seventies reinvented

Kathrin Bruss’ Malibu home references the decade it was built with a mix of vintage style and modern materials

- Emily Brooks

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THE OWNERS

Kathrin Bruss, who owns fashion boutique Petra Teufel, and her husband Oliver Bruss, who runs an automotive supplier in Germany, plus daughters Paula, 19, and Luna, 17.

THE PROPERTY

A two-storey, 1970s-built house that overlooks a lagoon in Malibu. There is a living room with TV area, kitchen, gym and bedroom on the ground floor. On the first floor is a master suite (bedroom, bathroom and dressing room), two further bedrooms, an office, plus guest accommodation above the garage.

it takes chutzpah to buy a house without even seeing inside it first, but that’s exactly what Kathrin Bruss did with her Los Angeles home. The property is in Malibu Colony, a beachside enclave where real estate gets snapped up in less time than it takes a sun-kissed surfer to ride a wave. ‘I had to be quick,’ says Kathrin. ‘There were no pictures of it on the internet so I only saw it from the outside. I took a risk and signed.’ The chance was definitely one worth taking, although the house, which was built in the 1970s, needed a lot of work. ‘It was in very bad condition – you couldn’t live in it and the garden was a jungle,’ says Kathrin. ‘Due to the strict building permits, we had to stick to the same footprint but we gutted it completely.’