1st choice

DiNiord collaborated with craftsman Ken Hood to design the concrete bench with firewood storage and detachable wood back. Douglas fir columns along the walkway creates a colonnade. The mono-sloped roof is a nod to the long roofline of the original house that stood on the property. “Reducing the angles also reflects the strictness to budget,” the wife says.

“Metaphorically, the cabin’s exterior is like a cut log,” Lane says. “The black-stained Western red cedar is the bark, and the Douglas fir siding under cover is the exposed wood once the log has been cut.” Beyond the house and native sod gardens, a meadowscape blends into the mature pine forest at the lakefront. “We wanted a woodland garden quality,” landscape architect Soren deNiord says.

"Fun fact, this yard is actually their front yard!,

A Rejuvenation sconce and a Pfeifer Studio stool accent the reading nook built into the hallway.

In the kids’ bath, a custom vanity by Christopher Derek Bruno and a ladder by Lostine extend the home’s warm material palette.

The custom sliding window screens, which shield from solar gain, were designed by the couple and are a modernized reference to the operable shutters that Denise remembers from her childhood in Austria. They first used the idea on one of their apartment buildings.

An elevation of the entire renovated building.

The floor, walls, and vanity in the master bathroom all sport the same porcelain tile for visual consistency, while textured porcelain tiles that look like wood distinguish the shower. A new skylight sheds light inside the internal room.

The kitchen, built with imported Tasmanian oak and plywood, features one of the most beloved details from Pam’s Cross-Stitch House—a kitchen island with a mirrored base—but the floating bench here is shaped differently to represent Arthur. "[The mirror] lightens the space in many ways, so you don’t feel like the island is taking over," says Dunin. Graphic backsplash tiles fom Academy Tile run into laminate countertops with a plywood edge. The refrigerator is Fisher & Paykel, and the combo oven and cooktop is V-ZUG.

The kitchen opens directly onto the dining room; the 1954 article in Good Housekeeping noted that the dining room was separated from the walled garden by large sliding glass doors, "uniting indoors and out."

Spring cleaning is the perfect time to move larger appliances and heavier pieces of furniture to clean all the dirt, dust, and grime that is usually left unnoticed.

The interior of the tiny home, which features a sleeping loft above the living room, is finished with vinyl flooring and white pine walls.

Blue Dot stools sit at the custom table. The sofa is from Joybird. Kitchen lighting was sourced from 143 Lighting.

When Marlene and E. Dale Adkins’s home of 22 years, a 1960s ranch house in Greenspring Valley, Maryland, was lost in a fire in 2013, the couple vowed to rebuild. Finished last year, their new home is covered in dark slate shingles for the sides and roof, Cor-Ten steel accents, and charred cedar for the gable fronts.

The living room extends into the great outdoors with a spruce deck.

The design team created four different outdoor spaces—a planted terrace off the living room, a screened-in porch, a rooftop deck above the porch, and a yard—to achieve the indoor/outdoor lifestyle the homeowners craved.

“Temporary wallpaper can offer a low-commitment strategy to transform a room,” says Frederick Tang. Here, a design by Chasing Paper features a graphic “X” pattern.