Bicoastal interior designer Jeffrey Alan Marks is no stranger to moving around. Following a nomadic childhood up and down the state of California, Marks spent seven years studying design and architecture in London, met his husband and moved into a beach house in Montecito, then decided to put down roots on the East Coast to be closer to family as the couple’s daughter grew up (first in East Hampton, New York, then in Greenwich, Connecticut). For someone who’s relocated countless times, it’s amusing—and maybe even peculiar—that Marks chose to title his second book This Is Home (Rizzoli, 2025).

Given the sheer number of residences the designer has worked on and lived in, he can provide a rare perspective on the meaning of home. “My true meaning of home is the memories you create in that house—no matter where it is. I now understand that we love our rooms not because of the dramatic de Gournay wallpaper or the picture-ready Plain English kitchens, but because of the people we bring with us over the threshold and the experiences we share with them,” Marks writes. “I think we weren’t all meant to live in the same house for generations, the way our ancestors did. Change, while often scary, is where greatness happens. And I believe that a home is the nucleus of it all.”

The 1925 Montecito house that became Marks’s first family home with his husband and daughter is a cozy California cottage surrounded by oak trees and pines. It took nine months to rip the home to its studs and renovate the interiors with Marks’s signature British cottage aesthetic, complete with playful nods to nautical style and plenty of English and American antiques. In the backyard, Marks transformed an old storage shed into a pool house perfect for entertaining. The wallpapered interior and built-in banquette add a touch of luxury to the bright and airy space, while curtains provide extra privacy or a reprieve from the sun. Plenty of pillows in an assortment of patterns offer extra comfort, and soft blankets and a surfboard are at the ready for a quick trip to the beach. Create your own Cali-inspired outdoor oasis with these nine finds.