Oxnard beach home is renovated from ‘tear-down’ to rustic charmer
Former set decorator Szu Wakeman and her husband Dusty Wakeman turned a dilapidated 1926 beach shack in Oxnard into a modern and rustic beach house using simple materials, salvaged items and thrift store finds.
The house sits across the street from Hollywood Beach in an Oxnard enclave that Clark Gable and Rudolph Valentino once called home, but when Szu Wakeman purchased the neglected 1926 residence a few years ago, it was advertised as a tear down.
Wakeman, a former set decorator, saw beyond the nicotine-stained walls and recognized the potential for a thoroughly unconventional, funky and fun beach house with husband Dusty, a music producer and engineer, and their two kids.
“I thought it was quirky and charming,” she says of the home’s Knotts Berry Farm look of weathered rusticity, complete with a working water wheel out front. And in keeping with greener and more economical times, the couple chose to renovate with salvage in mind.
“Why throw something in a landfill?” Wakeman says of her decorating style.
Today, the three-bedroom weekend retreat is furnished with thrift store finds and deals from the sold-as-is clearance section of IKEA. The home’s original windows and doors were replaced but saved, installed later like art on the walls. One of the sofas was found on the street and re-covered.
“I’m always rescuing old and broken things,” says Wakeman, who once built an observation deck out of salvaged telephone poles at another property. “It’s like a fun game.”
Inspired by Mark and Sally Bailey’s book “Restoration Home,” which looks at ways to breathe new life into old stuff, Wakeman chose to make salvage as much as she could. The couple left the original stone fireplace intact and kept charmingly rudimentary original bunk beds, refreshed with new mattresses, nautical lights and white paint.
The getaway is a study in contrasts: White plastic chairs surround a formal oak dining table. A sleek mirrored lamp in a corner of the living room is topped with a damask-print shade. And though “thrift store” and “salvaged” are the key words in most rooms, the kitchen is equipped with the high-end appliances of a modern house.
The couple also invested in a new roof and electrical updates. A wall between the kitchen and living room came down to create an open living-cooking-dining area. The ash floor allows for easy post-beach cleanup.
Playful touches add a sense of humor throughout the house. Compact hand brooms hang as art — a hint — on the kitchen wall. ( “I figured if I hung those up, people might use them,” Wakeman says with a laugh.)
Shutters left on the street during a bulky-item pick-up day now cover windows. A divided wooden drawer — another purchase from the “as is” clearance section of IKEA — is mounted on the wall as a shelf for glassware. Wakeman also salvaged two old doors to create a back gate to the patio.
“It all would have gone to the dump,” she says. “Everything looks like it’s always been here.”
The goal was rustic but not too rustic. Wakeman cites Anthropologie stores as inspiration. “It is a really interesting mix of wood, rustic, bling and color,” she says. “It’s a contemporary aesthetic that I really respond to.”
One of the magical things about the setting is that summer never really ends. The Wakemans rent out their beach house occasionally throughout the year, but sooner or later, no matter the season, they find themselves making their way back, often with guests.
“We tell people we are going to be at the beach house and they actually come!” Wakeman says. “We’re all so entrenched in our day-to-day lives. The beach house forces us to stop, relax and smell the ocean air.”
