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In 2023, Marnie Oursler was named Custom Home Builder of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders — the highest honor in our industry and a national award given to just one builder across the entire country each year. It’s a distinction we’ll always be proud of.

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“The goal is to create a piece of art every time we build a home.”

Build Your Dream Home

Marnie Custom Homes is an award winning custom home design+build firm based in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Marnie's use of innovative materials, impeccable craftsmanship, creative design sense, and unparalleled work ethic have earned her and her team the reputation as the ultimate builder of sophisticated coastal Delaware beach homes. Marnie Custom Homes create one-of-a-kind custom beach builds that exceed clients’ wants and needs, turning dream homes into realities.

Customer Focused

Unbeatable Timelines

Cutting Edge Design

Uncompromising Standards

Uncompromising Standards

Widely Respected

Sustainable Building

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What our customers are saying...

Wondering what it’s like to build with MCH? Hear from “Paradise Point” homeowner Kay Bruner about her experience working with Marnie Custom Homes.

A Seamless Experience with Exceeding Results

Marnie and her team at Marnie Custom Homes made our design/build custom home experience pleasurable, exciting, and seamless. We had a long list of design requests and amenities we wanted to incorporate within our home. We were able to easily collaborate with their team and ended up with a home that exceeded our expectations! Stan Staniszewski and our awesome project manager, Matt Millman, kept the lines of communication open and were extremely responsive to our frequent phone calls, allowing us to complete our project on time!

- Amy & Dave

"Live Lucky" - Fenwick Island, Delaware

A Dream Beach House That Reflects Our Family’s Style

Working with Marnie Custom Homes exceeded every expectation from start to finish. We wanted to build our dream beach house reflecting our family’s unique needs and style. The MCH team surpassed our expectations in every way. Their responsiveness, attention to detail, professionalism, and commitment to our vision made the entire process smooth and enjoyable. Marnie’s amazing design sense, combined with her team’s always-positive, can-do attitude, made the whole process so much fun! The final result is stunning—our home is everything we envisioned and more!

- MCH Homeowners

"Wavehaven" - North Bethany Beach, Delaware

Better Than We Dreamed

We knew early on we wanted a Marnie Custom Home. What we didn’t know was how awesome the experience was going to be. Marnie’s first meeting is to start with your ‘dream list.’ Next thing you know, after 9 months of zero drama with her team of experts, they hand you the keys to something better than you could have dreamt.

- Ted & Susan

"Dune Lodge" - South Bethany Beach, Delaware

A True Labor of Love

From the very first design meeting, we felt Marnie completely understood our vision and was able to give our house shape on paper. Her amazing creativity guided us every step of the way, and never once did we lose sight of our vision. Every home Marnie designs is a true labor of love, and her work is clearly her life’s passion!

- MCH Homeowners

"Kan’t Beat The View" - North Bethany Beach, Delaware

The Envy of the Community

Everyone on Marnie’s team takes extreme pride in their role in the process. Whether it was dealing with the budget, selections, project management, or working with Marnie herself on unique custom features, we felt as though we were the only project that MCH was focused on. End result… a one-of-a-kind dream home that is the envy of the community.

- Bob & Toni

"BeachWood" - Middlesex Beach, Delaware

A Truly Joyful Experience

Marnie and her team have been fantastic to work with over the past year. They guided us through a large and fast-paced build process with vision, organization, and a team that is the best we’ve seen in the industry. So much goes into building at the beach, but Marnie Custom Homes made it an easy and enjoyable experience. Visiting our new home with our Memorial Day group was an overwhelmingly joyful experience, and Marnie and her team made that happen for us. Our Project Manager, Grey, went out of his way to juggle subs and get us into the house—it meant the world to us, our family, and our friends.

- Steve & Christine

- North Bethany Beach, Delaware

"Marnie uses a combination of inspired creativity and surgical precision that is truly unmatched to fulfill her clients’ dream home design aspirations. Her ability to transform an abstract conversation about her client’s wish list into a fully conceptualized drawing and then transform it into reality is Marnie’s super power.”

Jon Subity - Vice President, Marnie Custom Homes

Origin Story of
Marnie Custom Homes

View the origin story of Marnie Custom Homes and how Marnie got started in home building.

Meet
Marnie Oursler

As a fifth-generation home builder, Marnie has taken all the skills she learned from generations before her and expanded on them to design and build custom beach homes that bring visions to reality. In 2023 she was awarded the Custom Home Builder of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). This award is the highest honor given within the custom home building industry, and she is the first female recipient, as well as the first Delaware-based builder to receive the esteemed award.

While each home Marnie builds reflects life at the beach in a variety of ways, the main goal is to always fulfill the homeowner's wants and needs, creating spaces to fit their lifestyle while embracing the natural surroundings of our Delaware beaches.

As soon as a client starts describing their vision, Marnie is already creating the blueprint in her head. With more than 25 years of experience in both building and designing custom beach homes, she knows every aspect of what's required to build safe, sustainable, and weather-resistant homes while also creating innovative one-of-a-kind spaces that enhance life at the beach for families and their guests.

Meet the team

BEAUTIFUL HOMES BY DESIGN

Each Marnie Custom Home embraces its surroundings while providing just the right spaces for relaxing, entertaining and everything in between. The Modern Coastal home styles connect the inside spaces to the outside settings for ultimate beach living. With expert craftsmanship inspired by Marnie’s maternal grandfather who was a master carpenter, Marnie Custom Homes feature intricate ceiling trim, wood and shiplap accent walls, unique design details, custom beds including bunk rooms, and more that make each home unique. Take a look at Marnie’s projects to get a taste of living your best life at the beach!

Wavehaven

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Live Lucky

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Family Tides

View Project

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Ready To Start Exploring?

Explore Marnie’s curated showcase of kitchens, baths, and outdoor spaces to see what you’d include in your personal dream home. Most homeowners Marnie works with have been saving inspiration photos for years so when it’s time to design and build their dream homes, they have a starting point. When the home is complete, they’re beyond excited to start living their dream.

Now you can start preparing for your dream home design, too. Take a look and save your favorites!

Bathroom Designs

Luxurious Kitchens

Beautiful Exteriors

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Where We Build

“I believe Coastal Delaware has some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world. It’s a privilege to work in an area that brings so much joy to people near and far. I’m especially thankful to have the opportunity to design and build homes that make living, working and vacationing in Delaware carefree and comfortable.”