Milena

The house may appear conventional at a glance, but a closer look shows how Oostenbruggen has pushed the boundaries of the traditional gabled typology. It has an asymmetrical roof, with slate shingles that extend down the eastern side to close it off completely.

“They wanted the new cabin to make a ‘L’ shape with the older cabin, but I convinced them to mimic the old cabin on the opposite side,” architect D’Arcy Jones says. “So the new site has two buildings across from each other, like an equal sign.” Birch trees grow between the cabins in a shared courtyard.

Kartheiser's courtyard also includes a dry sauna with a ceiling made from 2,500 pieces of wood.

The Entertainment Shelf includes a panel that slides to reveal easy-to-reach shelves on either side.

The Box Kitchen contains two burners, a ventilation hood, a sink, a dishwasher, and a microwave. A fold-down laminated countertop creates a prep surface.

"Light colors make [your space] feel more spacious and airy," says Macy Miller. Miller's compact home in Boise, Idaho, built for only $11,000, is featured in our September issue.

The kitchen cabinetry echoes the new blue ceiling. The brick tile is from Heath Ceramics, as is the dinnerware. Behind the Viking stove is powder-coated corrugated metal (“Very trailer,” says the designer). The refrigerator is from Big Chill. On the table is a bowl by Victoria Morris.

In its closed position, the piece looks like a storage unit. A door on wheels slides open to reveal a kitchen inside.

From Japanese company Yamazaki, the Recycling Bag Stand is an innovative accessory designed with urban living in mind. The simple accessory unfolds to a standing position that can hold several plastic bags—from grocery shopping, takeout, and other errands—enabling users to directly recycle plastic containers, cans, and other items into the bags.

Wood WorksFaced with the challenge of a diminutive New York apartment in desperate need of a refresh, architect Tim Seggerman went straight to his toolbox to craft a Nakashima-inspired interior, featured in our November Small Spaces issue.

When it comes to media storage in a small space, consider making the most of your nooks and crannies. The shelving at right here is smartly recessed into a cavity next to the window.

Using natural materials is one way of bringing nature indoors. Oiled white ash floors and ceilings, along with Italian poplar and Lawson cypress joinery, are found throughout architect Andrew Simpson’s 538-square-foot home outside Wellington, New Zealand.

Of the seven steps in Michael Pozner’s not-quite-500-square-foot aerie in Greenwich Village, five contain drawers. His small set of table and chairs is from CB2.

The Kaschkasch Floor Mirror is a decidedly modern home accent that is designed with small spaces and apartment living in mind. The full-body mirror has a triangular shaped frame, making it easy to fit into the corner of a room.

Deeds hung a single Louis Poulsen PH5 lamp from the ceiling; its blue and red interior paint “is very friendly to human skin tones,” she says. Photo by Lenny Gonzalez

Davor (with his wife, Abbe, and son, August) designed the main living and dining pavilion as a double-height space to increase its perceived volume, and added high cubbies for extra storage.

More fragment pillows adorn the bed, which is covered in a reversible bedspread by artist Jane Kifer. To the left of the window is a painting by Shumate.

Green roofs are aesthetically pleasing and have multiple positive environmental benefits, even if they are small in terms of square footage. Here, a green roof blooms atop the detached garage of a home.

Once the team decided to have the garage door roll up the outside of the structure, they imagined its upstairs portion could curve dramatically along a 27 degree angle. The old garage footprint and 6-foot-wide opening remained the same, and the original sectional garage door was repurposed.

The home’s lower level serves as a garage, allowing direct access to the house.

A utilitarian core contains the kitchen, bathroom, closet, and loft ladder. The kitchen’s walls are clad with recycled wooden boards trimmed with horizontal battens that hide the oven and refrigerator from view.

The exterior mixes pale gray wood on the vertical volume, and fiber cement and black brick on the horiztonal volume. The three trees in the front yard were maintained during the renovation process.

Garage Plan A Outdoor Shower B Bookshelf-Bar C Original Walls D Wood Stove

A Renlita Floataway garage door is shielded by one of the home’s many overhangs.

At street level, the wooden garage door opens its toothed maw.

Ample windows cut into the north elevation of the Valentine House, behind which live the architects. The openings reveal lofty double-height spaces inside. The ground-floor garage often serves as a shop for architectural model-making. Photos by: Roger Davies

Hooper House II's new owner, Richard North, has altered the house very little, though he did convert the carport into an enclosed garage to provide greater protection for his collection of automobiles. Read more about the mid-20th century Marcel Breuer Hooper House here.

A shot at dusk shows off the garage door’s perfect mix of in and out for entertaining purposes.

Schaer replaced the garage’s crumbling wooden posts with an earthquake-resistant steel frame. He also excavated beneath the building, establishing a basement level for a workshop, storage, laundry, and water heater. The earth removed in the process was shoveled into concrete “boxes” in the yard. These form a raised terrace from which you can see the Olympic mountains.

“The stable/garage was built with two intersecting gable roof forms," Schaer says, which didn't match up with the inteiror spaces within. “In order to provide a unified, singular main space, we dropped a flat ceiling at the entrance and linked it up with the main gable visible from the street.”

On Vashon Island, about 20 miles southwest of Seattle, architect Seth Grizzle designed a 440-square-foot multiuse structure for his clients Bill and Ruth True.

The chairs here are by Brazilian designer Zanini de Zanine.

The ENSAMBLE Project, as the system is known, includes smaller panels for subdividing desks. Perforations allow office accessories to be hung within easy reach, like a pegboard.

Collaborating with Arauco, the Andes House tested the durability of cholguán by exposing it to liquid. To their surprise, they found the material survived but bent gently, revealing that it could be shaped to divide offices.

Lightweight and configurable, the designers see the system as a flexible solution for workspaces, as well as schools, libraries, and emergency shelters.

The loft addition afforded space for a home office and music area. The family chose to forego a dedicated office upstairs, instead prioritizing private bedrooms for each of the children. Shelving and a built-in desk anchor the loft’s far wall.