Kendra Lee

A Carrara marble backsplash adds cool contrast and a sense of drama when set against the custom oiled-steel black cabinetry in the renovation of the kitchen in this A. Quincy Jones home in Los Angeles.

Another sustainable attribute in Greiner Hall, a dorm that houses up to 600 sophomores on campus, are the Plyboo walls throughout.

Farrow & Ball’s Babouche yellow enlivens one of the bedrooms.

Renovating the old mill was a family effort, and Blee called on his sister Kate, a textile designer based in London, to lend a helping hand with the tile work. Kate's repertoire also extends to building installations, including a ceramic wall in the City and Islington Center for Lifelong Learning in North London. "She had several boxes left over," Blee recalls, "which meant another opportunity to use something that was lying around." The tiles, with finishes ranging from heavy glazes to matte coats, offered textural variety, which brother and sister used to "play around with the idea of reflection from the roof light."

WALL TEARS Hopefully the only tears on one's birthday are tears of joy or these Wall Tears, designed by Andi Kovel for Esque. The teardrop-shape globes are handmade from recycled glass and look just like balloons, though they'll still keep their shape long after the party's over.

HEXAGON WALL TILES

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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.

Interior stairs serve as a thermal chimney and light well, providing ventilation as well as illumination at all levels. [Photo Credit: Josh Perrin]

The finished stair. Franz and Pare-Mayer also took advantage of the light from the skylight to brighten the bathroom: They inserted a pane of etched glass into the wall that separates the stairwell and the shower.

Tigg Coll Architects took a new approach to a straightforward town house renovation and expansion in London. The home’s rear extension has its own personality, with with pivoting glass doors, sharp red support beams, and a wood-burning fireplace. The overhanging concrete plinth acts as a hearth or, as Tigg imagines it, a sort of contemporary inglenook. Wood piles neatly between the beam and wall. The fireplace, a Stovax Riva 2, is flanked by a Lampe Gras wall lamp; firewood is cleverly stored in the narrow space between the fireplace and the red support beam, creating a fun moment of practical texture in the room.

“The material choices for the interior were not directly influenced by the facade, but we did use fumed oak flooring throughout the house, and its deep reddish color picks up on some of the tones present in the exterior,” Dubbeldam says. The couple selected a mix of contemporary furniture and modern classics like the Saarinen side table.

Particularly fond of careful detail, Alter designed the treads of the entryway staircase to merge seamlessly into the adjacent bookshelves. “I enjoy doing things that make you wonder about the context and look a little further,” he says.

In the living room, Mass Studio removed the drywall ceiling to expose the wood beams, and then lined the ceiling with pine slats. Built-in walnut shelves help emphasize the room's new, pitched profile. "We replaced the patio doors with floor-to-ceiling custom wood doors with dual-pane glass, which better reflects the overall height of the living room and provide more light and outdoor view," Salek says.

In the kitchen, the continuous kitchen worktop and table are made of marble from Caledonia Marble. The pink Tamatik dining chairs are by Connie Chisholm and are from the Canadian design shop Made. The Blinding Love pendant lights are by Periphere, which has shops in Montreal and Toronto. The iron rails were inspired both by screens the couple had seen on their travels in the Middle East and by the ornate wrought ironwork favored by their Portuguese neighbors. Barzel Ironworks fabricated the banister to Sawatzky’s design by slicing up iron pipe, welding it, and painting it.

Sawatzky designed the bookshelves along the living room wall out of Ikea components: one-inch Lagan butcher block countertops and inexpensive Ekby Lerberg brackets. She also used pieces of the strong and attractive countertops for built-in shelves in the upstairs lounge as well as for trim in the kitchen.

Architect Tamira Sawatzky and artist Elle Flanders get an awfully good view of their busy Toronto street from their office and dining room.

The living room is five steps down from the kitchen and office space and features textured black slate tile from Olympia Tile, Voyage Immobile sofas with Farniente collection upholstery (a wedding present from Flanders’s mother) by Roche Bobois, and a rug from Turkmenistan the couple picked up in Jerusalem. The sliding glass doors are by Loewen and the glazing above is by Inline Fiberglass. Sawatzky relied on Wayne Arsenault for the custom millwork and carpentry.

The Vladimir Lenin prints were a gift from Drew’s father, also a graphic designer, and reflect their shared love of “graphically powerful types of printed ephemera,” Drew says. Standard chairs by Jean Prouvé for Vitra are tucked under the dining table.

Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva designed the Aureola Tea Service set for Toronto shop Mjölk.

#designmilk #northbourne #architecture #melbourne #modern Photo by Eve Wilson The new master bathroom is outfitted with charcoal Japanese mosaic tiles, which contrast the white paint and fixtures.

#designmilk #northbourne #architecture #melbourne #modern Photo by Eve Wilson A bookshelf was built as a room divider between the bedroom and closet.

Iason Vassiliou, Maria Voutsina, and their daughter, Angeliki, relax in a landing-level office at their apartment in Athens, Greece.

A trio of resin skulls works as manly wall art above a burly end table from Urban Hardwoods and on a wall painted with ICI Paint’s Noble Grey.

The caged staircase was designed by architect Patrick Ousey, with whom Flournoy collaborated in the home’s design. Although initially unconvinced by the staircase detail, “it is a great example of how collaboration brings in different perspectives,” says Flournoy.

Teaming up with architect Craig Steely, an industrial designer and a mechanical engineer find just the right design for a striking home on a San Francisco hill. Photo by Ian Allen.

Weijnen used adobe plaster in nearly all the rooms of the house. It's an ideal material for passive houses as it can absorb and release moisture and heat exceptionally well.

Hues: ASPIRE .05, WATER .01, GLASS .02, and AIR .02. www.colorhousepaint.com/blo...

Hues: WOOL .01, RDH Coral, and METAL .04. www.colorhousepaint.com/blo...

@sonyayu: "Weekends"

Teacher and resident Eric Schneider’s 450-square-foot space needed to be able to accommodate individual areas for cooking, storage, sleeping, entertaining, and, of course, working—without filling the diminutive abode with furniture, or eliciting claustrophobia by chopping it into tiny spaces. The simple and elegant solution was to knock down most of the apartment’s walls, and concentrate all of the living space’s functionality—kitchen storage, closet, bar, bed, lighting, and office—into a single, transformer-like cabinetry unit.

Residents Jen Geiger and James Marcovitz have filled their renovated Tribeca loft with a thoughtfully curated collection of vintage modern furniture, Americana, and blue-chip artwork. The primary wall in the open kitchen is filled with photography by German duo Bernd and Hilla Becher. Seating includes a molded plywood lounge chair by Charles and Ray Eames and K65 stools by Artek, designed by Alvar Aalto in 1935.

Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue covers a wall in another bedroom. The light switches here, and throughout the apartment, are Hager’s 1930 series. Deau stationed a 1970s-era sconce next to the bed.