A sea breeze wafts through Janette Sosothikul’s home in Oxnard, California, ruffling the curtains as her grandkids bound in from the dunes for a game of Ping-Pong. Arrayed on three floors, with wall-to-wall glass sliders along the ocean facade and a skylit stairwell, the house is both an extension of the beach and an airy backdrop for family gatherings.

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“The sand is really their living room,” says architect David Montalba. “That simplicity was important to the concept of the house and how it’s used. It’s the ultimate hangout house.”

Flanked by fields of strawberries and lima beans, lemon and avocado groves, and wide beaches, Oxnard has a laid-back rural charm that made it a favorite getaway spot for the Sosothikul clan over the years. When Janette retired, she sold her house outside Los Angeles and looked for a house in the town, figuring it would be the perfect place for her three daughters and their families to gather for weekends, vacations, or day trips.

She bought and sold one cottage and then another, inching closer to the water with each move. But her search for a home with ocean views proved elusive until a dated two-story bungalow right on the beach came up for sale. Janette’s daughter Kendra, an interior designer, called Montalba. They had first worked together 10 years before on a commercial project and were friends as well as neighbors in Santa Monica.

Montalba immediately grasped the location’s allure. Although he was born in Florence and spent his early years in Switzerland, he had settled in Carmel after moving to the States and later lived and surfed in San Diego. He began formulating a plan to connect the house to the landscape with ocean views from every level.

It had to be large enough to comfortably accommodate visits from Janette’s daughters and their husbands and seven grandchildren without dominating the site. “Our work is rooted in modernism,” Montalba explains, “but it’s also rooted in trying to be thoughtful and innovative to solve problems in a beautiful way.”

Since a major challenge was how to introduce air and light to a home that would sit close to its neighbors, the central staircase became the project’s linchpin. Its wood louvers offer both privacy and transparency, filtering natural light from the skylight above and from the south-facing windows while providing a screen so that family members can move between floors without disturbing others.

After several months in the planning stages, the staircase was built offsite and then installed by contractor Kirk Hoffman, who had to get from floor to floor by ladder until it was operational. “We had so little space that the stair itself is essentially a folded piece of steel, and each tread is just one steel plate,” Montalba explains.

The interior layout gives the family plenty of opportunities to gather, starting with the “kids’ level” on the bottom. With concrete floors that stand up to sandy feet, it contains four built-in bunks and a living area with loungey sectionals.

The undisputed hub of the house is the second floor, where the open-plan living room, dining area, and kitchen look out to the water. Tucked away from the beach facade are two bedrooms, a pair of bathrooms, and the laundry room. Janette has her own suite on the top floor, reached via the stairs or an elevator.

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Throughout, Montalba and Kendra emphasized natural, textured materials such as white oak for the floors, rift-cut white oak for the cabinetry, honed soapstone for the kitchen island, and glazed brick and basalt stone for the master bath. The interior palette of muted blues, grays, neutrals, and silver blends into and reflects the scenery.

Kendra, who has a hospitality background and now runs Studio Berosso with cofounder Paula Press, put her experience in hotel design to use when selecting finishes and fabrics. She points to the dining banquette, which has a vinyl seat and linen back, while the custom table top itself was cured and lacquered to be virtually indestructible: “I’d say, ‘Could I put that in a hotel lobby or a guest room, and would it last?’ If it would work there, it would work here.”

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Whether it’s taking a pounding from kids running in from a day in the water or holding a boisterous holiday meal, the house has become what Montalba had first envisioned—“a canvas for the family and a place that captures the spirit of the beach and their relationship to it.”

“Nothing here is fancy or too precious,” says Kendra. “The house was made for family living.”

Project Credits:

Architect: Montalba Architects / @montalba_architects

Builder: Kirk Hoffman Construction

Structural Engineer: The Office of Gordon L. Polon

Lighting Designer: Oculus Light Studio / @oculuslightstudio

Interior Designer: Kendra Sosothikul/Studio Berosso / @studioberosso

Mechanical Engineer: Nibecker & Associates

Photographer: Joe Fletcher / @joefletcherphoto

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