The Most Popular Homes in Dwell: 61-80

The Mandayam–Vohra family gathers under one of Workstead’s signature three-arm chandeliers, shown here in its horizontal configuration. Photo by: Matthew Williams

A kitchen that opens onto the garden is the complete antithesis of Jakarta’s often dim and dingy suburban interiors.

Atop a warehouse/office building overlooking Seattle’s Salmon Bay waterway, Tom Bayley’s home watches over a 250-slip marina. Few tenants below notice his presence, except when errant drops from his watering can fall from his deck, 25 feet above.

Juliet Gray, Mathias Kolehmainen, and their sons Cooper and Cyrus have a new favorite hangout: the wide back steps on the addition, which double as theater seating. (They project movies from the second-floor balcony onto an out-building across the yard.)

Allison Orr stands in the kitchen; the new half of the house is behind her.

In Chicago’s Lower West Side, editorial director Chelsea Jackson and and her chef husband Arthur renovated their fourth-floor condominium to include a custom Bulthaup kitchen. "We wanted to find a kitchen island that would be light enough to make the room seem large while still standing up to heavy-duty cooking," Chelsea notes. Calls to kitchen retailers were fruitless until Arthur reached the Bulthaup showroom, where the staff suggested he come check out a floor model of the discontinued System 20 kitchen. The stainless steel island, with its precise profile and gas cooktop, was exactly what the couple was after, and they bought it on the spot. A full Bulthaup kitchen—completed with components from the B3 range—would soon become the centerpiece of their new home.

The open-plan living-kitchen-dining area is a repository of design icons, both classic and contemporary. There’s a Louis Poulsen pendant lamp over the Eero Saarinen dining table; Mirror Ball pendants by Tom Dixon over the kitchen counter; and Tab F1 floor lamps from Flos behind the Edward Wormley–designed Dunbar sofa. In the living room, chairs modeled on Jens Risom’s swivel design enable people to face either the sofa or to spin 180 degrees toward the kitchen.

An LC4 lounge by Le Corbusier for Cassina keeps company with a trio of large planters and a surfboard in the space between the kitchen and the dining room.

“It was a natural choice,” says Adrian of using reclaimed and rescued wood. “I didn’t want to chop down a whole lot of trees.” The walls and ceiling are lined with planks of butternut harvested from diseased trees in Vermont.

The long, rectangular bottom floor is one uninterrupted space. Bikes live beneath the stairs, and the kitchen island is a center of activity. The dining table was made by Bench Dog Design and the Real Good chairs are by Blu Dot. An inexpensive fan by Emerson and exposed CFLs are smart, low-cost options for the ceiling.

The 925-square-foot house Maggie Treanor calls home blends into the landscape somewhat; with a galvanized steel shed roof and siding, it looks like a high-design little brother to the barns on the surrounding farms.

Schatz and Eamon carefully tend to the greens planted on the ground that they took to with shovels when digging the original footings for their home.

The large, naturally lit kitchen is the heart of the house. Messmate-clad cupboards and huge expanses of glass dominate the space where Angelucci uses the sink, Gorman works at the kitchen island, and Pepa and Hazel look on. Play in the courtyard between the kitchen and garage is easily supervised and enclosed from the alley behind the house.

“People scold us if we don’t raise the kite,” says Holm (sitting with Kiehl,). From the bench outside, the couple can wave to friends passing in boats and make use of the long summer evenings.

Ray Kappe relaxes in the central living space, which offers views onto other shared family zones. Behind him is a view down into his office. Half a level up, Shelly Kappe stands at the entrance to the upper family room.

The Fung/Blatt family enjoys the backyard of their Mount Washington home. Despite its 5,000-square-foot lot, the house is just 1,640 square feet. Michael Blatt admits, “If we could add anything to this house, it would be five walk-in closets.”

Twin houses face off in La Jolla across wide-open walls and decking. The design held such appeal that the architect claimed one 2inn for himself.

Eighteen-foot-long ribs run from top to bottom to form the treehouse's struts. The floor package runs into the ribs and creates a triangle, which negated the need for more structural support. During construction, Allen broke one of the long ribs but rather than throwing the material away, he repurposed it for the entryway.

A wide cut across the top of the structure made room for a second-floor courtyard where the family can catch some sun but maintain their privacy. On the ground level, the front door is tucked into an ivy-covered alcove lined with ipe, a material used throughout the house. Photo by: Juliana Sohn