Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1203912
Opposite page: View into the upstairs guest bedroom. Phillip Jeffries green grasscloth on walls. Custom iron staircase railing and hand-stenciled floor designed by J. Randall Powers. that have been with me a long time and found furniture that I've reupholstered or refinished." In the living room, a pair of black-leather and wood armchairs were gifted to him 30 years ago by his uncle, an architect. A Herman Miller sideboard in the dining room was part of a set given to him by his mother while he was still in college. "These have gone with me everywhere I've moved," he says. Dorsey purchased the living room's wood-slab coffee table at a sample sale 15 years ago. "It has a huge crack down the center, but the fracture is what makes it cool. It's rugged, like something out on your deck in Malibu." Much of Dorsey's aesthetic involves using natural materials with simple, textural finishes. The living-room bookshelves, which he designed, are made from thin, raw steel; gorgeous cork panels cover the TV-room walls, and a stylish drinks station in the kitchen is clad in unsealed copper, which is already beginning to patinate beautifully. He has a collection of Brutalist pottery lamps and vessels made from turned wood, wire, and resin. The vintage game table in his bedroom was chosen for its exquisite birdseye maple, and the draperies throughout the house are ultra-thin New Zealand-made Mokum linen, known for its subtle hues. While Dorsey used the surf-shack idea as an inspiration, he wasn't heavy- handed with the beach theme. The dining room stands on its own as a masterful contemporary composition, with particular focus on a dramatic Flos chandelier. "I loved the elegance and the whimsy of it," he says of the fixture. "You can do whatever you want with it, point it in any direction. But you can't plan it on paper — you just have to play with it. It's fun." He bought the dining- room table for its curved, dimpled-brass base and replaced the plain black- lacquer top with a custom one of his design in black Nero Marquina marble from Spain. No surprise here: This room took top honors at the recent PaperCity Design Awards in the category singular- space, dining. (The house also garnered two first-place recognitions.) Still, as refined as the house is, it wouldn't be a surf shack without a little graffiti on the walls. "I've worked with local graffiti artist Joe Skilz on two or three other projects for clients, and I've always wanted him to do something for me," Dorsey says. "So I asked him to do a graffiti wall in this house. He usually does a lot of figures with a lot of color, but for me he did text and letters in tonal colors like grays and white, (continued)