See a Hollywood Actor's Ship-Inspired Storage That's Boatloads of Cool

Billy Campbell has acted in a lot of things. He was a jet-pack-wearing superhero in The Rocketeer, Abraham Lincoln in the TV movie Killing Lincoln, an architect in the series Once & Again, Jennifer Lopez’s punching bag in the movie Enough and a mayoral candidate in the hit TV series The Killing. But he just happens to be a pretty darn good designer, too.

He worked with architect Rick Wilson of Radius Architectural Millwork to build a massive 25-foot by 25-foot storage unit in his Vancouver loft, with Murphy beds and a cool steel catwalk inspired by the tall sailing ships he works on in his free time. “It’s more than enough to store everything I own, except my motor vehicles,” Campbell says.

Though Campbell grew up in Virginia and lives mostly in Los Angeles, he fell in love with Vancouver while filming various TV series, including The Killing and The 4400.

He bought a one-bedroom downtown loft there on the ground floor of a newish high-rise building, with plans to make it his permanent residence once his immigrant status is approved. One day he was trying to figure out what to do with the unit's massive 25-foot by 25-foot concrete alcove. “I was thinking I could shove a sofa in there, but the big space was still going to swallow it up,” Campbell says. “Standing there, I suddenly had an image of sailing on a ship. And that’s where I got the idea for creating two stories of storage with a very nautical catwalk.”




Campbell surveys the construction of his 48-foot schooner, named Martha Seabury, at The Dory Shop boatyard in Nova Scotia. An avid sailer, he got the idea for his storage unit from elements of sailboat design.


“When he started talking about building a 25-foot-tall piece of millwork, I thought he was crazy,” says architect Rick Wilson.

Nevertheless, he worked with Campbell to design the simple and clean painted maple unit, with a steel gangplank and enough space to store Campbell's clothing, plus an audiovisual console, bookshelves, hanging closets and two Murphy beds. "The place, with the addition of Wilson's work, actually looks larger than it did before, which is an interesting thing," Campbell says.

The gangplank was precut and then welded onsite, because it couldn’t fit through the doors. None of the millworkers had experience installing cabinets this high, much less with a steel bridge in the middle, so it took some careful maneuvering. Using scaffolding, they first built the bottom half of the cabinets, then installed a temporary gangplank, built the upper cabinets and installed the permanent gangplank.

Steel: Epic Metal Works



Campbell custom designed the davit, a hand-pulley system on a swivel common on sailboats for unloading cargo. A steel arm swings out from the wall so he can transport items up and down the unit (Wilson and his wife demonstrate here). A thick nautical rope hangs nearby to complete the aesthetic.


A hook catches a panel when the Murphy beds are pulled down to bring out a built-in headboard. The hardware is the same that's used on the U.S. president's private airplane, Air Force One.




The steel ladder is painted a primer red, while the catwalk steel was left raw. "We wanted to see the variation in color and have it look a bit industrial," Wilson says. "We wanted it to ding and change over time."

Campbell can lock off the upper half of the storage unit by pulling down a hinged door, perfect for when he's filming on location. “I can lock it shut and rent the place out without a second thought," he says. "I couldn’t have been more pleased. Yet to fill it up, it’ll take a while."

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