity and I used a Italian stone and Italian marble that's very, very creamy and lush. And then I gave it a leather finish. So it again feels storied. It feels like it's had a life before it came to me. And then we've continued to build on that. And it just makes for a really meaningful experience using your sinks and your vanity daily when it feels like there's more storytelling. I just feel a little bit more inspired. Well, I've always been obsessed with Waterworks fixtures. This is the RW Atlas exposed shower system. It's so incredible. It's absolutely beautiful. Proud moments taking a shower with that fixture. And then I love a Zalizh tile. I prefer the natural white Zalizh tile from Riyadh because there is the most incredible like nuances to the white that they, they use. And it's more subtle. It's not really bright and stark. If I turn the light on, you can see the difference in here. It's just a really warm white and it pairs so beautifully with the marble casing. I didn't want to go to extra with the marble because I already did that with the vanity sink. It's, it's this really unique feature. But then when I got to the shower, I really, I wanted the marble a part of it. Like we did a marble bench in here and we did a marble shelf and we cased it, but I feel like the Zalizh really compliments it in a beautiful way and gives it texture while also keeping it like understated and cool. All right. Now I want to show you outside, but I forgot one, one special spot. You got, you got to see this room. Okay. So this is my dressing room. This is mommy's room and I designed this for me. So I've got all of my contained closets, which we won't look inside because let's be honest, it's messy on the inside, but the shoes are organized. This is my space. This is my vanity space. What's great here is I can do my makeup and I can have a zoom call or I can get some work done. I can close the door to my dressing room. Mommy's getting work done or watching a show or whatever I'm doing. This barrel chair, this I got at an auction overseas, of course, like French auction. And then I re did the seat in our gallery. So lease mohair, the Italian mohair, it's the same one that I did in our bed. So there's this like connection and storytelling of that calm, serene, very understated, luxurious vibe. But this is my secret room. All right. So you've seen the inside of the house. Let's check out the outside. My vision out here was really to create magic. And I think it's just as important what and how you experience the inside of the house to how you experience the outside. I spent most of my childhood in Malibu. So for me, it was just coming home. But one of the best things I love about living in Malibu is just the laid back lifestyle. The beach life is exceptional. The renovation process took about four and a half years here at this house. You know, we, we bought this house during COVID or like right at the beginning of COVID. And so there were a lot of hiccups with permitting and planning, but supply chains, but we made it work and couldn't be more proud with what we achieved. This is our outdoor dining area. I really love the nostalgia that wicker furniture brings to any space. And so I really leaned into that for all of our outdoor furnishings. It's so timeless. This is where we've had the kids' birthday parties. My husband's really into barbecue and barbecuing. We had to build his a smoker, his green egg into our outdoor kitchen that he got for father's day about 15 years ago. One thing that we added here was the pizza oven, which was something we hadn't done before and has proven to be one of the coolest things that we did because in these pizza ovens, it's not just for pizza. You can bake or roast anything that you want. We've got a lot of edibles in our garden as far as like pomegranates, blueberries, lemons, oranges. I became an interior designer just out of high school. I went to interior design school right out of high school and got my degree, got some awards, got some great job offers, but decided to go back to school and get a second bachelor in fine arts and art history. So after that I landed in fashion styling for a number of years where I met my husband. I really came full circle after I had my daughter and opened my design firm. I said, it's time. It's time to use that degree. So this is a pretty big piece of property. So it was a big job to do the landscape and to really create a vision that creates magic and whimsy. The shape of the pool was already existing when we bought the house and I didn't want to lose the curbs. So instead of completely redoing the pool, I added this cool Roman shelf so that you could sit in more shallow water and the kids could play when they're younger. I changed the tile, I changed the color of the pool, but I kept the shape and I removed all of the decking, all of that concrete and stone and I replaced it with this native grass. It's a native fescue and it's a no mo. So you never have to mow it. It's very low water and it's super elegant and beautiful. I think that it creates texture and warmth. And then I brought in a bunch of wicker furniture and some beautiful olive trees and we keep going. Okay. So funny story about our fire pit. It took the longest to get done. It was the very last thing we were able to achieve, but one of the first things that we planned in our landscape design. So I created this, this path out to the garden and the fire pit because I wanted the opportunity to look back at the house, especially when the wisteria is in full bloom and dripping off the decks. And then we've got these, these two really special old olive trees here that we like to refer to as like our maw and paw trees. So we're on about an acre of land here. So we really wanted to keep its versatility and function of the overall space. We have a chicken coop and our, what we call our farm over here to the left. We've just harvested the gardens and so they're not planted right now. Um, but the chickens, the ladies are doing quite well. We also have a tennis court, which is quite versatile for the kids. You can play tennis, hockey, baseball, scooters, skateboard. It's a, it's proven to be one of the better investments on the property. We like to have fun. We like to play games and entertain. So it only seemed fitting to have a bocce cart on this expansive property. And so we built one. It's one of the more fun areas of the home. Very easy to entertain. Um, my husband has been known to stay out here a little bit too long to win. We also have this rope swing that we've taken with us from the last house to here that my daughter really loves to swing on. We have really beautiful, lush, mature landscape now. And the house is really built to carry this wisteria and it drips on the front of the house and on the back of the house. The scent is absolutely magical. The purple petals, even when they scatter on the porch, it's beautiful. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch my home tour. And if you want to watch more episodes like this, make sure and subscribe to The Luxury Home Show. If you want to reach out to me, I'm at www.sarahsolis.com. Thanks so much. I'll catch you on the next one.