Kitchen remodeling in Pacific Palisades today usually means drawing a kitchen for a house that has to be built again. The Palisades Fire began on January 7, 2025 and burned 23,448 acres, destroying 6,845 structures across the Palisades, Malibu and unincorporated land.
Best Top Kitchen works on kitchens alone, from our base in Santa Clarita. We design and build the full kitchen alongside your architect and general contractor or as your kitchen contractor, and we also remodel kitchens in houses the fire spared.
Rebuilding a Palisades Kitchen After January 2025
Before the fire, ZIP code 90272 held 9,291 housing units with a median build year of 1967, and nearly three quarters were detached houses. About a quarter dated from the 1950s, though these mostly pre-fire Census figures follow ZIP lines rather than the neighborhood.
The community grew in layers. Lots in the Founders Tracts went on sale in January 1922, Huntington Palisades and Castellammare followed in 1926, and Rustic Canyon kept its mid-1920s cabins and Craftsman bungalows. Spanish Colonial Revival houses stood beside postwar ranch homes and modern designs.
That history follows a rebuild into the kitchen. A family replacing a 1950s ranch may want the same easy flow to the yard, while a Castellammare slope brings stone retaining walls and steep stairways that slow every delivery, so we plan cabinet and slab drops around the site.
The ground needs the same care. Bluff erosion above the coast highway has shaped building here for decades, and the Community Plan asks for attention to geology on hillside lots.
From the Village to Castellammare and Rustic Canyon
The Village, at Sunset and Via de la Paz, grew out of the 1922 Founders Tracts. The Alphabet Streets and El Medio Mesa sit on flatter ground nearby, Marquez Knolls was one of the largest postwar subdivisions at 118 acres, and Palisades Highlands climbs higher into the mountains.
Huntington Palisades, laid out in 1926 between Potrero and Santa Monica canyons, holds Period Revival and Ranch homes on curving drives. In Castellammare, builders were once required to use Italian Renaissance style, and the Riviera's mid-1920s parcels sit beside the 1927 country club. Rustic Canyon's Uplifters Historic District mixes rustic cabins with Craftsman bungalows, and each calls for a different kitchen, from a formal Mediterranean plan to an informal canyon cottage.
What Kitchen Remodeling in Pacific Palisades Involves Now
Each item below is built within one complete kitchen, never as a separate job. On a rebuild, we plan it before framing.
Fire Rebuilds: The Kitchen Planned With Your Architect
On a fire rebuild kitchen, the best moment to bring us in is while the architect is still drawing. We fix appliance sizes, plumbing, gas or electric runs, venting and cabinet walls early, so framing and rough-in match the kitchen. We can work under your general contractor or on our own contract, and we leave insurance questions to you and your adjuster.
Like-for-Like Floor Plans Within the 110% Limit
The Mayor's Emergency Executive Order 1 lets an Eligible Project rebuild in substantially the same location, with the same use and no more than 110% of the prior floor area, height and bulk. Those projects skip discretionary review and get 30-day permit review. Inside that envelope there is room to rethink the kitchen, and our kitchen design renderings show each option in 3D before you commit.
Custom Cabinetry Built to the New Walls
A rebuilt house is a rare chance to size every wall around the cabinetry instead of squeezing boxes into old openings. We build custom kitchen cabinets in inset, full-overlay or frameless styles, with drawers sized to the way your family cooks. Cabinets are measured after drywall and built as one part of the complete kitchen.
Stone Countertops: Quartzite, Marble and Quartz
Slab choice follows the cabinet layout, because seams, overhangs and island size all depend on it. Quartzite gives a natural stone look with strong wear resistance, marble suits a Mediterranean-style house in Castellammare or Miramar, and quartz is the low-upkeep option for a busy family. We help you select kitchen countertops at the slab yard and template once cabinets are set.
Butler's Pantries and Sculleries in Larger Rebuilds
On a larger rebuild, a small room beside the kitchen can hold the coffee station, a second dishwasher and the clutter of entertaining. A butler's pantry or scullery only works under the like-for-like path if the whole house stays inside the 110% allowance, so we plan it with your architect from the start. Its cabinetry, counters and lighting match the main kitchen.
Rebuild Orders, Coastal Permits and LADBS in the Palisades
Pacific Palisades is part of the City of Los Angeles, so LADBS issues building permits. Executive Order 1, signed January 13, 2025, also set up a Disaster Recovery Permitting Center for the burn area.
Eligible Projects under that order are exempt from a Coastal Development Permit under Coastal Act Section 30610(g). Executive Order 8 of July 23, 2025 extended streamlining to zoning-compliant single-family Coastal Zone rebuilds that are not like-for-like, if set back at least 10 feet from a canyon bluff or 25 feet from a coastal bluff. The orders have been revised more than once, so we confirm current terms for your address.
Eligible Projects are also exempt from the City's all-electric ordinance, so a gas range can stay. On Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone parcels, new windows and other exterior openings follow the Wildland-Urban Interface Code (Title 24, Part 7), which replaced CBC Chapter 7A on January 1, 2026.
