A 1950s beach house in the Malibu hills has finally finished its six-year makeover, and Sunset magazine marked the moment the way it knows best: with a golden-hour party. The 2026 Sunset Idea House, designed by content creator Camille Styles with architect Doug Burdge, was unveiled to a crowd of designers, West Coast creatives and locals at the home perched above Zuma Beach.
The house itself is the story. A new 1,000-square-foot great room opens through glass walls to decks, gardens, a vintage kidney-shaped pool, a sunken fire-pit lounge and a full outdoor kitchen. Everything is built around indoor-outdoor California living, with natural materials, quiet luxury and fire-conscious construction — a real consideration in the Santa Monica Mountains — plus rooms meant to be actually lived in, not just photographed.
The reveal party leaned into that flow. Guests were shuttled up the winding canyon road in electric Rivians, while LALO Tequila cocktails and sparkling wines from Iron Horse circulated between terrace, garden and pool. At the wood-fired pizza oven, Daniele Uditi — co-founder of LA favourite Pizzana — turned out pies, including his cacio e pepe, a playfully Californian riff on the Roman classic.
For travellers, Malibu's appeal is exactly what this house showcases: outdoor rooms with an ocean view. The hills above Zuma Beach remain one of the most atmospheric stretches of the Pacific Coast Highway, with state beach access, roadside seafood shacks and hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains all nearby. And while most of us won't get invited to an Idea House reveal, the Sunset concept itself — natural textures, indoor-outdoor layouts, fire pits and pizza ovens — is an easy mood to borrow for a California holiday rental wishlist.
Timing a trip around golden hour on a Malibu hillside is rarely a mistake. This one came with pizza.
