Photographs by Spacecrafting
Lake Country
The 5-foot-wide door, painted cherry red, is a generous welcome to Jeff and Jill Murphy’s home on Lake Pulaski in Buffalo. The low-slung house, stained black otherwise, recedes into its natural setting, enveloped by towering oak and pine trees. But once the front door (designed by Jeff, built by Cambek) swings open into the glass breezeway, French casement windows on the other side reveal sweeping views of the water some 50 feet below. “The breezeway brings in so much light, and it’s also good for those Minnesota goodbyes that never seem to end,” Jeff says.
For the Murphys, lake life is more than a summer getaway. In fact, Lake Pulaski has been home for as long as they can remember: The couple grew up on opposite sides of the lake, then they raised their now-grown three daughters in a house about a mile down the shoreline. The empty nesters’ new home includes enough rooms for their daughters to visit, and the family gathers for weekend fun here and down at the two boathouses by the lake.
Situated on the edge of a bluff, “the house’s configuration was driven by the property line, so it’s parallel with the lakeshore,” says Jeff, residential designer at Murphy and Co., the architectural design company he and Jill founded 20 years ago. When they started designing the house, Jeff says, they considered their new stage in life. “With three girls in college, it was just going to be us, so we didn’t want it to be a big house,” he says. “And we set up the downstairs for them when they come back to visit.”
“The first thing I do when I come home is walk right out onto the porch balcony and look at the lake.”
—Sarah Murphy, Jeff and Jill’s youngest daughter
Their aesthetic inspiration comes from the couple’s combined heritage—Irish (Jeff) and Scandinavian (Jill). “We liked the idea of our house being casual because that’s how Jeff and I are,” Jill says. “We wanted it to be cozy and comfortable, but there are lots of cool details.”
Materials such as reclaimed wood from Manomin Resawn Timbers and rugged stone from Hedberg form the angled ceilings and doorways and rustic walls and walkways. Entire walls of windows provide panoramic lake views and usher in light.
Throughout the three-acre property, outbuildings—including a motor barn that doubles as entertaining space and two boathouses, plus a stone outdoor fireplace and an expansive dock at the shoreline—provide other spots for the family and friends to gather. Nowadays, when their children and their friends visit, the activities are as varied and ongoing as summer camp, from three-wheeling and wakeboarding to hiking and bonfires. “We call it Camp Murf,” Jill says. It might be time for an official T-shirt.
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Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
The breezeway bridges the two sides of the house—the sleeping rooms through the hallway and the main living areas on the opposite side. Casement windows by Marvin push out to let the breeze flow through the space. “When the sun is setting, you can see it throughout the entire house,” Jill says.
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chevron ceiling
“You see so many angled boards in Scandinavian architecture,” Jeff notes while discussing the chevron ceiling, made of reclaimed white oak. “It makes it feel like it’s been here for a long time.” The central beam spans the living room to the kitchen. Moss rock forms the fireplace wall, where Jeff keeps his vintage McIntosh audio system.
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Party of five
Party of five
The dining room, framed by carved timber, is inspired by pubs in Ireland, encased in book-cases painted black (Caviar by Sherwin-Williams). “We call it our Dibrary,” Jeff says. A banquette with plaid upholstery from Greenhouse Fabrics pairs with the white oak table, which was custom-made for the family years ago.
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Gather round
Gather round
“We wanted a really big island because we love to cook together as a family,” Jill says of the kitchen. The Calacatta Laza quartz surface from North Star Kitchens is heated around the island’s perimeter by a FeelsWarm electric mat underneath. A 12-foot-wide window along the counter slides open to the screened porch.
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Dutch door
Around the kitchen corner, a Dutch door opens to the porch, where the Murphys’ pup Piper coaxes the family outside.
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corner windows
“When I started sketching this out and positioning things, I wanted to have corner windows and no walls so you can have this panoramic view of the lake,” Jeff says. Jill adds, “At first I was skeptical about not having upper cabinets, but it works perfectly.” A nearby pantry (not shown) provides more built-in cabinets for storage.
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Order up!
Order up!
A heater above the kitchen window helps warm the screened porch on cooler evenings and extends porch season into the fall. The outdoor sectional has been known to double as a bed topped with sleeping bags, says Sarah Murphy, the couple’s youngest daughter. “It’s a great sleeping porch,” she adds. The antique pub table with swing-out stools serves up meals and family card games.
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Cabin vibes
Cabin vibes
The 13-by-13-foot screened porch has a retractable screen door that opens to a cantilevered balcony with glass railings for unobstructed lake views. The three-sided Norwegian wood-burning Jøtul fireplace adds warmth and atmosphere in a narrow footprint. “The porch is our favorite room,” Jill says. “It feels like being in a tree house up here.”
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boathouse
Near their main dock, the Murphys restored this 1915 boathouse and added a cedar platform where they pull up their canoes. Sunny yellow windows (Unmellow Yellow by Behr) and painted paddles (from Sanborn Canoe Co.) pop against the dark siding. Fieldstones from the shore form the boathouse’s foundation.
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A shore thing
A shore thing
The house connects to the water’s edge by way of wooden stairs near the porch side of the house. “There’s also a zip line!” Jeff says. He designed the screen porch and 6-foot cantilevered balcony with solid timber floor framing and posts. The exterior siding is stained Black by Cabot, which complements the cedar shake roof, a common feature of buildings in Norway and Denmark.
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bifold windows
Red bifold windows (from Synergy Products) let the 8-by-10 footprint of the Murphys’ Scandinavian-inspired boathouse maximize function as a bar for entertaining and storage for lake gear. Simple board-and-batten siding augmented with hefty cedar supports and a chevron-patterned door play up the Nordic style.
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Design in the details
Design in the details
Jeff designed the large timber corbels in the living room (left) and kitchen to help support the ridge beam that connects the two spaces. An iron fox door knocker (middle) complements the metal strappings on the front door. “We have so many foxes on the property so we thought it was fitting,” Jeff says. The dining room exterior windows (right) are recessed into a hand-carved timber alcove with wood pegging.
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Meet the family
Meet the family
Empty nesters Jeff and Jill Murphy enjoy having their daughters (from left to right), Megan, Grace, and Sarah, come home to visit for weekends and holidays of waterskiing and cookouts. Jeff says he’s outnumbered by a house full of females, including the family’s two dogs, Daisy (in Jill’s arms) and Piper. Portrait by Marta Xochilt Perez for Country Living Magazine.
Architecture: Murphy & Co. Design, 235 E. Lake St., Wayzata, 612-470-5511, murphycodesign.com
Contractor: Campbell Construction, 4452 Pleason Ave. NW, Annandale, 763-238-7896
