The house’s new lime plaster walls, seen here in the courtyard, contrast with the old brick wall that divides the house from Kolasiński’s adjoining carpentry shop. Though the house itself is small, the outdoor spaces and furniture studio bring its total square footage to nearly 11,000 square feet.
The Japanese architect is known for cladding exteriors with charred cedar, but in this vacation retreat he adorns the wall surrounding an interior fireplace with an arresting composition of scorched wood strips.
The budget was nearly as tight as the space in this cheerful renovation of a 516-square-foot flat in Bratislava. The centerpiece of Lukáš Kordík’s new kitchen is the cabinetry surrounding the sink, a feat he managed by altering the facing and pulls of an off-the-rack Ikea system. The laminate offers a good punch of blue, and in modernist fashion, Kordík forwent door handles in favor of cutouts. “I wanted the kitchen to be one simple block of color without any additional design,” he says.
“We wanted something less Euro. We used felt on one wall, herringbone floors, and walnut shelving to give it some color,” Graham Hill says.
The Passo table by Resource Furniture features retractable legs and an expandable surface, which allow Graham to adjust its height and size.
The main room is conceived as a series of revolving scenes, bracketed by cabinets and a wall of FilzFelt, layered in panels to dampen sound.
Consider realistic DIY limitations. If you’ve never delved into plumbing or electrical work before, a major renovation is usually not the right time to get started, as this type of work is best left to professionals. Even something as seemingly simple as demolition work can quickly become more complex if you are replacing plumbing or electrical fixtures.
Graham Hill, a sustainability advocate whose TED talks have delved into the benefits of living small, put his own lessons into practice at his 350-square-foot apartment, which he shares with his partner and two dogs. Quick transitions, like drawing the FilzFelt curtain, convert the living space into a bedroom.
In the Mission District yard Monica Viarengo created for the Sharkey family, outdoor chalkboard paint by Sydney Harbour applied to marine-grade plywood offers a gallery for creativity. A mural by local artist Erik Otto—inspired by the neighborhood—brightens the back of the space.
Viarengo added a custom stainless-steel slide to the property’s guest cottage. A green-wall system by Florafelt adds life to the vertical space.
Viarengo used the espalier method—in which a plant’s branches are affixed to asurface to encourage them to grow flat—to save space. The lemon tree stretches across a fence of clear, or knot-free, red cedar.