Keep founders Austin and Kotono Watanabe revived a compact home in Minneapolis with a dazzling kitchen, an all-electric upgrade, and a clerestory “scoop.”
Concrete and travertine slabs were installed on the exterior, alongside an ipe deck with mahogany railings.
New sliding doors from Marvin enable the family to seamlessly move between the indoors and the refurbished patio.
Glass folding doors from Panoramic Doors reach nine-and-a-half feet high to open the kitchen to the courtyard. “It's such a unique feature, especially in Brooklyn,” says Slocum. “You rarely ever see that type of thing.”
The architects specified an aluminum roof that “ghosts” the structure—it’s a material that recalls the typical use of corrugated metal on agricultural buildings, yet it subtly contrasts with the historic form. “It’s not quite what you’d use on a normal barn,” says Powell.
Portrait of David Barsoum and Niky Sampedro in their store Carefully Picked in Chicago, Illinois IL, with light wood floor and white podiums holding curving blue and red chairs, a light wood chair with green cushion, and a set of nesting coffee tables.
Making the decision to buy a home is never easy; it’s hard to know what life will look like five or ten years down the line. But on the bright side, buying a home is exciting. The responsibility can be invigorating.
Lee helped the couple source lighting, like the Nuura Anoli pendants above the kitchen island. “We're constantly having meals at home,” says Serena. “We get a CSA and I like to cook, so it's nice to have a lot of space in the kitchen, and have it be really functional for cooking and entertaining.”
The couple purchased the living room’s H.W. Klein chairs with the house. Another existing piece was the mezzanine’s daybed, designed by Peter Hvidt and Orlando Mølgaard Nielsen. An original floating staircase leads to the mezzanine and then up to the second floor. The open, straight-forward spaces speak to one of Christian’s guiding principles: “Simplicity is the key,” he says.
A view of the opened windows into the study room and the future child's bedroom.
The builders created new, more expansive decks for the cabin and employed larger windows from Marvin.
Deciding to buy a home comes with its own unique set of pressures. Oftentimes, it’s seen as a seal of adulthood, an acceptance of permanence, and perhaps most importantly, it also means that you’re about to spend a large sum of money; it makes sense that no one wants to go about it in a casual way.
The Shinomotos have filled their Southern California home with furniture by Taku and pieces by some of the artists and craftspeople whose work they also showcase at their Tortoise shops and showroom. The couple worked with architectural designer Ken Tanaka to remodel the house, once a cramped, two-bedroom rental. A sofa and tables by Taku join Jasper Morrison’s Three Sofa De Luxe sofa for Cappellini. The sliders are by Western Window Systems.
Barcelona-based Slow Studio builds a bioclimatic home for a couple who work with the United Nations.
This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.
Perched below the Griffith Observatory and overlooking Hollywood is a lush lot crowned with four towering olive trees and a 1965 home designed by modernist architect Craig Ellwood. When a young couple purchased the home in 2018, it needed substantial work. For a historic restoration, they called on Woods + Dangaran, a local firm fluent in modernist history. The team completed a meticulous restoration of the home while keeping original components like the linear shape, open plan, and expansive windows. One of the most striking features is the original koi pond (a feature deemed so essential that its preservation was a condition of escrow) that is now crossed via a bridge that leads to a new lap pool—perhaps the biggest intervention on the property.
Be selective about splurging. One of the hardest, yet potentially most satisfying, parts of staying on budget is learning where to save and where to splurge. There are certain items or pieces that are worthy of spending more on, whether it’s a sofa that will last you a decade or kitchen countertops that will really help improve the value of your home. Your contractor or other design professional can advise you on locations or pieces where a higher-quality product is important versus something more basic.
In 2014, Jeff and Karen Gunning began researching building another house, hoping to create a single, contained volume without compromising their retirement funds. The resulting Tree House comprises three pitched volumes with cutaways to create a porch in phase one and recessed window planter ledges in phase two. Simple wood columns provide support.
Double-glazed windows are an important feature that help control the building’s interior climate.
Solar panels provide power for the two cabins.
Inside, House Zero looks and feels like a traditional home, but with undulating 3D-printed exterior walls that offer an element of texture and movement to interior spaces.
