Nestled in the shade of mature oak and maple trees in Bonsall Canyon, this family home shared by designer Vanessa Alexander, her husband Steve, and their three teenage sons quietly changes the way people think about a typical Malibu home. For one thing, this radical transformation is connected to the land, not the sea. In terms of design and environment, it is also less conspicuous and more cocoon-like: as fate would have it.

"It's definitely not a sun-drenched beach house," Alexander says of the third Malibu home she built with Hollywood agent Steve. That number includes homes in the famed Point Doom and gated seaside community Serra Retreat. You can't see the sea from here. Instead, mountains and big trees are visible, but the most striking part of the landscape is the painterly quality of the light.

Given that most family gatherings take place at home in the kitchen, there needs to be plenty of food and a beautiful view. A long line of sight extends from the room to the adjacent family area and down to the pool. This is where designer Vanessa Alexander came home from her different lives.

Soft light filters through the canopy of leaves, giving the ebony exterior of the house a more ethereal, residential feel, even a shadow of the house. The couple and their partner, Los Angeles-based Kovac Design studio, took architectural cues from ancient Belgian stone farmhouses to further clarify the nature of already simple agricultural forms: basic contours defined by classic single gables; The wide entrance provides a simple connection to the outdoors; The plain wood cladding symbolizes the home's rustic inspiration. Cedar panels use a centuries-old Japanese process of carbonizing to preserve the wood. The darkness feels both dramatic and understated, and it allows the house to sit on the land in a very interesting way.

Aside from a few moody oversize paintings in the house, like a ghostly nude woman in the master bedroom or a bleak landscape hanging in the dining room, the outer total solar eclipse doesn't really seep into the decor. Instead, the hazy image recalls the spectacular lights of Bonsall Canyon. Throughout the house, from cashmere curtains to hand-painted plaster walls that "turn surfaces without art into art," ornate textures provide warmth that makes one feel trapped.