I used to buy things for specific places in my home. Now I just buy what I love, and it’ll find the perfect spot.”
Above: Troy Lighting Cruiz, Hudson Valley Lighting Group; Pfister Faucet, Build. Left: Pure White Zellige Tile, Zia; Contempra Shower Faucet, Pfister; Signature Hardware Toilet, Build.
Nyssa FSC® Eucalyptus Woven Outdoor Lounge Chair and Jack Marble Coffee Table, Pottery Barn; Marie Michielssen Billy Vase, Modernist Marble Bowl, Petal Plate, Beyond the Canyon Book by Roger Davies, Surf Shacks Book and Treko Makun Collection Pillow, +Coop; Chambray Lattice Baule Pillow and Terracotta Classic Kuba Cloth Pillow, St. Frank.
Tish’s Malibu playlist on Spotify is simple: “If it has ’70s in the title, it’s on,” she says. “I like that [Starland Vocal Band] song ‘Afternoon Delight.’ I need to name my trailer Afternoon Delight! Oh, I love that—that is good.”
![Tish’s Malibu playlist on Spotify is simple: “If it has ’70s in the title, it’s on,” she says. “I like that [Starland Vocal Band] song ‘Afternoon Delight.’ I need to name my trailer Afternoon Delight! Oh, I love that—that is good.”](https://media-s3-us-east-1.ceros.com/domino/images/2023/08/15/088e56c843564e82878f5c50c48122d3/437.png)
T
ish Cyrus just so happened to be having lunch with legendary Shabby Chic designer Rachel Ashwell when she got a text from her daughter Miley about a real-estate listing.
Besides, Tish has always been a collector, and seeing those mementos—like fabrics she bought with Miley on a trip to Savannah, Georgia—in her trailer makes them feel new again. “I used to buy things for specific places in my home,” she says. “Now I just buy what I love, and it’ll find the perfect spot.”
Now that it’s finished, the trailer is a place where she can turn up her ’70s Spotify playlist and chill while Purcell goes down to the beach and surfs. For the most part, at least. “I’m one of those people who cannot sit still, so I’m always cleaning or organizing, but this space is so small that it kind of forces you to not do anything,” she says. “Once it’s clean, it’s clean, and there’s not much to do—except be outside and walk down to the ocean.”
Translation: A bust of Elvis—a vintage score from Nashville that she brings to every new home—mingles with a peacock chair that she painted a soothing sage green to match her IKEA hallway cabinets. And as a self-professed Sarah Sherman Samuel superfan, Tish chose the designer’s lilac tile from her Concrete Collaborative collection to adorn her outdoor entryway.
Forgoing a designer in favor of decorating herself isn’t a new concept for Tish. Brandi, her once collaborator on a 2017 Bravo show called Cyrus vs. Cyrus: Design & Conquer, has joked that her mom redecorated their house every year while she was growing up. Tish confirms, laughing: “You know what, I am so much better. Now I only do it every three to five years.” And while she has designed with Brandi in the past—“She’s very good to spitball with,” Tish says—this trailer is all her. As for switching things up, can you blame her?
Who among us hasn’t gotten tired of a space and needed a change?
Not least of all for Tish, whose warmly designed place is
a weekend escape for her and her husband, actor Dominic Purcell, whom she quietly married this summer. “When I’m here, I’m completely transported,” she says. It’s also where she tokes up and records her and eldest daughter Brandi’s freewheeling podcast, Sorry We’re Stoned.
Paradise takes time, though. Just after she bought the farmhouse-y 500-square-foot trailer from Ashwell in 2018, Malibu’s wildfires ravaged the area. Most residents bought new homes—“Here, you can just crane them in and out,” Tish says—but she refused to replace hers,
even if the pandemic delayed the permit process further. “I couldn’t do it,” she says. “There was just a charm about the fact that it’s been there since the ’70s.” And so a three-year renovation ensued.
First, she went into hard-core gutting mode, demoing five or six layers of flooring (which as luck would have it, added 4 inches of ceiling height) and enlarging a few windows, inviting in that coveted Malibu sun. She brought in inexpensive sand- and waterproof wood laminate from Lowe’s because, well, this is the beach after all. Altering the footprint was out of the question due to the park’s regulations, so Tish gave the whole place a wash of her favorite white paint—Snowbound by Sherwin-Williams—and personalized the rest with her folk-rock style. “You know that old photo of Joni Mitchell hanging out the window in Laurel Canyon
and there’s green everywhere? That’s my vibe,”
Tish says.
“She was like, ‘Mom, I want to take you to look at these little—she called them bungalows—that are very close to me.’” It wasn’t just any listing, but one in Paradise Cove, a storied trailer park in Malibu. A listing for a single-wide whose owner was—wait for it—Ashwell herself. “I’m sitting there with Rachel, going, ‘Is this yours?’” Tish says. “I bought the trailer from her two days later.”
Paradise Cove isn’t just any batch of beachside bungalows. Since the 1950s, the oceanside enclave of 265 trailers has been a bohemian breeding ground for artists and actors, from Stevie Nicks to Matthew McConaughey, and The New York Times called it “America’s most glamorous trailer park.” (That might have to do with residents reportedly installing Viking stoves and Sub-Zero appliances in their 400- to 1,000-square-foot spaces.) And while it’s hard to imagine high-profile homeowners washing their La Perlas in a communal laundry room (Tish uses it to save space in her trailer, a smart move), Paradise Cove is as much about community as it is great style.
“We love to podcast
in the same room together, so she’ll fly out to me,” says Tish
of daughter Brandi. “Being stoned and talking to my oldest daughter about crazy stuff is one of my favorite things.”
You know that old photo of Joni Mitchell hanging out the window in Laurel Canyon and there’s green everywhere? That’s
my vibe.”
Styling by MERISA LIBBEY
Photography by TREVOR SMITH
Words by JULIE VADNAL
After a nudge from daughter Miley and a chance encounter with designer Rachel Ashwell, Tish Cyrus found her slice of paradise in an oceanside ’70s-era trailer.
Rising
Malibu
Mediterranean Turkish Towel, Huckberry ($25)
Solvang Teak Outdoor Sofa, Pottery Barn ($4,300)
Zephyr Wall Sconce,
Burke Decor ($165)
Pure White Zellige Tile,
Zia ($2 per tile)
Shop the Story
“
“
You know that old photo of Joni Mitchell hanging out the window in Laurel Canyon and there’s green everywhere? That’s
my vibe.”
Pacifica Terrazzo Countertop, Concrete Collaborative; La Soufflerie Red Wine Glass and La Soufflerie Venezia Wine Glass, Nickey Kehoe; Hammer Grinder, Giving Basket, Footed Ceramic Bowl, and Stash Jars, +Coop.
Top: Pure White Zellige Tile, Zia;Contempra Shower Faucet, Pfister; Signature Hardware Toilet, Build. Left: Troy Lighting Cruiz, Hudson Valley Lighting Group; Pfister Faucet, Build.
Sabra Pink Lumbar Pillow, +Coop; Vintage Kantha Quilt, Nickey Kehoe.
Lola Commando Hat and East West Canvas Tote, +Coop.
Sabra Silk Pillow,
+Coop; Vintage Kantha Quilt, Nickey Kehoe.
“We love to podcast inthe same room together, so she’ll fly out to me,” says Tish of daughter Brandi. “Being stoned and talking to my oldest daughter about crazy stuff
is one of my favorite things.”
Nyssa FSC® Eucalyptus Woven Outdoor Lounge Chair and Jack Marble Coffee Table, Pottery Barn; Marie Michielssen Billy Vase, Modernist Marble Bowl, Petal Plate, Beyond the Canyon Book by Roger Davies, Surf Shacks Book and Treko Makun Collection Pillow, +Coop; Chambray Lattice Baule Pillow and Terracotta Classic Kuba Cloth Pillow, St. Frank.
Top: Pure White Zellige Tile, Zia;Contempra Shower Faucet, Pfister; Signature Hardware Toilet, Build. Left: Troy Lighting Cruiz, Hudson Valley Lighting Group; Pfister Faucet, Build.