Pocket Spaces

Potted plants hang in a curtain from the upper stories.

A bird’s eye view reveals how the once utilitarian space has been transformed into a gallery setting.

A third-floor courtyard stands in for a backyard and gives Elodie, the couple’s two-year-old daughter, a place to play outdoors. A Hunting chair by Børge Mogensen shares the space with a child’s chair by Tomii Takashi and a vintage Danish coffee table.

Furnished with vintage Eames chairs, a second-hand sofa, and pendants and tables designed by Nathalie, the space is kept purposefully casual. She painstakingly mixed and tested the paint for the mustard-yellow walls herself—15 times—to match the hue of a Kvadrat textile.

A series of round cushions piled atop the floor make for a casual lounge area in the upstairs apartment. Acting as both a room divider and a dramatic centerpiece, a custom dining table, created by Nathalie, hangs suspended from the ceiling. She also designed the kitchenette beyond, incorporating vintage cabinets by Danish midcentury designer Børge Mogensen.

The home’s enclosed courtyard sits at “the heart of the structure,” says Baumann, who resides with his wife, Lisa Sardinas, and eight-year-old son, Oskar. “This is clearly the dominant space; everything flexes towards it.” Baumann cast the square concrete floor tiles himself, enlisting the help of his son. A small, neat patch of grass—a playful nod to the archetypal domestic lawn—is edited down to a charming folly.

Baumann designed the plywood bed frame and shelving unit in the master bedroom, adjacent to an exposed cinder-block wall, a new addition to the structure.

The door to Eoghan Mahony’s office is set on a caster and has a hinge that runs the entire ten-foot height.

Indoor Bushwick Campsite (Brooklyn)

Casa GP is laid out as a series of pavilions, with each holding another function.

The residents wanted their house to sit within the bush, not above it. Two decks made of local purpleheart enhance the feeling of sitting among the trees, while the structure’s Dimondek 300 steel cladding provides a backdrop that makes the foliage stand out. The couple landscaped the site themselves, keeping as many native plants as possible while adding a few bromeliads, cycads, and fruit trees near the decks.

Among the most dramatic spaces is the double-height office with sculptural installation.

A media storage unit is made from a steel pivot welded to a heavy-duty tractor bearing by Sierra Metal Fabricators. The massive, smooth-spinning unit also serves as a room divider, to screen a desk and computer station from the main living area.

The floorboards are lumberyard “culls” that had turned gray or cracked from being exposed to weather. Meffan had them re-milled into pristine planks with an old-world feel. Contractors typically pass up culls to get to the “good” wood below. Ask at your local home center, and you may be able to get them at a steep discount, or even for free.

Rocks dug up during construction were saved and incorporated into the poured-concrete floors and walls. Hydronic heating coils in the floor are augmented by a wood stove during the damp winters.