Welcome to The Malibu Chateau

There is a very specific kind of optimism involved in trying to keep a family home with four little children in it.

It is the optimism of placing flowers in a vase while someone is asking for a snack, a bandage, or help finding the shoe that is somehow both missing and on their foot.

The Malibu Chateau begins there: not in a perfect house, but in a real one. This journal is about coastal European-style family living in Malibu. It's a live record of timeless ideas to enhance modern living. It's about how do we enjoy and share the goodness here via the space, stories and select items.

Why I started this journal

Most of what I am asked about privately is practical. Which things actually get used? What looks nice without being too fragile? What survives sand, snacks, bath time, sunscreen, cousins, grandparents and that mysterious sticky phase every surface eventually enters?

After work, marriage, and four children, I am less interested in having the most things, but rather much more interested in having the right things. Something earns its place here only if it is useful, easy enough to live with and makes an ordinary day a little lovelier. I want to recommend something the way a good friend would: specific, honest, a little amused by real life and genuinely trying to help.

The Malibu Chateau feeling

The visual language is real, but reassuring. I love neutral hues and textures: stone, linen, woven baskets, weathered wood, gentle blues, creamy whites, garden greens and things that look better when life touches them.

Nothing too shiny. Nothing too loud. Nothing that requires everyone in the house to move like museum visitors, even if the pieces themselves look rather museum-worthy.

What you will find here

You will find a collection of our favorite baby products, family packing lists, kid-corner ideas, approachable hosting notes, garden formulas and honest caveats about what helps us make life better. I like pretty things, but I like pretty practically beautiful things more: the pieces that wipe clean, fold down, stack neatly or quietly save the day while looking good enough to not detract from the one shot I have of all the kids smiling simultaneously for the holiday card.

Start here

The easiest place to go from here is the link page. I use it for top Amazon favorites, capsule waitlist updates, and the other things I am slowly building. Slowly is the key word. I am not trying to make a list for everything, right now. I am trying to make a useful and enjoyable record of the things that work well in particular moments of family life.

If you are here for quick best product suggestions, some opportunities to engage with our curated spaces, both online and off, or just some humorous, but helpful anecdotes about a very full house trying to optimize functioning in a beautiful way (inside and out) then "welcome!". I am so glad you found this place, please subscribe or contact us to stay up to date on everything!