Where We’ll Gather: Designing Our Beach House Dining Room

The first time I visited Little Beach House in Malibu, I fell in love with their iconic covered terrace that somehow felt like an actual dining room—but with the waves crashing just steps away. Sitting beneath the beautiful wood pergola, ocean breezes drifting through, the boundary between indoors and out felt completely blurred. I remember thinking, This is the prettiest dining room I’ve ever seen. And let’s face it: when you have 300+ days of sunshine a year, why wouldn’t you make your main dining space outdoors?

So when our architect showed us his plans for our Malibu renovation, we made a decision that might seem unconventional: our primary dining room wouldn’t be inside the house at all. Instead, we’re creating 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 living so special.

What makes this outdoor room work is how seamlessly it connects to the Great Room inside. We’re adding a motor to the glass doors so that with the push of a button, the entire wall disappears into the structure. Suddenly, the kitchen island, the indoor living space, and the outdoor dining room become one continuous flow.

The Vision: An Outdoor Room That Feels Like a Living Space

I’ve always been drawn to spaces that challenge the traditional indoor/outdoor divide. The restaurants and hotels that stay with me long after I’ve left are the ones where you can’t quite tell if you’re inside or out—where fabric billows in the breeze, where you sink into cushions soft enough for a living room, where the design is just as considered as any interior. That’s my goal with this space—a true outdoor room, not just a patio with furniture.

The centerpiece of this space is the overhead pergola, inspired by the stunning terrace at Little Beach House (see above for where we are in construction!). We’re using rich, warm wood beams that will create beautiful dappled light during the day and an intimate, enclosed feeling at night.

We’re installing two Infratech heaters (one on each side of the patio) directly into the overhead framing. This means we’ll be able to use this space comfortably even on chilly Malibu evenings. The lighting is intentionally minimal: small sconces mounted to the pergola beams cast a warm, ambient glow that will feel like candlelight.

For the deck’s flooring, we’re using ipé wood—an incredibly dense, weather-resistant hardwood that ages beautifully over time. It has a rich, warm tone that complements the pergola beams above, and it’s known as one of the most durable outdoor decking materials available. As it weathers and develops a silvery patina, it’ll get even prettier.

El Chiringuito in Ibiza inspired the seating I’m designing for the space.

The Seating: Ibiza Banquette Vibes

Another source of inspiration was El Chiringuito, a beach club we loved on our trip to Ibiza a couple of summers ago. Instead of standard dining chairs, there were these comfy banquettes with soft cushions and tons of pillows—the kind of seating where you settle in for hours, moving seamlessly from dinner to dessert to lingering over wine as the stars come out.

That’s the feeling I want to recreate here, so I’m sourcing a banquette/loveseat situation to run along one side of the dining area, upholstered in Perennials fabric, designed to withstand the elements while still feeling luxurious and soft. I’m still hunting for the 12-foot teak table to pair it with, so we’ll ideally have seating for 10-14.

Paradero Hotel in Todos Santos—this fabric draping is everything.

Outdoor Curtains: Should We Add Them?

When we stayed at Paradero Hotel in Todos Santos, I became completely obsessed with the way they used sheer fabric to create definition and block wind in the outdoor spaces while maintaining this ethereal quality. The way the fabric moves in the breeze, the way it filters light—it transformed the space into something that felt almost ceremonial.

I’d love to incorporate something similar here, but I’ll be honest: we haven’t quite figured it out yet. It’s one of those details that might come as a “stage two” development, once we’re living in the space and can really understand how the wind patterns work, where we need more protection, and where we want to preserve views. Sometimes the best design decisions come from actually living in a space first.

The Landscape: Beach Grasses and Gravel

To really make this feel like an outdoor room, we’re working with Fiore Landscape Design to plant beach grasses around the perimeter. These will move in the breeze and soften the edges of the hardscaping, creating that natural, coastal feeling that’s so essential to the overall aesthetic. Combined with gravel pathways and the surrounding olive and citrus trees on the property, the dining room will feel nestled into the landscape rather than imposed on it.

Where We Are and Where We’re Headed

The pergola framing 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 wood beams, looking out at the view, I can already imagine what it will feel like to gather here.

Slow Saturday morning breakfasts with coffee and fresh pastries, everyone still in their pajamas. Summer dinner parties with friends, the table filled with family-style platters, wine flowing, the sky turning pink as the sun sets behind the mountains. Quiet weeknight dinners, just the four of us, with the heat lamps glowing overhead.

This is my California dream wrapped up: taking the indoors outside, erasing boundaries, creating spaces that invite you to linger, savor, and be fully present. Cannot wait to start making memories here!