Josh Brolin’s ‘Media Barn’ Is a High-Design, Creative Sanctuary

Once the construction dust settles and the dream home is complete—after all the agonizing over details that define day-to-day living—designing ancillary structures like a guesthouse can feel like playing with house money. Whether you’re imagining a party barn, a back office, a playhouse, or a multipurpose retreat made for all of the above—as in this structure AAHA Studio designed for actor Josh Brolin, his wife Kathryn Boyd Brolin, and their two young daughters—the process carries a certain lightness. The pressure is off. Cue the joy.

Michael P. H. Clifford

“The greatest part about this project is that the structure could be really playful. It was a bonus to the main living space,” says Aaron Leshtz, a partner at AAHA Studio with his wife and business partner, Harper Halprin. “It didn’t have to incorporate the everyday essentials. It can be just a creative place to have guests and parties, adjacent to outdoor living space, supplementing and complementing the main house and property, which is full of nooks and crannies. The Brolins wanted to put a game or a fight on the big TV and have kids jumping in the pool.”

Michael P. H. Clifford

Josh Brolin is an old-school Hollywood creative polymath who grew up surfing in Santa Barbara, and his Malibu property, which has a basketball court, cold plunge, and little writing barn clad in reclaimed wood, reflects that. The Brolins worked with contractor Dan Marriott to remodel their main house, and they brought on the AAHA team to fine-tune this 1,800-square-foot space, dubbed the “media barn,” when a friend introduced him to the team.

At first, Leshtz and Halprin were consulted to do a computer-generated shade and sun study to ensure worried neighbors the original two-story plans wouldn’t encroach on their land, and to also comply with strict Malibu building codes. The Brolins were so impressed with the vision that they took AAHA’s advice to alter the plans and shave off a second-story mezzanine and focus on maximizing a single-story layout instead. Then, they got to the fun part. Brolin has described his decorative inspiration for the design of this project as “kaleidoscopic.”

Michael P. H. Clifford

“We had a text chain with the interior designers Pierce & Ward, and the builder and Josh would send a bunch of weird photos, then we’d all scramble to figure out what the inspiration was,” Leshtz says. “Dan would run with the ideas, and he didn’t really push back on anything. What the barn ended up becoming couldn’t have happened without a builder like him. It’s all quirk and nuance.”

Brolin’s wife, Kathryn, is a creative force in her own right. Her background is in photography, but she also designed a popular denim line, Midheaven. It was her idea to bring on Los Angeles-based Pierce & Ward for the interiors, which are known for being glamorous and lighthearted, rooted in tradition but with a flair for drama.

“They both had thoughts about how they wanted it to function, but they weren’t prescriptive. They trusted the creative process,” Halprin says. “That’s very abnormal. People will say they want to be loose and fun, but they aren’t as fun as they thought they were.”

Leshtz says part of what made this project so successful is that his and Halprin’s background is heavily interiors-based, and, unlike many architects, they were willing and prepared to emphasize the house’s decorative aspects. They were committed to building out millwork so the architecture would support the interiors, and vice versa. Pierce & Ward Creative Director Carmen-Jean Cluttey was their primary collaborator, and she used the Brolins’ impressive art collection as a jumping-off point.

Michael P. H. Clifford

“There were a few core pieces we designed around,” Cluttey says. “One of them being Jammie Holmes’ ‘Behind Golden Bars 2’ in the living room.”

Starting with a base of neutrals, such as their “go-to” Benjamin Moore Beach House Beige, the team incorporated many of the Brolins’ vintage finds sourced from their travels around the world, with a few key additions, like a 1980s oak and brass pool table. Bold use of tile and stone in kitchens and bathrooms is another Pierce & Ward signature, and they did not hold back here, playing with geometric patterns and richly veined marble.

Consulting with Paul Weiss of Pacific West Landscape, they designed warm sandstone patios, decking, a built-in conversation area, and a pergola to take advantage of the mild coastal climate.

“What’s nice is that the Brolins are not terribly serious people,” says Leshtz, intending that comment as high praise. “They are playful. And that really comes through.”