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The house ‘Sex and the City’ built: Inside producer John Melfi’s Venice retreat

John Melfi, a New York producer of "Sex in the City," "Rome" and the upcoming Showtime series "Nurse Jackie," called on Culver City architect Steven Shortridge of Callas Shortridge Architects to design a new home for him in L.A. Shortridge proposed an unconventional design for a 30-by-80-foot lot in Venice: Rather than small rooms stacked three stories high, the architect wanted seven levels of living space that rose like a zigzag through the house, pictured here from a side alley. Visitors enter a courtyard, left. The kitchen sits behind the blue wall. A few steps lead up to the dining area, and then more steps rise to the living room, behind the brown wall at far right. From there, stairs lead to the master bedroom, the white volume at left, and then back toward the rear of the house and Melfi's office and guest suite, the white volume at right. A rooftop deck sits above the master bedroom; the garage is out of sight, below the living room.

John Melfi, a New York producer of “Sex in the City,” “Rome” and the upcoming Showtime series “Nurse Jackie,” called on Culver City architect Steven Shortridge of Callas Shortridge Architects to design a new home for him in L.A. Shortridge proposed an unconventional design for a 30-by-80-foot lot in Venice: Rather than small rooms stacked three stories high, the architect wanted seven levels of living space that rose like a zigzag through the house, pictured here from a side alley. Visitors enter a courtyard, left. The kitchen sits behind the blue wall. A few steps lead up to the dining area, and then more steps rise to the living room, behind the brown wall at far right. From there, stairs lead to the master bedroom, the white volume at left, and then back toward the rear of the house and Melfi’s office and guest suite, the white volume at right. A rooftop deck sits above the master bedroom; the garage is out of sight, below the living room.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Melfi

When glass doors slide away into a pocket wall, the divide between the front courtyard and the kitchen disappears. The formal front door lies just out of view, by the top of the steps to the right.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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The reverse view from inside the house: the formal front door on the left, the courtyard beyond the kitchen.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Sculpture by the entry echoes the vertical line of steel beams painted orange. Jeff Pervorse, a principal of Bent Grass Landscape Architecture in Venice, was called in to help with the outdoor spaces. Outdoor teak seating rings the courtyard, and a rusting steel plate rises as a backdrop to the fire pit. “I used it to give a sense of containment to this end of the house,” Shortridge said.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Homeowner John Melfi dices a tomato in his kitchen. The producer wanted the glass doors to the front courtyard to run all the way from floor to ceiling. “In contrast to my life in New York, this house is now constantly in light,” he said.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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LEM Piston stools from Design Within Reach line up at the Corian kitchen island. The concrete floor flows straight into the courtyard.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Architect Steven Shortridge flips through a magazine in the kitchen. Behind him, up a few steps to the right, lies the dining area. From there, a half-flight of stairs leads to the gracious living room. The design affords an unexpected sense of openness and spaciousness. Rooms still feel like distinct spaces, and from the front courtyard one can see all the way to the back of the house.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Because of the savvy placement of walls and windows, brunch guests in the dining area could be drenched in natural light and yet glimpse not one of Melfi’s neighbors in the densely developed Venice area. The light fixture is by David Weeks and is available through Ralph Pucci International at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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An exposed steel beam, painted red-orange, rises between the kitchen and the dining room. “It marks a line that goes down the middle of the house from the fireplace in the living room right through to the center of the barbecue outside,” Shortridge says. The blue accent wall rises up through the bedroom level to a skylight.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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The steps from the dining area lead to the living room, flooded with more light from banks of windows. The lower ceiling creates a sense of coziness. Custom cabinetry camouflages speakers and hides banks of audio-visual equipment.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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A living room detail. “I can’t wait to drive home — it’s this wonderful retreat,” Melfi said. “I literally exhale the moment I step inside.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Same room, different angle: From the back wall of the house, the sense of airiness runs all the way to the front courtyard. At right, another half-flight of stairs leads to the master bedroom at the front of the house.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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In the master bedroom, Shortridge designed a custom bed with a headboard made of pockets of leather-covered foam. Set slightly off-center, “it becomes part of the room, not just a bed against the wall,” the architect said. Behind it lies the master bathroom.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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A patch of glass, top right, lets some natural light pass from the bedroom to the bathroom. More sunshine comes in from the window by the shower, left.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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From the master bedroom landing, a sunlit stairwell leads down to the living room and up to the next level, the home office and guest bedroom. Melfi wanted the bedroom and an adjacent bathroom to function as a guest suite for visitors, so a pocket door was added. “I thought it should be like a hotel,” Melfi said, “where guests can disappear entirely.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Melfi checks his BlackBerry in his home office. Most of the casework in the house in teak, except in a few spots where it’s vertical grain bamboo, the same as the floor.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Miranda, Charlotte, Carrie and Samantha of “Sex and the City” guard Melfi’s two Emmys, one of which was from when the show was named best comedy series. The other Emmy was for the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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The rooftop terrace fulfills a final wish, a second outside space where he could relax in true California-style. Complete with hot tub and an outdoor shower, it affords Melfi and his partner, fashion design consultant Andrew Egan, exceptional views of Venice. Australian brushwood fencing and frosted glass walls provide privacy too. Melfi calls the space his treehouse. “This is where we go to really get away.”

To see more work by this design firm, click to the Callas Shortridge Architects website. For a peek inside more Southern California homes, go to our Homes of The Times gallery.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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