In Southern California, that dream often comes with an ocean view, with the seaside community of Malibu offering the perfect environment for realizing it. Though it’s within easy driving distance of bustling Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles, with their world-class shopping, restaurants, and cultural offerings, this laidback enclave feels like a vacation retreat.
The oceanfront streets tucked along the coast, bordered by the Pacific Coast Highway on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, bring the curling waves of the Pacific to one’s doorstep. For example, the doorstep at 27228 Escondido Beach Road in Malibu offered by Chris Cortazzo of Compass, located in one of the slender neighborhoods here, barely more than a block long. One must be careful not to overshoot the hidden turnoff that dips down towards the water, tucking this row of houses well out of sight.
While the dark, highly polished wood fence that surrounds the home on three sides telegraphs modern elegance, it does little to prepare one for what is concealed inside. Push open the gate to the home’s garden and an inviting blue pool unfurls towards the ocean. Lush plantings along one side sway in the gentle breeze, conjuring up an island getaway. Across, beyond the romantic alfresco dining area, is a tease of the postcard-perfect ocean setting. One is not yet inside the sliding doors that elide this space with the house and already the real world seems like a distant memory.
That initial impression of escape is underlined once inside the home. A deck extends the full width of the house, enhancing its partnership with the sea, which ebbs and flows in a hypnotic rhythm. Sunbathe or read here during the day, then, as the sun sinks below the horizon, scribbling the sky with its mesmerizing rainbow, gather by the firepit. Or, if the weather is particularly brisk, observe it from inside.
Art feels unnecessary when the view is the pure ocean, seen through large accordion doors that merge the exterior with the open-plan public rooms of the first floor, its gentle roar providing a soundtrack that immediately summons a meditative calm. With a crackling blaze in the living room’s fireplace and a cocktail mixed at the quartz-topped wet bar, every evening is a toast to Mother Nature’s endless creativity. After the light show ends, the picture show begins. The state-of-the-art home theater, with its custom painted ceiling, tiered seating, and very own wet bar, elevates a movie night to a whole new level.
If a glass of vino is preferable to a mixed drink, a bottle can be plucked from the temperature-controlled wine room tucked into one end of the kitchen. If the bottle’s left unfinished, Dacor’s four-bottle wine station, one of the kitchen’s many amenities, holds a quartet of open vintages for enjoying at another time. It’s one of many thoughtful luxuries in this kitchen, which is anchored by a La Cornue freestanding gas coordinated with the custom cabinetry.
Its brass accents, meanwhile, are echoed in the book-matched Calacatta Oro Marble waterfall eat-in island, exuberant with gold veining. Carefully curated appliances—including a built-in coffee maker, drawer microwave, and convection oven, all by Wolf—ensure that even the most complicated meal preparations are effortless. Homemade pizza? Grilled fish? A pizza oven and a barbecue island, located just outside the kitchen on a grassy breezeway, makes meal prep convenient and easy. No need to worry about indulging in gourmet delights; in addition to the pool, the ensuite space on the second floor can showcase a well-equipped home gym.
The sumptuous luxuries continue upstairs to the bedrooms, past a wall of windows that look out onto the pool courtyard. The master suite draws comparisons with a five-star luxury resort. High-beamed ceilings, pale wood floors, and a white marble fireplace evoke peace and tranquility, and that panorama of the sea, seen from the first floor, is only magnified here. Accordion doors frame a vista that stretches from the Queen’s Necklace to Point Dume and out towards Catalina.
Morning brings a gentle rousing of sun rays. Consulting a surf report is unnecessary when checking the water’s conditions is as easy as stepping out onto the wrap-around deck. A tub set into the window of the lavish master bath highlights the same scene. With two large closets (one’s a double-level closet—with an elevator), a smart mirror with a built-in TV and a built-in makeup desk, even the simple act of getting ready for the day is an enjoyable ritual of self-care.
After an invigorating morning of surfing, one can wash away the sand and salt in the outdoor shower. It is a divine way to start the day, and more so, to live life by the sea.
Chris Cortazzo | 310.457.3995 | DRE 01190363
Compass
List Price $14.995 million
Photographs courtesy of Chris Cortazzo