Stunning Oceanfront Home
Architect Lewin Wertheimer Teams Up with One Family to Create a Stunning Oceanfront Home
Written by Blake Miller
Photography by Douglas Hill
When architect Lewin Wertheimer began building the East Coast–inspired, shingle-style property in Malibu that he’d spent a couple of years designing for a client, he never anticipated what would happen next. “We went through the entire design phase and actually started construction on the property,” says Wertheimer, “and then the couple decided to stop construction and put the property and partially finished house up for sale.”
Wertheimer, the principal architect of his eponymous firm, based in Venice, California, wasn’t willing to continue working with just any new buyer because, with only partial completion of the home, there were so many potential complications. It would take a special buyer to see the vision he and his team had for the home and one who would be comfortable continuing with the construction as is. “I was very worried,” Wertheimer says. “I spent years designing this and getting the approvals and then here comes a new owner who might want to change everything.”
Clockwise from ABOVE: Susie sourced more than one hundred light fixtures for the home. She happened upon the kitchen’s chandeliers—antique bell jars—at Rosemarie McCaffrey Antiques. She kept with the whitewashed look in the master bedroom, where the sitting area boasts an ocean view. The bathroom was also designed to take advantage of the ocean landscape.
As luck would have it, the Peddicord family was looking for a new home to accommodate their three teenage daughters and their love for horses. After seeing the six-acre property while visiting a neighbor next door, Robert and Susie Peddicord were smitten. “This particular neighborhood in Malibu has a neighborhood feel and yet has enough acreage to feel like a ranch, which is what we were looking for,” says Susie. After the couple met with Wertheimer, the three knew it would be the perfect collaboration. Susie, an interior designer, read the plans and was able grasp the scale and style Wertheimer was working toward with the home. “The floor plan was set in stone and was so perfect,” says Susie of the family-friendly layout. “That was one indication that the house and plan would be the perfect house for our family to live in.”
A few tweaks were made to the existing plans—cabinetry style and window positioning, for example—but, overall, Wertheimer’s original footprint and architecture remained the same. “I tried to come up with a refined but still comfortable Gambrel-style shingle-style home,” says Wertheimer. “I always wanted to play against the size of the house, its grandness, but also scale it down so it had more personal, intimate proportions to it.” The first floor is H-shaped; the hallway leading from the front entrance to the living quarters in the back of the house serves as the middle of the H. The goal was to take advantage of the 180-degree views of the ocean, while also creating a seamless flow from room to room. “It’s a heart home,” says Wertheimer, “where every room connects like the arteries of a heart.”
The finishing of the home was especially important to both Wertheimer and Susie. Because the 10,000-square-foot home had the potential to feel overwhelming and grandiose in scale, which the Peddicords wanted to avoid, Wertheimer focused on the details, such as keeping the ceilings no higher than ten feet and no lower than eight. Architecturally, Wertheimer also developed three levels of detail, the highest level occurring in the main core of the home—the dining room, living room, library, and master suite—where the baseboards, crown molding, and cabinetry details are slightly more refined. The second tier was relegated to the remaining quarters of the home—the family room, bedrooms, kitchen, and so on—and a final, less-detailed series for the laundry and mudroom areas.
“I think it’s very subtle and subliminal,” says Wertheimer of the levels of detail in the finishing throughout the home. “In a house this size, if you carry the same detailing throughout, it diminishes the importance of those spaces. I think really beautiful, thoughtful homes are thoughtful in terms of the detailing and the rooms they relate to.”
Susie then layered her own design aesthetic with simple and comfortable yet elegant finishes, such as the Carrara marble counters and custom-designed cabinetry by Wertheimer in the kitchen. She selected slightly distressed walnut flooring and rich antique linens in creams, beiges, and off-whites mixed with natural dyed fabrics. “The choice in design became more about creating textures and warmth in fabric yet lending it to the colors of nature outside,” says Susie. “It’s all very natural.”
She spent eighteen months searching for the perfect light fixtures for every room in the home. “It was probably my most favorite project,” Susie says. More than one hundred chandeliers, sconces, and other lighting sources can be found throughout the house, each complementary to Wertheimer’s detail work. The few window coverings throughout the home allow the Peddicords to take advantage of the ocean views and the privacy the property affords.
The look and feel of the home is unlike many of the more contemporary and Mediterranean-inspired homes Wertheimer and other architects so often design in Malibu. “There’s not much like this home out here,” says Wertheimer. “It was nice to depart from the Mediterranean look with this house.”
For the family of five, the home has been a relaxing haven. “It’s such a beautiful property and home,” says Susie. “It was great for me to have something to work with that I already loved and to put things into it that I loved. It was an excellent project and experience.”
Clockwise from left: The sunroom, with its antique pieces covered in vintage linen, is one of Susie’s favorite rooms in the home. “It has a view of Little Dune in Malibu, lots of light, and I go there to read, talk on the phone, or take naps,” she says. The dining room boasts a seamless flow to the outdoor living area; the table and chairs are eighteenth-century Swedish pieces, while the chandelier is Belgian crystal. Architect Lewin Wertheimer enjoyed designing the Gambrel-style home because it was a significant departure from the style of homes—often Mediterranean—one often finds in Malibu.
