DESIGN
The Way We Are A weekend retreat in Paradise Cove designed for entertaining, relaxing and just being
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BY MARTHA McCULLY PHOTOGRAPHED BY JESSICA SAMPLE
ehind the patchwork wooden door of Art Luna and Tim Clarke’s turquoise home in Paradise Cove is a living, breathing world. The ’70s wind chime sings to a bright blue peace sign; the staghorn ferns, fed banana peels by Luna through their soil, nestle around an oyster-shell mirror; and bromeliads and tillandsias hang out on driftwood shelves. Every sign of life vibrates here in these tight, desirable quarters. Even the aluminum trailers turned into portable palaces and the golf carts that whisk owners to the beach and back, have their own personalities—much like the oneof-a-kind couple in their midst. “We come here to just be who we are,” says Luna. Paradise Cove is technically a mobile home park, though tucked between $60 million dwellings on the Malibu cliffs and inhabited by celebrities like Minnie Driver and Stevie Nicks, it’s arguably the most attractive in the country, perhaps the world. Luna, a landscape designer, FROM ABOVE Artwork from California and Hawaii hangs on grass-cloth walls in the living room. The kitchen, and Clarke, an interior designer, call it a complete with Viking range. The cozy bedroom sports “bohemian trailer park country club,” and had Pendleton Woolen Mills bedding and a ’70s shag rug. been looking for their parking spot for more than a year when they fell in love with the trailer at No. 52. “We knew immediately that Commune had designed it,” says Luna. (He and Clarke have remodeled six of their own homes in L.A.) “It was perfect and we didn’t have to do anything to it,” he adds, smiling. “All we did was redo it.” Though Luna says “the bones are still Commune,” he and Clarke couldn’t resist adding their inimitable stamp. That’s what they do; Luna transforms awkward spaces into secret gardens and Clarke creates beachy interiors—sand optional. Their “beach locker” here borrows from their travels to create a kind of hip and homey surfer’s haven. Handblocked fabric from Bali doubles as the bedroom FROM TOP Art Luna (left) and Tim Clarke among their wallpaper and curtains. CONTINUED ON P.128
Design (Bits)
drought-tolerant epiphytes in Paradise Cove. An alcove of inspiration. The couple’s beagle, Bunker, on neighborhood watch from the living room. Lobster dinner on the beach.