Visit a Chic Coastal Retreat Rooted in Mid-Century Modern Style

Call it a technicality or a matter of semantics, but a home on the beach isn’t necessarily a beach house. Just ask Lisa Berman and Melissa Rohani of Studio Gutow, an interior design firm based in Laguna Beach, California. Over the course of three years, the duo worked with a local surgeon and her family to create interiors that celebrated their new home’s coastal location with subtlety and sophistication—and without any of the typical “beachy” kitsch.

“Creating a sense of place is important to us, but so is individuality,” Berman says. “In recent years, our clients’ Newport Beach neighborhood has been booming with cookie-cutter blue-and-white beach houses, but we wanted to buck that trend. We wanted to design a house with enough breathing room to reflect its owners who, in this case, happen to be a young family of four.”

Working with architect Gary Maxwell, Berman and Rohani took cues from mid-century modern design to set the framework for easy, breezy interiors that cater to their clients’ alfresco inclinations. Throughout sunlit spaces, cedar-clad ceilings reign above rooms wrapped in smooth walnut paneling and streamlined built-ins that speak to the straightforward style of the bygone era. To counter the austerity of the clean lines and sparse structural details, they slathered walls with pigment-tinted Venetian plaster for softness and incorporated statement-making features made from natural stone for texture and depth. In the main living areas, tumbled Mexican limestone floors convey a sense of age (and stand up to sandy feet) while the muted earthtones of the Fior Di Pesco marble island and range wall wash the kitchen in warmth and hide a myriad of sins (a.k.a. splatters and spills).

“It’s a proven fact that natural materials do more than please the eye—they also calm the mind,” Berman says. “For this reason, we were very intentional and discerning in our choices and steered clear of anything that could come across jarring or harsh. We took our time to search for materials with pattern and movement like grainy woods and veiny stone along with living metals like unlacquered brass and wrought iron that will beautifully patina over time.”

These tones—inspired by earthen elements found along the southern California coastline—served as the starting point for the interior palette and presented the designers with another opportunity to bring the outdoors in. Soft whites and neutrals extracted from the sea oats and sand are echoed in billowy linen drapes, crisp cotton upholstery, and curly wool accents. Brown notes derived from driftwood, rocks, and tree trunks prevail in furniture handcrafted from oak, walnut, maple, and sycamore, or woven from rush and rattan. And around every corner, sprigs of green sprout in various forms—a potted tree in a crusty Willy Guhl planter, a luxe Indian silk throw pillow, or a graphic motif in one of the many vintage and antique Persian rugs.

Those frayed and faded rugs are a particular hallmark of Studio Gutow’s work. “You’ll find them in almost all of our projects,” Rohani says. “They’re character building in any type of room, but especially in those that lean toward the minimal end of the design spectrum. The craftsmanship that goes into their hand-woven patterns is deeply rooted in cultural tradition making them relics in their own rite. We consider them true works of art.”

Because the wide window expanses and open floor plan limited wall space for hanging art, the designers turned to sculptural lighting to convey artistic expression. Quirky cone-shaped metal sconces, a sleek alabaster pendant, and enchanting ceramic table lamps shed light on sofas and chairs with low-slung seats and sculptural arms, shapely tables with curvy tops and peg legs, and handsome case goods. Sourced near and far—from Lawrence of La Brea and Obsolete in Orange Country to Ponce Berga in West Palm Beach and Hector Finch in London—the pieces that comprise this unique assemblage represent a wide range of periods (Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern) and provenance (Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, France). Together, they collectively to support the understated elegance of the architecture and the homeowner’s desire for curated interiors.

“The furnishings feel collected, purposeful, and unpredictable,” Rohani says. “At first glance, they might even seem a bit unusually paired. But that sense of unexpectedness gives a room allure and makes it more inviting and engaging. Without it, the design can fall flat.”