Whidbey Island Farm Retreat
Triangles are a central theme in this peaceful, light-filled home. The geometric shape is reflected in a tastefully placed pendant lamp.
Reportedly, it took eight slabs of marble to achieve the seamless look Mossman imagined. In the interview with AD, she said, "I also didn’t want any rust in them. I liked the graphic gray and white."
Undercroft is an earth-sheltered roundhouse set in an off-grid Welsh eco village. Built in 2009, it was inspired by earths design principles, with a reclaimed glasshouse that provides insulation and a perfect spot to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables. The cabin’s location—a hillside—protects it from the wind while allowing in sunlight. Heat, meanwhile, is supplied by a small log burner and the earth: a flue pipe is sculpted around a thermal mass of shale and subsoil, providing extended radiant warmth.
Guests can enter the three-story property via a street-side gate with a built-in Siedle Steel electronic entry system, including a keypad and biometric access. Alternatively, the home offers an underground four-car garage.
The kitchen is one of McBride's favorite architectural moments in the open-concept great room.
A view of the exterior by night.
An abstracted take on the kitchen island design gives the impression of a table when viewed from the living area, integrating both rooms around a central gathering point.
Concrete masses break up the grand interior spaces, while providing some solidity to the light framework of the home.
Throughout the studio, custom display units in muted colors showcase various iterations of Layer-designed products.
Spacious and highly functional, the polished kitchen features customized bespoke cabinetry. Built-in benches along a glazed corner provide plentiful seating.
A layering of old and new, solid and transparent are evident in the play of materials and form. The original brick walls remain, wrapped by the wood- and metal-clad addition.
The altar-end of the building was also enclosed to form the boundary for the living room, with the attached office and workshop behind the wall on the lower level. The upper level walkway to the master suite provides a sense of definition in the expansive space, which is 28 feet high at its peak.
“They also identified that they enjoy eating outside, so the relationship to the garden was really important. To enhance this, we incorporated a kitchen window that opens to become a servery and large glazed doors that allows the dining to flow out onto the deck,” said the firm.
A hardworking pantry was essential for the family. “They’re also very keen cooks,” said the firm. “They preserve fruit, make kombucha, keep bees, and grow a lot of herbs and vegetables. The open walk-in pantry, plenty of bench space, and storage are all approaches that allow for lots of food to be produced.” Pantry inserts are made from Maxi Film birch plywood in black, so that the pantry space recedes.
The informal side entrance leads right into the open living space, which hosts a family room, dining room, and kitchen.
A couple takes a minimalist approach to their Brooklyn apartment, focusing on supple materials, subtle gradations of color, and custom finishes by local craftsmen. The Mandayam–Vohra family gathers under one of Workstead’s signature three-arm chandeliers, shown here in its horizontal configuration. Bartenschlager designed the white cabinets and is responsible for the walnut counters both on the kitchen island and near the stove.
A trifecta of pendants spruce up the casual dining space. Kim’s daughter Molly, who was also instrumental to the design vision, is a West Coast–based chef. She weighed in on the layout, from roasting pans to compost bins, essentially upgrading it to commercial standards.
Inside, playful pillows can be rearranged in any manner, and are often used as mock beds for relaxing and looking at the canopies above.
The cabin's large windows allow an unparalleled view of the pond it overlooks, while lush greenery seems to almost cover the exterior.
A Sloane Interior Define sofa wraps around the living room with a Jacob coffee table from Wayfair in the center. The Acme Coleen side table in white and brass is from Houzz, and a Talari indigo ottoman from The Citizenry is stashed underneath. Expanding the space is a Glen mirror from Modern Komfort.
The back of the property contrasts with the front by showcasing numerous oversized windows. The deck is made from the same silvertop ash wood.
Strategically placed windows maximize natural light and give the appearance of more space. The flooring is solid American oak, and the owners' extensive vintage furniture collection features throughout the home.
The minimalist kitchen is in keeping with the rest of the home: It has clean lines, few details, and that same classic contrast between black and white. The custom joinery is by Orana with fixtures by Roger Seller. The countertops are made of custom-cut Limestone.
"It was rundown, dark, and divided," recalls Masaaki of his first impression of the warehouse, the ground floor of a multistory apartment building. But after some thought, Masaaki, a Japanese-born architect, and Esther, an artist from Minorca, realized that owning the combined 2,700 square feet would allow them to headquarter Mas-aqui, the architecture and design firm they were planning to start, on-site. They bought the property and within months transformed it into a bright, modern live/work space.
Inspired by modern Japanese minimalism, Hong Kong practice JAAK demolished the walls of this two-bedroom apartment and remodelled it into a studio with an
When redesigning “Madmen” actor Vincent Kartheiser’s Hollywood cabin, architect Funn Roberts installed custom shoji-style screens of to conceal the closet and provide privacy for the adjacent shower and soaking tub.
The geometrically disciplined facade is composed of blonde cypress, white stucco, and cedar that was charred black by Delta Millworks.
A wall covered in graphite-colored Ann Sacks tile runs from the kitchen out to the covered porch. Similarly, the sheetrock ceiling and the concrete flooring are extended from inside to outside—a cost-saving measure that provides visual continuity. The Hot Mesh outdoor dining chairs are by Blu Dot.
The master bath is clad in plywood and features a custom vanity by Woodline Design paired with a Bourgogne limestone countertop with a honed finish by Fox Marble. The vanity mirror is a custom piece by Greg Nelson at GGD.
The home “is really about place, how it sits on the site, how it responds to the sun,” reflects McKeel.
A work desk connects to the headboard.
Chairs from Hay and Matter.
A General Electric stereo cabinet and a 1950s chair are among the vintage pieces in the living room.
Recycled timbers are used throughout the home from the curved bench to the joinery in the kitchen. The kitchen also connects to a cold-store walk-in pantry that’s cooled with an in-slab ventilation pipe funneling cool under-house air.
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