Amy Dvorak

Many tiny home dwellers develop eco-friendly habits when they downsize—like adopting a capsule wardrobe, carpooling more, and harvesting rainwater.

In fall, the color of this backyard in Charlottesville, Virginia, changes daily with the foliage. Elizabeth Birdsall marvels how new outdoor spaces on her property, like a patio furnished with upholstered seating from Gloster, make enjoying the woods an easy experience: “It’s like comfortable camping, all the time.”

Choosing a kitchen or bathroom countertop can be nerve-wracking, and we understand why—they can be one of the most expensive aspects of a renovation, with the added responsibility of impacting the aesthetics of a space. Read on as we work our way through the pros and cons of seven of the most common countertop materials.

The couple have crafted their own kitchens in the past. For their floating home, however, they selected the black Vipp kitchen, where Juul chats with her daughter, Karla.

The homes are built on a concrete foundation and are typically constructed in only two days.

A wall of sleek black cabinets defines this kitchen project.

Matte Black Oslo Cutlery Set A sooty finish for stainless-steel flatware made in Portugal elevates everyday utensils.

The refrigerator comes in ten different color ways and a small size that tucks easily into a small apartment kitchen.

Located off of the kitchen, Vivi’s office disappears behind sliding walls covered in black chalkboard paint from Behr. This is one of the best home office setup ideas if you're short on space or if you're going for a minimalist look.

Stelton Pure Black Knives, $55–$129 at the Dwell Store Stelton’s Pure Black Knives are cutting edge kitchen tools. Each knife is forged from a single piece of stainless steel, so the handles morph into the blades without the interruption of a different material and color. The Pure Black Knives collection includes a large chef’s knife, small chef’s knife, bread knife, santuko knife, and utility knife.

When developing the line, KitchenAid turned to the watch industry, taking note of matte black and brushed metal detailing on modern timepieces.

MMF-11.1 by Music Hall, $4,500 Compare the aural quality of a record to iTunes or Spotify, and let the fullness of sound win you over. Opposing magnets in the feet of the turntable virtually isolate it from its environment, dramatically improving the sound.

The juxtaposition of black and white is perhaps the most notable detail of the home’s interiors. In the guest bathroom, black and white tiles provide visual interest.

Stainless steel has been the hallmark of the modern American kitchen for years. But today’s appliance launches show that stainless is not the only material fit for modern design seekers. KitchenAid’s new Black Stainless Steel line is a natural evolution, as it has the same material qualities as stainless steel but features a new, warmer tone.

Heating for the unit is provided by a Spartherm fireplace, with electric heating integrated into the magnesite floor. Walls are insulated with fire-tested wool felt under plywood panels.

The blades on the Furtif Evercut series are made from titanium-carbide that’s been laser-bonded. It will last “300 times longer than standard steel and five times longer than ceramic,” according to the manufacturer TB Groupe.

Fabian and Dorothee Heine’s renovation began and ended with a particular kitchen system. Almost a year before finding the flat they would call home, the Hamburg-based couple decided upon a matte black Vipp kitchen that Fabian had glimpsed in the window of the company’s Copenhagen showroom. The island serves as a generous workspace for Fabian to prepare dishes with her son Morten.

Weight Vases was an early THINKK Studio success.

With its expansive, geometric design and wide concrete-slab walkways, the enclosed central courtyard around which the house is organized creates outdoor space protected from the sometimes-inhospitable wind out of the northeast.

Located in Los Altos, California, Curt Cline's modern house seeks to respect the neighborhood fabric. By keeping the abode low-slung, using a few simple geometries, and the leaving the facade spare, Cline helped the structure blend in with the 1940s and 1950s structures around it. The materials—board-formed concrete and cedar slats—instill a contemporary California aesthetic.

Impromptu reading time in the open-plan kitchen is encouraged.

Every room in the house looks onto an outdoor space. Click here to see more modern homes that use courtyards as a design element.

Island Life The appealing, handcrafted appearance of the concrete kitchen island is a happy accident, the result of the concrete not settling fully in its timber framing. When the framing was removed, the builder, Peter Davidson, was worried that Davor and Abbe would be disappointed with the bubbled result and offered to start the process again, but they loved its one-off feeling and persuaded him to keep it that way.

Gregory Katz proves that three times is a charm with his trio of concrete homes, which challenge the status quo in this quiet Johannesburg suburb. The kitchen shines in a bright yellow. Photo by: Elsa Young

In the living room, a pair of Mies Van Der Rohe MR lounge chairs sit beneath Artemide's teardrop-like Castore pendants. Teak flooring contrasts with a concrete fireplace.

This one-man sauna in Germany is created by three architects at modulorbeat, Marc Günnewig, Jan Kampshoff, and Sebastian Gatz. They were inspired by the nature of the former factory site, which reflects the changing state of manufacturing in the region. “When we arrived, looking for a location, [we thought] it was so beautiful how the nature came back to the industrial site,” says Kampshoff. “We transformed it into a space with an urban quality.”

The Oakland table is topped by a raw-concrete slab.

The lower level has a reinforced concrete frame. The timber and concrete surfaces are left exposed throughout the home. Tolomeo lights from Artemide hang above one of the beds.

Nakada works from an Alvar Aalto table in the living and dining area, adjacent to the kitchen. He saved on some elements, such as the plywood cabinetry, and splurged on others, such as the Finn Juhl chairs and Vilhelm Lauritzen lamp. A skylight beneath the angled roof allows in a sliver of constantly changing light.

House in Matosinhos is a minimal home located in Matosinhos, Portugal, created by nu.ma. The lot, where the house is inserted, has a non-regular shape, longitudinal, and perpendicular to the street Nossa Senhora da Conceição. It was important to keep the alignment of the house with the existing buildings in order to avoid formal irregularities within the street development. The interior spatial distribution is separated by function and by floors. Due to the longitudinal nature of the lot, the architects proposed an internal yard at the center of the home to allow for natural light to enter the dining/living room and kitchen.

After purchasing a thin, L-shaped lot in Tokyo, Tamotsu Nakada asked architect and friend Koji Tsutsui to create an open-plan concrete home to fit the site. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Wrk-Shp “Part of our ethos is that we are not fashion designers. We aren’t furniture designers. We aren’t architects. We are designers, and we can apply our vision to any medium and put our spin on it,” says Wrk-Shp co-founder Airi Isoda. Demonstrating that flexibility, this simple concrete planter can lie flush against the wall, hang independently, or be dropped into a table.

Updating the A-frame of yore, this home’s liberal use of windows makes the most of panoramic views spanning two valleys. Catalonia, Spain. Cadaval & Sola-Morales from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Maziar Behrooz designed this container studio set amid lush trees.

The apartment’s minimalist aesthetic continues in the kitchen, where functional but sleek fixtures were installed. To the right, a charcoal-gray sliding wall signals the entrance to the flat’s private quarters.