- Hey AD, I'm Ellen Pompeo.
Welcome to my house at the beach.
[upbeat music]
So I worked on this house,
together with my longtime friend in interior design,
partner in crime, Martyn Lawrence Bullard.
We get into lots of trouble together and have a load of fun.
When I first bought this house
he found this original DeSede sofa from the 60s
which is very unusual patchwork leather
and we sort of built all of our inspiration around this sofa
and then the walls.
I think the book matched marble is really striking.
It's so dramatic and it sets the perfect tone
for everything and it really is art in itself.
So the bar cart is fantastic.
That's one of the favorite things in the house.
It's just so period and so cool.
It really gives that mid-century vibe.
And tequila is a favorite here.
We love tequila in all forms,
with not a lot of sugar in it.
We just like the tequila
and just some plain lime juice,
you know. [upbeat music]
Okay, so this is the main dining area for the kids.
This is where they sit
and these chairs are Swedish from the 60s
and this table was actually in Yves Saint Laurent's studio,
it was a cutting table,
and the plant on the table is called a seaweed cactus.
I think it's so fantastic and I love the deep green.
The kids have a lot of fun at this table
throwing food at each other.
And then I scream at them from over there.
[Ellen giggling] [upbeat music]
Okay, so I cook a lot
so I have a lot of rules regarding this kitchen.
This kitchen is very small.
I don't like anybody in the kitchen when I'm in here.
So everybody has to stand behind this line.
There are three stools that I've been nice enough
to put here for the children,
they each have their own stool,
and nobody is to come around into the kitchen.
If they want something, they're supposed to stand there
or sit there and ask me for it.
This is my space. [Ellen giggling]
So again, we have the same resilient book matched marble,
which if you notice the design sort of comes together
even though the walls are separated,
the pattern flows in a way that is really beautiful
and it really sort of reminds you of the waves of the ocean.
You can't help but just sit
and stare at the ocean all day when you're here.
So the apothecary jars
Martyn found at the Parisian flea market,
which I absolutely love, and in Los Angeles,
because the ground moves those are tacked down
with some sticky tape to make sure that if the house shakes
those don't fall off and hit anybody in the head.
[upbeat music]
So obviously this is the formal dining room in this house
and sometimes when we have a lot of people over
the kids all sit at that table
and the adults will sit at this table.
It's big enough for so many people.
The view is incredible.
I wake up and have my coffee here in the morning
and Martyn custom made this table.
The middle moves, it's a lazy Susan so it's great
'cause all these people can sit around the table.
The chandelier is a modern piece,
but obviously the vibe is very 60s
and I think what's nice about it is it's kind of light,
but it mimics the shape of the table
and it feels like it goes with the table
but it doesn't obscure the view at all.
[upbeat music]
Okay, so we are in the primary bedroom
and there's a couple of things about this room
that are worth mentioning.
The marble you see behind us
was inspired by this amazing art movie called, "I Am Love,"
and so this is sort of an homage to that.
My husband wanted a custom made bed so that all the kids,
we could all sleep in here together on the weekends.
So the bed is extra big and this is where we watch movies
and we light a fire and lay in bed, all of us,
and fight over which movie to watch.
[Ellen giggling] [upbeat music]
So this is the primary bathroom.
We spend a lot of time in here, me and my daughters,
and we just try to sit around and relax.
The chairs are William Jewell,
again, just a nice little sitting area
and it's just a nice quiet space.
You try to get some calm and peace
and teach the children the importance
of taking some time for yourself.
Full disclosure, marble baths don't retain heat so well.
I don't really recommend it.
It looks very cool, but the water doesn't stay warm for long
and I loved this bench.
It's all made out of terry cloth
so you could sit here wet
and it's kind of like a big towel.
[upbeat music]
So we are outside, we are in the back of the house.
I'm on the bluff at the ocean
and this is all original to the house.
It's freezing in Malibu at nighttime
so to have a fire pit out here is really nice.
The kids definitely make s'mores on the fire, for sure,
and this is, again, the best place
to either have coffee in the morning or a drink at night.
You could just sit out here for hours.
This tree, it's a yucca tree
and I just think it's so sculptural and gorgeous
and so when we chose the color for the sofas
that was really our inspiration.
One of my biggest struggles as a mother
is getting the kids away from the TV
and away from the iPads
so sometimes I just banish them to those chairs
[Ellen laughing] and I make them sit there
and watch the ocean
and tell me what you see. [upbeat music]
This is the kid's bedroom.
I knew that I love purple, obviously,
and we knew we were going with color for this house,
but this wallpaper, this David Hicks inspired grasscloth,
is quite graphic and cool and so we started with that,
ceiling is like a nice place to add a little vibe,
it really does change everything
and then everything else can be clean and simple.
Martyn and I made these bean bags.
It's Missoni fabric. I love them and I'm a big fan.
I do a little touch of Missoni all the time with everything.
It's so fun and colorful.
This backgammon table is one of my favorite things.
It's fantastic and we're big backgammon players
and we're teaching the kids.
So we've put it in here to inspire the kids to learn
how to play backgammon.
So the bunk beds allow the kids to have friends over
and they can see each other through the windows,
they can stay up all night and talk to each other.
Hopefully they stay up all night
so they sleep in the morning and don't wake me up.
And these stairs have drawers in them
so it's important to have places to hide all the stuff.
[upbeat music]
So this is another guest room
and what's special about this room is all the photography.
So these are all very important moments in Black history.
Diana Ross outside Motown.
Martin Luther King, obviously, "I Have a Dream" here.
This is Grace Jones being painted on by Keith Haring.
And then this is The Supremes
I think the night they won their Grammy,
or one of their Grammys,
I don't know how many Grammys they have.
The tables are 50s, Gio Ponti 50s.
And then we also have some amazing
Herb Ritts photography here.
Obviously my children are Black
and it's really important for me
to have lots of representation in the artwork usually,
I really make an effort to have it be
predominantly Black artists or have the subjects of it
be Black people who have made such an impact
on our history here in the United States.
[upbeat music]
So we're at the pool right now
and in California we really keep shallow pools
because we have to be conscious
and the pool is the perfect place to hang out
in this California heat,
even though it's not that hot today.
Typically this house is not very peaceful.
When you have a beach house
a lot of people wanna come and visit and so this place,
we always have the music blasting
and there's always so many kids running around
and playing in the pool.
My husband usually stays behind that bar
and makes pina coladas and margaritas for everyone.
It's a really fun space.
The house was built by Buff and Hensman
which are quite well known architects here in California
and the house had to be completely rebuilt
because of the damage that the sea and the salt air does.
So I took the house completely to the studs and redid it,
and the biggest change I think I made was,
it was not all walls of glass before
and I replaced all the existing walls with glass.
[upbeat music]
So this is the guest house
and Martyn and I started this room with the wallpaper.
The wallpaper was something we fell in love with
and we built the whole room around that.
It's funny, you can't really see it,
but there's a blue, sort of a teal color,
behind the green palm trees
and so I really wanted to accent that blue
because it's such a gorgeous color, that teal,
and so we chose to lacquer the closet doors in the teal
and make the grasscloth wallpaper teal.
What's interesting about this house
is it's mid-century modern,
so there's a lot of glass,
there's a lot of cement, a lot of marble,
which is all really hard.
So it definitely needs something to soften it.
So I think all the warm textures,
the wicker, the wood of the house
and you need that natural element to soften it
and I always make sure I have flowers and a candle
and there's a little espresso machine down there
under the nightstand so that everybody feels at home
and casual when they're staying here.
[upbeat music]
Okay AD, that was fun. You gotta go now.
Bye. Go and have a tequila. [upbeat music]