For a beachside pied-à-terre, Palihouse Santa Monica is surprisingly moody and dramatic, with nary a white linen slipcover or seashell detail in sight. Which is, of course, a good thing, because a Nantucket-style seaside aesthetic wouldn’t fit very well with the building’s 1920s Moorish-inspired Mediterranean Revival architecture and Italian cypress–filled courtyards. Built in the days when Santa Monica was the end of the train line and still a months-long beach vacation destination, the now-landmark building has always housed holiday apartments, and its latest incarnation maintains that same relaxed, understatedly festive feel, with Paligroup owner Avi Brosh’s signature glamorous twist.
While the gardens feel straight out of Tuscany and the lobby lifted from an English private club (perhaps displaced to the Mediterranean), the spacious rooms and suites are a breezy, harmonious, and homey mishmash of Old World wallpaper, exposed beams, original 1920s architectural elements, and trendy accents such as vintage studio tripod lamps. In other words, this is the kind of apartment (most have fully outfitted kitchens) one would dream of having as their steps-from-the-beach pad. But, of course, because this is movie star territory, the hotel has bonus perks, from fridge-stocking services to on-call spa and massage treatments, and from a car service to cocktails in the courtyard.