A 200-year-old factory in Umbria is transformed into an inviting home by designer Paola Navone. In the seating area, a trolley found at a flea market functions as the coffee table alongside an expansive Navone-designed sofa for Linteloo. Custom pendants by photographer Mark Eden Schooley hang above the dining table. Photo by Wichmann + Bendtsen.

The living room is populated with a molded plywood Eames chair and a vintage Italian lamp.

The formerly dark basement kitchen now feels much lighter, thanks to the addition of white oak floor boards, bright plaster walls, and floor-to-ceiling windows that let in garden views.

Part of a 1,000-square-foot space the brothers designed for their parents, the master bath features a Whittington Marlon bathtub from Signature Hardware.

The custom zinc cabinets and quartzite countertops of Mark Berryman’s Tribeca apartment reflect the sun as it sets over Manhattan. Workstead designer Robert Highsmith kept the apartment’s original fir beams and painted its existing pipes Onyx by Benjamin Moore. The counter stools are by Sawkille, and the floors are white oak from LV Wood. The range is by Viking.

If you're looking for the ultimate minimalist bed frame, a platform bed with edges that extend beyond the mattress allow it to double as a bedside table, eliminating the need for other furniture.

The cavernous living room takes advantage of its height with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

The Parisian flat that American-born architect Michael Herrman shares with his wife, Cécile, and their 2-year-old daughter, Rose, had been nearly untouched since the 1790s, when it was built. “But I wanted to try and reveal some of its age in a fresh new context,” Herrman said.

The team from the interdisciplinary firm Commune Design joins us to talk about their role in revitalizing the city of L.A., from their work on the city’s major residential multiuse projects to the recently opened Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. Photo by Spencer Lowell.

Replacing the old toilet with a wall-hung Duravit model continues the floating theme, which is echoed by the custom recessed magazine caddy. The room’s sole freestanding piece is a glass-sided cabinet from Restoration Hardware. The diamond-shaped tile is from the Dwell collection at Heath Ceramics.

Entrance By moving the foot of the stairway away from the front door, Bischoff and his team carved out a transition point from the stoop and sidewalk below, providing a welcome measure of privacy. (Visitors must scale the steps and stand at the door before they can peer in.) The concrete floor tiles were left over from an earlier MADE project. “We didn’t have an equal balance of black and white or even the right sizes,” Bischoff says, “so we made a design moment out of what we had.” Saving on the floor tiles meant that Casale and Crofton could spring for hand-finished wallpaper by Swedish company Sandberg.

In the house’s front room Monkman relaxes on a stool from local retailer Andrew Richard Designs. A new window system draws in sunlight and views of the front courtyard designed by local landscape architect Terry McGlade, the building’s former owner.

Orgone chaise longue by Marc Newson for Cappellini

A small country road borders the property to the west.

In the new 2,770-square-foot apartment, original I-beams brace the structure at dramatic angles and collide overhead, and the raw concrete is tempered by blackened steel, white-oak flooring, and bush-hammered Carrara marble—all selected by Willis.

Sliding doors cast shadows across the concrete floor.

According to Paul Raff, the biggest design challenge was creating a functional home that would accommodate the family's regular activities (dining, music, play, homework) all on one level. This was solved by "collaging spaces of different shapes and sizes together, and by interconnecting them all with a very open and seamlessly integrated kitchen." The airy family kitchen features Loire limestone floors, BassamFellows Tractor stools, and an Eames molded plastic chair.

The exterior of the Field House, designed by Wendell Burnette Architects in Ellington, Wisconsin.

Bates Masi designed the two-inch-thick Carrara marble countertops and white fiberboard cabinetry in the kitchen.

The sculptural staircase is a centerpiece of the open-plan kitchen and living room.

A carpet of custom tile created by Navone punctuates a corridor on the first floor.

Exposed boards that were salvaged from the original apartment were installed into the master bedroom. They provide a rustic atmosphere, enhanced by the addition of DIY industrial lighting. The bedding, curtains, and bedside tables are all from IKEA.

The kitchen occupies one corner of the L-shaped structure. As throughout, the floors are made up of reclaimed eucalyptus that Chris planed himself.

The Perth residence of Renee Coleman via the Design Files.

The brass sculpture on the gray basalt tile floor is by André Bloc.

The cantilevered main floor creates space for bracken fern and other indigenous vegetation to flourish.

A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe hangs tough on the only opaque wall of the living room. Russell-Clarke and Moolsintong designed the coffee table, and Marcel Wanders gets credit for the Bottoni sofa for Moooi.

Though most of the home's interior comes without a splashy designer's name attached, the bathroom is kitted out with a toilet, sink, and bath/shower from Jasper Morrison's line for Ideal Standard. The cabinets are from an Ikea kitchen system.

In the sleek kitchen, the white Ikea cabinet uppers seem to disappear into the wall, while the bases get a distinctive custom walnut wrapping. Flanking the cabinets are open bookshelves, which provide secondary function as a spacial divider for the children’s play area. A Dornbracht faucet sits on a slab of Vermont Olympian White Danby marble, which is also used for the island and backsplash.

Minimal interventions by architect Andrew Simpson allowed this former jam warehouse outside of Melbourne, Australia, to be turned into a family residence. "To draw light and ventilation into what was a poorly oriented and deep footprint, an extensive number of operable skylights were introduced on the north- and south-facing roof pitches, and a large void connecting the floors was strategically positioned to also take advantage of this amenity," Simpson says. American oak floorboards and Dulux paint were used throughout the property for continuity.

Lightroom 1.0, a photography studio, is a freestanding structure on the property. “Together, they represent an autobiography of my career,” Carpenter says.

One of the most classic ways to understand a space is through an architectural drawing, which can take the form of a plan (a flat aerial view of a space) or an elevation (a flat view of an interior wall or exterior side of a building).

The White House, 2006.

“Designing a house is like writing a song: You try as best you can and you have to finish at some point. You’re probably best to write another song than driving yourself mad.”—Jamie Norton, resident