In the guest bathroom, Givone installed a hand-chiseled sink made of 17th-century marble quarried from the hills outside of Rome.

The interior of an early 17th century kitchen. --- Image by � Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS

Much of the 1950s and '60s furniture collection comes from Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Netherlands.

A vintage Eames rocking chair occupies a corner of the living room.

A salvaged 19th-century soaking tub wrapped in stainless steel is topped by Hudson Reed faucets.

Brandon and Amy set up different workstations in the living area.

This 19th-century New York factory houses the apartment of Brandon and Amy Phillips as well as the workshop for their company, Miles & May Furniture Works.

In the guest bedroom, a painting by Monique Crine hangs on the original brick wall above a Miles & May bed and side table. The rug is from ABC Carpet & Home.

Keeping the original mottled, worn-brick walls and outfitting the kitchen with their own custom cabinetry were among this couple’s cost-saving measures.

The dining room features 1970s leather-and-brass dining chairs and a table concocted from a brass-and-silver base and a custom lacquered top. The cheerful blue paint enlivening the doorway is from Emery & Cie.

The bathroom evokes the building’s industrial bones. The pendant light is from Ikea, and the towel racks are repurposed train car luggage racks. The Carrara tiles are mismatched seconds. “It works if you let yourself not try to fix it,” says Brandon.

The dining area, with a table and hickory chairs from Miles & May, opens onto a kitchen the couple created as part of a DIY gut renovation. The result, says Amy, is an “intentional raw and polished combination.” The lamp is from M&M Electrical Surplus.

Rittenhouse Square, an idyllic, multiblock park dating to the late 17th century, is reliably populated with sunbathers and summer music festivals.

The black-stained wood siding of the Crossfield St House references London’s timber-clad houses from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Juvet is tucked into the woodsy corner of a classic Norwegian farm on the banks of the rushing Valldola River. The farm has existed here since at least the 1500s.

When not in use as the headboard, the large redwood slab folds down to become a desk.

The Tower House is made up of tiny houses, clustered at the southern end of the property and clad in white steel panels and western red cedar shingles. Spinning off the living room on the north side of the main house, the children’s study sits separate from the other pavilions. On its upper level, Oxley netting forms a web on which the kids and their friends can sit and read with views of the leafy street and garden.

The second bedroom, shared by two young children, offers a private space away from the rest of the home. The owners and architect alike made sure to maintain the apartment’s original features, including the ceiling moldings.

A vintage chest of drawers supports the playful forms of a Nesso lamp, designed by Giancarlo Mattioli for Artemide, and a collection of Holmegaard ceramics.

Laptop (Paris, France) Pauline Thomas, the founder of this creative homeroom in the Jourdain quarter, purposely bucked the sleek and sci-fi trend in favor of keeping the character and vintage charm of this former print shop. Flashes of blue, green, yellow, and red, along with work from local artists, contrast the dark, tailor-made desks from carpenter David Martin. “I wanted a serene and cozy place that gives people the mental space to find inspiration,” she says.

Architect Alex Gil and his wife, Claudia DeSimio, affixed a 750-square-foot addition to the roof of a 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse, transforming their cramped third-floor apartment into a modern duplex. The original fireplace remains, but has been stripped down to exposed brick, as have the surrounding walls, creating an almost wainscot-like design of exposed brick with flat white drywall above.

Lyng Hansen steamed and framed remnants of 19th-century wallpaper found during the renovation.

To highlight the existing architecture of the home, Hill retained the dark polish of the casement windows, which she finds enhances period details instead of undermining them. In the rear sunroom, the vintage Case Study furniture pieces with Plexiglas bases are from Metro Retro in Houston. A Bourgie lamp by Kartell is atop an old marble end table by Knoll, and the Gan kilim rug pictures a branch motif echoed in the kitchen and breakfast room.

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

On an 18th-century farmstead in rural Sweden, two Copenhagen designers have handcrafted a summerhouse that seamlessly melds the modern and the traditional. The simple, pared-down aesthetic and the open-ended time frame of the project—along with the pair's building and design skills—helped Mads Odgård and Lyng Hansen achieve their renovation on a miniscule budget, with a project outline that ebbed and flowed with Odgård’s professional successes in product design.

Cody, 17, and Dylan jam in the kitchen with Yogi, the Welsh corgi.

“What often happens in our relationship is I come to Funn with an idea and he makes it into something livable.” —Vincent Kartheiser

The exhibition features seating that spans decades. Pictured from left are Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand's Chaise longue á réglage continu (1928), Peter Shire's Bel Air chair (1982), and Nacho Carbonell's One Man Chair (2009)

Among Hansen’s treasured objects are a sign bearing her daughter, Lou’s, name and a Milia Seyppel vase.

It's here, friend: 17 pounds of lap-numbing architecture packaged by the coffee-tables-be-damned team over at Phaidon. It's a pretty incredible romp through 750 of the 20th century's most important buildings scattered hither and yon across the globe. ($100)

This open-concept Amsterdam loft features soaring 15-foot ceilings, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman, and a Jielde light. Throughout the home, Standard Studio architects Wouter Slot and Jurjen van Hulzen favored raw materials, including concrete, oiled oak, and hot-rolled steel, all of which complemented the original space's industrial feel. Tucked smartly underneath the loft, a compact home office features functional built-in shelving and an Eames DSR chair.

In the living area of actor Vincent Kartheiser’s Hollywood cabin, redesigned by Funn Roberts to maximize every last inch of space, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman mix with a couch and coffee table by Cisco Home from HD Buttercup. The table in the main room is from West Elm.

Raising the bed above floor level, architect Kyu Sung Woo converted this tiny studio into an open and comfortable home for Wonbo Woo. Photos by: Adam Friedberg

Armed with a keen eye for design and a yen for vintage furniture shopping, Glee star Jayma Mays and actor Adam Campbell revitalize a formerly jumbled Los Angeles house. On an outdoor deck space, the couple placed their fire engine red fireplace, found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.