Timeless Seaside Home With Innovative Old World Style

The beauty of timeless design is how it can breathe with fresh air in any era. If there is an ultimate secret undergirding it it’s that the timeless indeed takes time! I think that is why I don’t consider fantasy-level interior tours as an unrealistic gaze without value when the budget is less celestial. Like fine art, we can view them through a lens of deep wonder, with a curious spirit, with unfettered joy as students who aren’t always hunting down exact paint colors or vendor resources. When the location of the fantasy is as dreamy as Richard Shapiro’s timeless seaside home? Oh, goodness. This fantasy tour appeared in AD (April 2011) and is not easily forgotten!

Timeless Seaside Home With Innovative Old World Style

Richard Shapiro, antiques dealer and head of Studiolo home furnishings designed this Malibu beach house with architect Douglas Burdge. Shapiro built a remarkable career spanning decades with a unique aesthetic approach. You’ll notice the mix of timelessly elegant design elements, Old World charm, and a deep reverence for art, light, history and antiques.

Shapiro’s interior design philosophy is rooted in the creative process of imagining spaces exuding warmth, depth, and soul. He is renowned for his ability to blend diverse styles and periods in a harmonious manner, resulting in livable luxury.

Shapiro’s interiors are frequently a rich mix of textures, luxurious fabrics, and exquisite details, showcasing meticulous attention to detail and craftsmanship.

Architectural projects by him often preserve historical elements while they incorporate modern amenities seamlessly. To strike such a balance between past and present requires a master storyteller.

Magnificent Entrance to this Timeless Home

His own home weaves together and welcomes a beautiful story! The front door (below) is framed by a French 18th-century stone surround, and aren’t the climbing vines fairytale-like?

As a designer of furniture, Shapiro created a line of exceptional pieces inspired by an admiration for antiques. The collection is marked by its timeless appeal, elegant finishes, and fine craftsmanship.

Patina Perfect Timeless Living Room

Each thoughtfully designed piece ushers comfort, beauty, and a sense of history into the interiors.

Curated carefully, the space is spare and pale, yet never sterile.

Shapiro is also recognized for his extensive art collection, which spans various periods and styles. These structures certainly qualify as art pieces too.

An appreciation for art, antiquity, and story inspires his captivating designs, each project elevated with a stirring sense of timeless artistry, sophisticated sensuality, and mystery.

Sculptural Staircase With Steel Balustrade

A sculptural staircase with steel balustrade winds up to the master bedroom and bath. At its base? 19th-century replica of an ancient Greek statue.

Oh, that door! It’s a nail-studded 17th-century walnut door from Italy. Just imagine the places and people to which this door has opened and closed!

Are you absorbing the bespoke nature, thoughtful curation, and set apart nature of this home? Set apart? Panels on the wall in the dining area above were not scored from Homegoods. 🙂 They are 18th-century inlaid Cosmatesque panels from Phoenician Stone.

Walls in the living room appear to be ancient after being sheathed in frescoed plaster.

The gilt-wood mirror above the fireplace hails from Italy and dates to the 1600s.

Awe-Inspiring Black Kitchen

The strikingly un-kitchenlike black kitchen is open to the living spaces and includes an island made of basalt.

The volcanic stone on counters is continued on the backsplash, and cabinets are black lacquer. A vintage glass waterfall table by Pace is paired with a linen-covered sofa custom fitted to the alcove.

And what an alcove it is!

Can you imagine the task of designing a timeless yet modern functioning kitchen for an open concept home this grand and magnificent?

Atmospheric Library Design Details

In the library, a daybed is upholstered provocatively in a mix of striped fabrics. Look at how each striped fabric on the piece varies!

So much warmth, coziness, and atmospheric wonder in the library with its shelves of what appear to be art and design related books.

How can it possibly feel calm with so many various patterns (look at the checkered floor!) from floor to ceiling?

It’s a great room to study to answer that question! There is remarkable balance – note the color of the built-ins and the sofa. The same color is repeated in checks on the floor. No jolting moments of contrast here. Even with the ruggedness of materials, a gentleness emerges.

With plenty of gentle sea breezes steps away, it’s quite mythical indeed!

I could get used to the view this ancient torso on the pedestal is graced to enjoy all day! Steel windows by Pierre Quinton welcome the glory of the Pacific.

Timeless Elegance Outdoors Too

More timeless details outdoors where beautiful stone steps descend to the shore.

More cozily mismatched beachy stripes outside as well!

What a way to enjoy your treasures both indoors and outdoors!

Luxurious Bedroom & Bathroom With Views

This is the point on our fantasy tour when we must regrettably weep over our own bath’s poverty!

A bath so utterly serene and harmonious with the rest of the interiors that its harmonious mix of nature, modernity, and the ancient positively SING.

In the bedroom, the divine symphony continues! A 19th-century Uzbek suzani warms the bed while a 17th-century Italian Savonarola chair stands alongside an antique Burgundian roof corbel.

I hope your heart is full as this fantasy tour stoked your passion for antiquities, design and history. Even without our usual daily dose of paint colors, color story ideas, furniture placement, antiques, and art collecting, we can inhale beauty to exhale into our own spaces.

Another Richard Shapiro Fantasy Tour

Find another fantasy tour HERE. I do hope you’ll take a moment to tour Shapiro’s magical Los Angeles home and gardens below. You won’t believe the breadth of beauty, interest, history, and art occupying a single acre!

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

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