Santa Monica North-of-Montana Residence — Coastal Sheer & Blackout Program

A traditional north-of-Montana residence three blocks from the Palisades bluffs, in a design brief written for a young family relocating from the East Coast. The owners wanted the formal living room and primary suite to read as residential and quietly elegant by day, hold up against west-facing afternoon Pacific sun, and operate as a true blackout sleeping room at night. The brief was an unbuilt design concept developed alongside the family's interior designer; it is published here as a studio reference for the specification practice it documents.

Dual-layer programs in both rooms — a high-transmittance performance sheer outboard for daytime UV, view, and privacy from the street, paired with a three-pass blackout drapery inboard on the primary-suite windows for true sleep darkness. The formal living room uses the sheer as the primary daytime layer with a hand-tacked French pleat Belgian linen panel inboard for evening warmth. Both rooms are specified for motorization on the same Lutron control surface as the home's existing lighting plan.

Outboard: 3% openness European performance sheer in a warm bone tone, UV-stabilized for west-facing Santa Monica afternoon exposure. Inboard (formal living): heavyweight Belgian linen in oat, interlined with bump for fold weight and lined in ivory cotton sateen. Inboard (primary suite): three-pass blackout in a soft white Belgian linen face, side-channel sealed against the architecture.

Concealed dual-channel ceiling track recessed into drywall pockets so both layers fall directly from the ceiling plane. Hardware finish specified in 316 marine stainless steel for coastal-air corrosion resistance — Santa Monica's salt-air load is light but cumulative, and the studio defaults to marine grade within a mile of the coast.

Hardwired DC motors specified during the home's electrical rough-in stage, coordinated with the integrator before drywall closure. Fullness held at 100% on the sheer for tight stack-back off-glass, 2.5x on the French pleat for disciplined fold, and 2.75x on the blackout for full side seal. Final dressing and motor scene commissioning handled on site by the studio's install team.

As a design concept, the program demonstrates how the studio's coastal-LA specification practice resolves four overlapping pressures in a single Santa Monica residence: UV protection without surrendering the view, evening privacy from a dense north-of-Montana street, true blackout in the primary suite, and a quiet residential reading that lets the architecture remain the loudest voice in the room. The Santa Monica residential file documents the studio's specification approach for similar coastal projects; final designs, materials, and outcomes vary by residence and are confirmed during consultation.