In Paradise Cove, California, renting a patch of land slightly larger than a pickleball court for a few thousand dollars each month gets you a key to one of the best surfing beaches on the West Coast. On that patch of ground, or technically a foot or two above it, on metal struts, you can live in a souped-up trailer, as Sofie Howard has done for the past 15 years.
Howard in the dining area of her home, with interiors by Commune Design veteran Frances Merrill’s firm, Reath Design.
Howard, 55, is an independent photo producer for clients like Nike,
Levi’s and Beats by Dre. She’s also a lifelong surfer and a serial trailer owner. Paradise Cove’s 276 mobile homes are pretty much permanently moored to their spots in this sought-after Malibu Beach community that has become the Côte d’Azur of trailer parks. “I started in a tiny trailer I bought for $190,000—it’s now for sale for a million,” she says. “Dude, and it’s a tiny one-bedroom—it’s so small that when people would come over for dinner, they’d have to sit in the golf cart outside.”
Other than surfing, the sport of choice in Paradise Cove seems to be trading up to a slightly bigger trailer, which can involve listening in on arguments and watching to see who’s pregnant, both of which Howard has done. She’s moved up twice, most recently about 18 months ago: This was after her two sons, 28 and 25, refused to come for overnight visits anymore. Howard and her boyfriend, the stylist René Acuña, and his 17-year-old son were already in close quarters, so they understood, and before long Howard had scored a double-wide once owned, she says, by a well-known actress . “It’s kind of a famous trailer in the park,” Howard adds.
Ceramic pendant lights custom-made by Kevin Willis hang over vintage rattan stools in the kitchen area.
Her new 1,000-square-foot home came with two bedrooms and a sort of caboose that makes a third. The actress’s decorating scheme was still in place. “It’s not like [she] did it in a bad way, but it looked very Hidden Hills,” Howard says, equating the white-on-white furnishings and chrome-on-chrome finishes left behind with a certain gated community in the San Fernando Valley popular with reality TV stars .
Parisian club chairs from the 1920s and a vintage side table sit by the fireplace.
The only things Howard kept on were the fireplace and the hot tub; the empty shell she turned over to her friend Frances Merrill of Reath Design, a flourishing young decorating firm in Los Angeles. Merrill was also on board for Howard’s last trailer transformation. The two women met working at Commune Design, the creative studio where Merrill was a designer and Howard headed the photo department. Reath Design also did Howard’s bungalow in nearby Venice, where the producer lives when she’s not at the Cove.
On the wall are photographs by Howard’s father, Gerald Barron; Anton Corbijn; and Alison Dyer.
“Frances’s taste is impeccable,” Howard says of Merrill. “She gets fashion, which is my love and life—she gets art. She’s just the best. And every single thing goes down with a smile.”
For the two friends, working together again meant vaulting over the getting-to-know-you stage to pick up with Howard’s ever-evolving taste. Their last trailer had been on the earthy side, with burlap curtains and a dusky ceiling. What Howard had in mind this time was a Big Sur surf shack—a look “more hippie” than Malibu can muster these days, she says, and one with some miles on it. The hot tub would play a role, and so would a new red-cedar ceiling extending the full length of the trailer’s 24-by-56-foot dimensions. As Merrill explains it, the blank box “needed some wood on the ceiling to balance all the colors below.”
“Sofie is a happy, colorful person,” says Merrill. “We wanted to keep the interior bright and airy. If we were going to have white walls to achieve that, then it was great to get some color into the furniture.” A custom sofa upholstered in alternating squares of sunset-hued chenille and a beet-red dining table by Ilse Crawford for De La Espada did the trick, underlined by a floor painted juniper green, with lilac cabinetry. “So much of it is balancing,” Merrill adds, with the élan of Diana Vreeland. “The green floor stops the lavender cabinets from being too feminine.”
The bedroom’s sprightly floral wallpaper is vintage Finnish deadstock. The RH bed is covered in Linenshed sheets and an Urban Outfitters blanket, and the headboard is fitted with a custom slipcover made from a vintage textile owned by Howard. The rattan pendant light is vintage in Italy.
A few years earlier, Merrill had spotted a light made of swirly orange resin infused with straw on Etsy and bought it, convinced that the shaded pendant “would be perfect, sometime, somewhere.” His moment had arrived.
For the master bedroom, Merrill tracked down a few rolls of vintage 1970s wallpaper with a sunny, Monterey vibe from the Helsinki-based vendor Tapettitalo. “There was just enough to finish this room,” Howard says. “So many people come into my house and say, ‘Where did you get this?’ And I’m thrilled to say, ‘There ain’t no more!’”
The dining area features an Ilse Crawford–designed table, George Nakashima–designed chairs, a custom-made banquette and a vintage Italian light fixture that Merrill found on Etsy and saved for the perfect project.
For Merrill, the project was a lesson in going with her instincts—in this case, not to get super precious. “This is a place for her kids and her boyfriend and his kid and their friends to come and be,” she says of Howard’s permanently semipermanent house. “It doesn’t need to be fussed over. It’s there to be enjoyed.”
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