Taking cues from this home's Japanese-influenced slatted screen, Hufft Projects applied a ring of ipe wood around the perimeter of this outdoor fire pit.

A covered porch on the south side provides comfortably shaded outdoor space, and its roof keeps the high-angle summer sun out of the house.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

Shannon and his wife, Amy, take the air on a small patio in two Acapulco chairs.

Open enclosures and connections to adjacent living spaces keep the home inviting and airy rather than densely packed—a key feature for an owner of two dogs: Ben, a whippet, and Flynn, an Irish gypsy dog.

Oriented to absorb the afternoon sun, floor-to-ceiling doors comprise two-thirds of the home’s west-facing walls, which open to an elevated deck overlooking Island Bay. Combined with extra-thick building insulation, this passive element provides sufficient heating for the home, even during winter months—a true feat given the region’s cold seasonal winds.

After years of visiting the area as vacationers, one couple builds this striking home for their retirement outside Greenwater, Washington. A fireplace can be used on the rear patio and in the living room, making it feel like one cohesive space. Ipe planks, the same wood that’s used in the front courtyard, cover the floor.

The space is designed for easy indoor-outdoor access.

Roof deck

Along with its durability, concrete requires very little maintenance.

The large patio leads to a newly landscaped back garden. An expansive glass wall promotes seamless indoor-outdoor living. Inexpensive brick pavers were chosen for the rear patio; they offer textural contrast with the steel of the door, brick of the rear facade, and pale gray wood of the interior floors.

The umbrella resting on the terrace is from Frontgate.

For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design.

Behind an unassuming 19th-century facade in Singapore's Joo Chiat neighborhood, Ching Ian and Yang Yeo's renovation of a typical shophouse venerates tradition while looking squarely to the future. Photo by Richard Powers

"The most challenging part of the design was fusing the old part of the house with the new addition," says principal architect Alex Terry. The character and architectural integrity of the single-level 1950s ranch house was thoughtfully reconsidered during the addition and remodel. The home’s front porch, typical of the period, was refreshed with Ipe decking and railing.

5. "What are the top 10 most important things I must have in a home?" "If there are two people buying the home, write your answers down separately, starting with your absolute must-haves," Hoffman explains. “Putting together a list separately can give both parties and the realtor a clear picture of what the perfect home will have for both of you."

Miha hangs out with Kea, the dog, on the wooden deck that extends the living space outdoors.

The planks inside the house blend into those on the small porch just outside. It's a nice touch that helps marry the outdoors with the home's interior.

"It was nothing but a muddy pit," landscape architect Terence Lee says about the 500-square-foot yard behind his Pacifica, California, house. Instead of filling the space with potted plants or paving it over for a quick fix, Lee devised a simple budget-friendly plan involving tilted lines and a few plants to fashion a functional, low-maintenance space fit his family of five's lifestyle.

Yang Yeo and his girlfriend Ching Ian relax on the back stoop of their renovated and radically updated Singapore shophouse—an archetypal building type in this busy port city. “Shophouses brought back memories of our childhood,” says Yeo.

"I think there’s plenty of missed potential in small compact spaces like these," Lee says. I see it in my neighborhood and other places in publication. People tend to think a small space is a small space and don’t try to do very much with it.

Lee used a bit of visual trickery in the form of forced perspective to make the yard appear larger than its 500 square feet. "You can look at the garden from essentially three directions, from the inside looking directly out, and from the two long ends of the garden," he says. "If the garden was designed with orthogonal lines, you quickly get the sense of that it’s a small narrow space. By tilting the lines of the curb walls and step, you get a much different feel."

The home also extends into outdoor panoramas, even—and especially—from the ground floor, where a westward-facing deck cantilevers out into the lush landscape.

Sheltered from the harsh Arizona sun, a north patio serves several important functions. It extends the apartment’s footprint, encourages airflow, and provides a private corner for residents to relax away from the city buzz. “Physical connection to the outdoors is paramount in a small space. It’s physically and mentally healthier,” Hall says.

Fed up with flashy, environmentally insensitive beach homes, architect Gerald Parsonson and his wife, Kate, designed a humble hideaway nestled behind sand dunes along the New Zealand coastline. Crafted in the image of a modest Kiwi bach, their 1,670-square-foot retreat consists of a group of small buildings clad in black-stained pine weatherboards and fiber-cement sheets.

Backyard sunken patio

Mandel designed a six-by-eight-foot extension for additional space on the ground floor.

Roof deck

“We were concerned that by elevating the first floor by six feet, we would be detaching the living space from the neighborhood,” Mitchell says. “Thus, we have an elevated exterior patio off of the rear that overlooks the sidewalk and brings the living space to the outdoors.”

It's traditional among homes in the region to enter through their backdoor, seen here. The door leads directly to the living room.

Unique among tiny homes, ESCAPE's Classic wraps the entryway in a screened-in and roof porch. It could also be fully enclosed to add an extra room to the home.

The engawa deck is a traditional Japanese feature. It's a place where guests are often greeted to sit with a casual cup of tea. The David and Mayuko also uses it as a viewing porch toward the back yard for when the kids play in the grass.

A raised deck that is accessible via the living and dining area.