British born Barrie Livingstone is an accomplished Interior Designer and real estate agent at The Agency – Malibu. Barrie’s design projects scan the globe from Los Angeles to Dubai and Miami to Malaysia. His passion for buildings and how people occupy them on a global level is the driving force for him, pairing the right property with the right person or group.

This 6,000 sq ft home sits on 10 acres and was built as a spec home. Our clients wanted to make the house look as if it had been there for longer than 6 months.

Aging a home and giving it grace and dignity is for Barrie a good challenge. The main hallway in the house had drywall square arches that he immediately had clad in Santa Barbara stone. This gives an established look and adds textures of the rough hewn stone. Darkening the wood and installing beams and coffers made a big difference. Hand painted malibu tiles and simple yet elegant spanish style window treatments that are all the same on the main level keeps unity and flow of design concept. Lighting fixtures help gel the theme and a fun auction find of the clients was this huge metal cow head which was mounted above the front door.

The dining room is cozy and playful with fun aged gold and black flocked wallpaper. Barrie originally wanted an antiqued copper ceiling but due to budget he found an equally gorgeous antiqued mirror wallpaper and placed it on the ceiling. It looks like old silver leaf and was a fraction of the cost.

Art and accessories really help tell your story and these clients travel lots and had wonderful items and interesting prints. They came back from Australia with a set of 12 marsupial images from an old book that were framed in old looking frames and now sit above the main living room sofa. Under the stairs is a small wine cellar out of a closet. Upstairs a bedroom became a movie theater complete with burgundy velvet walls and motorized drapes with Fornastti wallpaper in the bathroom of La Scala in Milano.

There are many parts to this house that all work in harmony together. Basically repetition of use of materials and color all make this home feel like a modernized manor house whose time is still now.