Sarah Solis | Malibu
Point Dume Retreat: Conscious Select × Sarah Solis
Sarah Solis is a Malibu-based designer classically trained in interior design, fine art, and art history — a combination that shows in everything she makes. Her practice is guided by Wabi-Sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection and honouring the natural cycles of growth and decay. "Celebrating cracks, crevices, and all other marks that time, weather, and love leave behind," she has said. "In my own words — it is an expression of gratitude for the weather of life."
PT Dume is her own home — a 1951 Colonial Revival on one of Malibu's most coveted stretches of coastline, which she renovated over four years. It is the project she returns to when asked which work resonates most deeply. It is easy to understand why. Every decision in it was made for herself, which means every decision was made without compromise.
The Project
The renovation began with a plan to expand and open the structure — to do away with the warren of smaller rooms the Colonial layout created. City approvals in Malibu intervened, and Solis made the better choice: to capitalise on the smaller rooms rather than fight them, to bring romance to contained spaces rather than dissolve them into open plan. "I had a real desire to bring romance to the spaces," she has said. What seemed like a constraint became the project's defining quality. The renovation took over four years and is shaped throughout by Sarah's philosophy: design should be comfortable, soulful, and connected to nature. French white oak floors were laid throughout. Natural wood moldings replaced modern door trim, giving each room a nod to its history. A salvaged limestone mantel from the south of France anchors the living room. The entry is set with reclaimed Belgian bluestone underfoot, paired with a primitive Welsh bench and a weathered Swedish console layered in old glass and sterling. A piano passed down through the family and a chair once owned by her grandmother carry meaning that no new purchase could replicate. The landscape was shaped by Solis herself — drought-tolerant planting, mature olive trees, an outdoor kitchen that opens the interior toward garden and sky. The boundary between inside and outside dissolves not through glass walls but through continuity of material, palette, and pace.
CS Design Values
Adaptive Reuse. A 1951 Colonial Revival preserved and deepened rather than demolished or expanded. The constraints of the existing structure became the source of its character.
Working with Nature. Drought-tolerant landscape shaped by the designer herself, mature olive trees, and an outdoor kitchen that opens toward garden and sky — inside and outside bound by continuity rather than glass.
Material Honesty.Reclaimed Belgian bluestone, salvaged French limestone, Roman clay, white oak, antique and vintage pieces chosen for their patina and their stories. Every surface selected for how it will look in twenty years, not how it looks today.
Why It's Consciously Selected
PT Dume embodies everything Solis loves about design: a strong connection to nature, a sense of understated luxury, and a timeless narrative woven through every detail. It is a home built for the long life of a family — for the marks that daily inhabitation leaves, the stories that accumulate in rooms that are allowed to age. That patience is the most conscious design decision of all.