Cher's Malibu Estate
A 16,000 square foot Venetian and Moorish fantasy filled with treasures gathered from around the world
On the most perfect bluff in Malibu sits an iconic home belonging to an even greater icon: the Academy Award winning singer, actor, activist, and extraordinary talent known to the world as Cher.
Built over five years by Wallace Tutt III, the 16,000 square foot estate grew from hundreds of tear sheets Cher ripped from countless magazines, its architecture referencing Venetian palazzos, the great Renaissance villas of Europe, and the Moorish influences of the Alhambra palace.
The finest materials were employed: limestone and marble imported from Italy and France, hand-wrought bronze doors, custom hardware and tiles from Spain and Morocco, and an 18th century Venetian marble balustrade from William Randolph Hearst’s collection at San Simeon.
Sixteen years ago Martyn was invited to help reimagine the residence, reworking every finish in Cher’s signature style of opulent comfort, theatrical elegance, and a timeless color palette.
“Every room has two different views of the ocean. This house wraps its arms around you.”
Cher
Talented artists painted the ceilings with Eastern motifs, hand-distressed mirrors became walls of reflective magic, and romantic Moroccan lighting warms every room.
In the bedroom, raw silk clad walls were stenciled with a blend of tea leaves, coffee grounds, and umber pigment to recreate the henna designs once painted on Cher’s hands at a wedding in India, and the private sitting area is encased in mashrabiya panels hand-carved in Fez.
Today the house is a zen-like sanctuary filled with museum-quality Asian art and custom furnishings, its entertaining rooms flooded with light, the infinity pool appearing to lap against the windows and out into the Pacific beyond.
Cher calls it one of the greatest passions of her life. Martyn tells the full story in Architectural Digest and in his book Star Style, for which Cher wrote the foreword.
Cher’s Malibu home was published as an Architectural Digest web exclusive in September 2022.
Photography by Douglas Friedman for Architectural Digest
Star Style
This project appears in Star Style by Martyn Lawrence Bullard, his collection of the interiors he has created for the people who shape modern taste. Signed copies are available here.
