Custom cabinets in Malibu

Two kinds of Malibu house

Malibu runs for miles along Pacific Coast Highway, and the homes split into two broad settings that ask different things of cabinetry.

On the sand. Houses on Carbon Beach, Broad Beach, the Colony and Malibu Road sit a few steps from the surf. Sea spray reaches every door that opens to the deck, and the air inside stays damp through much of the year. These kitchens and great rooms are usually built around the view, with long runs of cabinetry under wide glass and few upper cabinets breaking the sightline to the water.

On the bluffs and in the canyons. Point Dume’s bluff-top lots and the canyon neighborhoods behind the coast get less direct spray but more sun, more heat and the dry offshore winds that blow in fall. Materials there need to tolerate swings, damp mornings followed by dry, warm afternoons.

Salt air is the main design constraint

Salt is the reason good-looking cabinets age badly on this coast. We plan for it on every Malibu project:

• Hardware first. Hinges, drawer slides and pulls are where salt air shows up first. We specify hardware for coastal exposure and avoid plated finishes that pit near the water.
• Every face sealed. Backs, edges, cutouts and the undersides of shelves are finished, not just the fronts, so moisture can’t find a raw surface to soak into.
• Stable cores for big doors. Tall slab doors and wide panels are built on stable veneered cores rather than solid boards, which move more in humid air.
• Wood that ages honestly. Rift white oak and walnut with matte, wipeable finishes hold up to sun through big windows better than high-gloss lacquers that show every mark.

Built for indoor-outdoor living

In much of Malibu, the deck is part of the living room. Cabinetry follows that: bar and beverage storage near the sliders, a pass-through counter to outdoor seating, closed storage for towels and beach gear near a side door, and built-in benches or window seats facing the water. We design these as part of the interior, finished to match the kitchen, so the room reads as one piece from the island to the doors.

After the fires

The January 2025 Palisades Fire destroyed homes in eastern Malibu, including beachfront houses along Pacific Coast Highway, and the Franklin Fire in December 2024 burned around Malibu Canyon and Pepperdine. If you are rebuilding the whole house, our Pacific Palisades page explains how we plan cabinetry for an entire home from architectural drawings.

For a kitchen, a set of baths or a single room, start with a free design visit. We look at how close the house is to the water, which rooms take the weather, and how you use the space, then draw it and give you an itemized price.