A skylight was added to bring in more light, and the existing ceilings painted Benjamin Moore ‘Black Tar’ for contrast. The island pendant is the Schoolhouse Ray 17” Pendant and the stools are the Artek Aalto High Chair K65.

The open-concept main living area, which connects to the dining room and kitchen, is the residents’ favorite part of the home. Soaring ceilings, black aluminum-clad windows, and Carrara marble floors make this central gathering place feel vast. Warm, natural textures are brought in through the Eames molded plywood chairs, brown Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs, and natural wooden slab table on steel legs.

The Miller House and Garden features a custom-made sofa in the open-plan living area designed by Saarinen with textiles by Girard. The home was widely published and is in part credited for the popularity of conversation pits in the 1950s and 1960s.

Rodriguez, a designer and architect who runs the studio Agi Miagi, created the pendant lamp and terrariums in the dining area. The space is open to the living area, where Brown’s son, Hugo, sits on a Living Divani sofa. The countertop-table is by Bercy Chen Studio.

There are generously proportioned nine-foot-high ceilings throughout the Desert House. Marmol Radziner designed and built the outdoor table and benches from reclaimed Douglas fir.

A Shaker-inspired rocking chair by Hans Wegner exudes country charm in the corner of the living room.

The second-floor bridge that leads to the front door flows from the outside in. “Tractor seat” stools designed by Bassam perch on a floor of pristine white terrazzo.

A new skylight regulates the living room’s natural light. Ronan set up great contrasts in the space with the bone white walls and ceiling, black wall unit with built-in fireplace, and the crisply framed courtyard. The owners enhanced the space further with vibrant photography and furnishings.

An Eames lounge and ottoman hold court in the master bedroom upstairs. Plenty of natural light and a muted color scheme give the space a wonderfully light feel.

Architect Tamira Sawatzky used Ikea components—one-inch Lagan butcher block countertops and inexpensive Ekby Lerberg brackets—when designing the bookshelves along the living room wall in the home/studio he designed for himself and his wife in Toronto.

Edgeland House, built on a cliff-top lot in Austin by architect Thomas Bercy for lawyer and writer Chris Brown, is topped by a living roof to help it blend into the landscape. The concrete, steel, and glass house is divided into two distinct public and private halves.

In the living room, and throughout the home, recessed "book nooks" are used to provide space-saving storage. The only seating in the room is a sleek black faux leather and steel daybed, fabricated by Montreal-based Surface Jalouse. Walls were removed to cohesively unite the living space and kitchen.

The bach’s beachfront site is nestled behind sand dunes with views toward Kapiti Island, a nature sanctuary.

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design updated a split-level ranch house in Portland by introducing a clean white palette and vintage furnishings.

Furnishings inside the home reflect a minimalist sensibility. A Chiva Functional coffee table by BoConcept, a Monti sofa by Dellarobbia, and Hans Wegner Shell chairs by Carl Hansen & Søn outfit the living room.

A vintage bar unit, a Tube Chandelier by Michael Anastassiades, and a David Harouni artwork are highlights in the open-plan living and dining space. The architects removed heavy paneling from the walls to lighten the space.

A large slab of marble doubles as an artwork in the living room, which is accented with an E23 sofa. Aliabadi used leftover pieces of the marble to create a custom coffee table.

An open-plan kitchen, living, and dining area runs along one side of the upper floor. A study is situated next to the kitchen, while the other half of the building houses the two bedrooms. Black matte bamboo flooring by Silestone and birch ceilings, finished in a walnut stain, add warmth and texture to the interior.

The Kelleys furnished the cottage with help from Suzanne’s daughter Betsy Burbank of Betsy Burbank Interiors. Classic modernist icons, such as a Saarinen Womb chair for Knoll, a Herman Miller Eames lounge chair, and an Eileen Grey E1027 side table look at home alongside present-day pieces such as an Encore sofa (which handily folds down into a sleeping surface) from Room & Board and a Doka rug designed and produced by Stephanie Odegard. The Wohlert pendant lights from Louis Poulsen were designed by Vilhelm Wohlert in 1959, but grouped as such, they appear distinctly contemporary.

In an industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, a verdant green roof of native grasses, wildflowers, and fruits creates an oasis.

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Blanc took the term "living room" to a different level with this striking 20-by-23-foot interior wall for the Dimanche family's home in Paris.

The interior dry walls are made of layered spruce plywood panels, rubbed with transparent oil. The ceiling is concrete.

Waechter Architecture reimagined a traditional gabled home in southeast Portland without significantly altering the original building. A simple coat of red paint abstracts the century-old structure, creating a residential work of art.

The clients and design team chose to forego an open floor plan in favor of defined, separated spaces. In this scheme, the vertically oriented spaces act as a cinematic "hard-cut" to their horizontal counterparts. The custom hot rolled steel kitchen, one of these vertical transition spaces, receives light from above through a Velux skylight. A GE Profile Induction cooktop and oven and Miele refrigerator complete the space.

House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Marcus Lee and Rachel Hart’s wonderful wooden home sits at the end of a quiet London lane and politely turns its back on the workshops next door.

Corporate high-flyers and admitted neat freaks Bruce Thatcher and Kirsty Leighton couldn’t handle the chaos anymore. Read more about this Victorian terrace in London here.

Mini Lumio+ by Max Gunawan for Lumio, $125 at hellolumio.com An extra lightweight companion to the original Lumio, a literal book light created by architect Max Gunawan, the mini Lumio+ achieves the same spellbinding LED effect as its predecessor, while also providing a portable means to charge electronics.

“In this house, the roof is the only facade—the rest is dissolved beneath it.” —Architect Aljoša Dekleva

At the entry looking upward towards a Velux skylight, a vertical "sleeve" is made of stacked end grain plywood. The theme of vertical and horizontal architectural elements providing different environmental perspectives carries through to the rest of the home. Horizontal forms look out to the lake, while the vertical columns look up the sky.

Architectural designer Sebastian Mariscal and project manager Jeff Svitak created a house in Venice, California, for Michael and Tamami Sylvester. Known as Dwell Home Venice for its role as an exemplification of modern architecture, the house is an homage to indoor-outdoor living. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The acclaimed Italian designers Ludovica + Roberto Palomba carved a serene retreat out of a 17th-century oil mill in Salento.

“The home is quite small, but designed in such a way that you don’t feel it,” Herrin says. Lift-slide openings by Quantum Windows & Doors, which were fabricated fewer than 50 miles from the house, make the main living space seem larger.

Seen in the architectural context of its London neighborhood, the house is all the more extraordinary: compact, materially innovative, and easy on the eyes.