One of the greatest design challenges, according to Franz and Paré-Mayer, was reimagining the dark, unfinished garage space in a way that would “establish [it] as primary, instead of an afterthought to the original floor above.” This was achieved by layering open, linked spaces on the ground floor and sticking to a few carefully selected materials for cohesion and fluidity. There are hardly any hallways in the home; every space serves a function. Polished concrete floors continue throughout the new living level, and a bent metal dining chair with a reclaimed Douglas fir backrest made by Scholz sits in front of an open white oak staircase.

Photo via Hughesumbanhowar Architects

Movable and space-saving design elements define this creative family home in the Mission District. The kitchen was given an economical revamp by adding new drawer and door fronts to the existing cabinet boxes. Countertops were replaced with custom fabricated white oak butcher block surfaces, and a complementary white oak kitchen island was installed. A Wolf range, Vent-a-Hood hood, Franke stainless steel sink, and Bosch dishwasher complete the space.

Movable and space-saving design elements define this creative family home in San Francisco’s Mission District. A midcentury home was transformed, and through the renovation, the molding at the fireplace was taken down, as was the cast plaster mantle. The sleek, new, metal fireplace design features a white oak custom bench made by Zack, accented by a vintage carnation milk crate from his mother’s childhood.

Florida couple John Pirman and Steve Tetreault built a new house inspired by the Sarasota School. Today’s FEMA codes required a plinth to lift the house five-and-a-half feet above grade and a roof that can withstand hurricane wind loads, making it a challenge to re-create the lightness of midcentury design, Pirman says.

An enclosed courtyard, bordred by ipe, is arguably the most distinctive feature of the house that the Phil Kean Design Group created for Adriana De Azevedo, Daniel Coelho, and their two daughters in Winter Park, Florida.

The house is located in the Camp Biscayne area of Coconut Grove, a neighborhood in Miami. Its main volume is clad in Prodema.

The focal point of the home’s modernized exterior is a custom, wood-and-steel entry gate designed by atelier KS and built by DeFauw Design + Fabrication, a local fabricator who also made custom closing hardware for the piece. Franz and Paré-Mayer paired angled cypress slats with an industrial metal frame to create the entryway. A few paces behind the gate, a large glass door provides direct access to the home, fulfilling the owners’ wish for an entry vestibule that would be separate from the street. The angled wood slats offer privacy from the exterior, while selectively allowing light to penetrate through.

Accordion-style glass doors open the living room up to a lanai, or covered veranda, that in turn opens via a pair of retractable screens onto a pool deck. The effect is to create a single seamless space that merges the living room with the outdoors.

Ipe makes another appearance in the living room, creating a strong indoor-outdoor connection. Kean sited the transom windows to capture views of the moss-covered trees in the backyard.

The floors in the kitchen are polished concrete.

A deep-red door adds a pop of color to the ipe-enclosed front courtyard of this modern home in Winter Park, Florida. Maintaining an indoor/outdoor connection was important to the family, as was a simple and sustainable material palette that includes wood and polished concrete.

The kitchen counters and islands reflect a relatively simple material palette.

Averse to the idea of a television being the centerpiece of a space, the owners instead opted for a clever alternative in the library/media room. Continuing the theme of movable and multi-functional design elements, a rolling chalkboard panel was designed to conceal the TV when not in use. Throughout the home, the family’s furniture is an eclectic mix of purchased, custom built, inherited, and self-made pieces. The room is accented with a reclaimed red office chair with custom white oak armrests made by Scholz.

Raise the Roof Using a commercial roof in a residential project was a first for architect Michael Epstein. While similar systems are often covered, Epstein chose this long-span roof deck from Epic Metals for its beam-like interior face, which hides fastenings in its deep grooves, creating a flat-panel appearance.

Float On Clerestory windows from YKK Commercial give the illusion that the roof hovers above the house—a key factor in keeping the light, modern touch that the homeowners desired. Epstein did not design the clerestories in a single, straight line; the glass drops down where possible to allow the maximum amount of light. It took a bit of convincing to sway his clients. “He said, ‘Listen to me, stay with my concept, and you won’t be sorry,’” Tetreault recalls. “So I stuck with it, and I’m not sorry.”

Pirman, an illustrator, works on a vintage Florence Knoll table in his studio at the front of the house.

Shady Business “What makes this house wonderful to live in is that the light is always, always changing,” says Pirman. Here, he adjusts shades fabricated by Unique Wholesale Distributors, which pull down in the morning when the sunlight is strongest.

Show It Off While the couple’s art collection is a focal point of the house, the structure’s abundance of glass walls means there are fewer places on which to hang it. Custom one-and-a-quarter-inch hardwood-plank shelves and a credenza from DWR provide places to rotate favorite pieces.

Streets and houses radiate outward from this hexagonal suburb in Florida. Gielen’s perspective reveals the patterns formed by the streets (and yet invisible from street view). Photo by Christoph Gielen.

Benjamin Moore’s Tomato Red provides “punctuation” to the exterior. “That was the cheapest way to have that hot spark of color,” Pirman explains.

The bath’s Kohler Purist fixtures and Frederick Weinberg animal figures sit on a Corian countertop

In the master suite, a painting by Eric Freeman hangs over a West Elm bed.

The owners, who describe their design aesthetic as “comfortable minimalism,” envisioned a space with “clean lines, simple materials, and straightforward methods,” an vision shared by Franz and Seth Paré-Mayer. The new master bathroom features custom, locally built rift cut white oak cabinetry, consistent with many of the other spaces on the renovated level. The bathroom vanity floats above polished concrete floors. A bold cutaway was chosen in lieu of an anchoring wall. Unique fold-out mirrors lay flush against the side wall and cabinet when not in use, and swing towards the open center when needed. A custom cast concrete sink by It’s Concrete, Hansgrohe Puravida faucet, and Heath Ceramics soap dish complete the space.

A new operable skylight above the stairs offers an alluring visual connection to the outdoors, while providing passive climate control. On cool days, light floods the space from above and warms the home, while on warmer days, the open skylight allows air to circulate. The skylight is one of the owners’ favorite part of the home—seeing the changing light through the opening, catching glimpses of the moon at night, or listening to the rain on its surface.

Florida-based studio Yield displays a number of its modern home goods, including the French Press coffee makers, Spun Planter, and Meso Pendant Light.

Florida. Husband-and-wife team Damm Design create sculptural lighting designs that beam with personality. Their Hombre pendants are composed of recovered lighting parts, refinished in an ombre fade by a local motorcycle painter.

Though the remodel was focused downstairs, the designers also did soft renovations on the upper-level to tie old and new together. The old kitchen lacked the modern, minimal aesthetic of the new downstairs space, and was accordingly given a simple, budget-friendly reworking. Paperclip barstools by Kinetics, from Felisa’s childhood home, were saved and integrated into the final design.

This innovative family home in San Francisco’s Mission District includes a library/media room where a rolling chalkboard panel conceals the TV when not in use.

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Guest Bedroom that opens to jack and jill bath and Shaded East and South Facing Light

“If the house had a wood frame, we wouldn’t have been able to get such open windows.”—Michael Epstein, architect

The option of having an extra bedroom for their growing family was an attractive one for Scholz and Preskill as they looked to expand the living area of their cozy home. In doing so, they found themselves “cramming a full program into not that much space,” says Scholz. To achieve this, and still maintain a sense of fluidity and openness, the new master bedroom and bathroom were designed as a nontraditional open-concept space, without a continuous dividing wall between them. The light, airy bedroom features a custom LW bed and wall-hung side tables, both by San Francisco-based OHIO Design, along with a steel-and-white-oak lamp by Rich Brilliant & Willing.

Hurricane-proof windows by Peetz frame the lush landscape. The floors are made from Spanish macael marble, and the walls feature hand-applied matte Italian microplaster designed to mirror the appearance of clouds.

Boxes and boxes of Zack’s books found a new home in the custom library wall, fabricated with hot rolled steel, white oak, and aluminum. In the middle of the wall-to-wall bookshelves is a flat white oak panel where every board was custom-milled to perfectly fit the space. Franz and Paré-Mayer worked strategically to elevate simple materials. Design details such as the custom steel in the built-in bookshelves and aluminum handrail on the stairs were developed exclusively by Franz and Paré-Mayer for their clients, not to be repeated or reworked in any other projects.

Filmmaker-turned-designer Alejandro Landes chose materials such as concrete and stone for their raw appeal, allowing nature to take center stage—while a series of balconies and decks offer myriad ways to enjoy the view.