STAR QUALITY

Bond movies and Brazilian modernism are the spur behind this Malibu beach house, infused by Studio Shamshiri with a laid-back glamour

- ANNA FIXSEN

For about as long as there’s been Hollywood, there’s been Malibu. A century ago, along an exclusive stretch of sand known as the Malibu Colony, you might have chanced upon Gloria Swanson and Charlie Chaplin engaged in a lively game of table tennis; these days, you might bump into Tom Hanks or Flea.

Interior designer Pamela Shamshiri had two very different stars in mind, however, for her recent reimagining of a family house: Lina Bo Bardi and James Bond. ‘We wanted it to be Malibu at its most glamorous,’ she says.

Luckily, the property itself was not short of cinematic charisma. The narrow, half-acre plot featured three structures, built in the late-1990s, that bookended a garden and a pool. These included a pair of two-storey volumes containing a 5,000 sq ft primary residence and guest suites. From the beach-facing main house, with its broad expanses of windows and low-slung profile, it felt like you could almost touch the Pacific Ocean.

For the property's owner Jana Bezdek, co-founder of production company FourthWall Theatrical, the home fulfilled a lifelong yearning to be on the water. ‘My husband is from a neighbourhood called Rustic Canyon and I grew up in Del Mar, California. We were always drawn to being close to the beach,’ she says. So when she came across the property four years ago, Bezdek pounced. The house would not only serve as a beach escape for her family, but it would also be a romantic nod to her husband, who proposed to her on that very section of beach. To realise her vision, Bezdek tapped Shamshiri, who had previously designed her family's main residence in LA, as well as her New York pied-à-terre. Bezdek says.