10 Fun Homes For Grownups

The entire family makes good use of the music room, where they hold public and private Sunday concerts with local and international musicians.

Soheil steps into the music and screening room, which is concealed behind a masonry-veneered door. “We were able to hide a lot of the square footage below the main level, but not in a way that would hurt the design,” he says.

At the edge of the dining room, with its eclectic collection of fixtures and furnishings, orange velvet curtains playfully frame an opening to the skylight garage. It serves as a kind of sculpture gallery for motorcycles and cars, including one of Surratt's favorites, a yellow 1968 Camaro Rally Sport.

To make the most of 13-foot-high ceilings that help draw hot air out through second-floor windows and doors, designer Daniel Garness painted select walls with playful color and lined them with maple plywood bookcases. Library ladders (about $1,500 each from Alaco Ladder Company) provide access to reading material and a sleeping loft.

Industrial designer Nina Tolstrup and her husband, Jack Mama, designed this playful guesthouse just opposite their home in London’s Bethnal Green.

A porch at the bottom floor level serves as a rest space, play area, and work spot when Hale pulls out his tools. The horizontal window above connects the first floor to the deck so Hale and Edmonds can keep a watchful eye on the girls when they play outside.

Julie, James, and Christian enjoy an unexpected bonus of living in a house on stilts—–a pair of swings suspended from the base of the structure. The family often goes for walks on the property, looking for wildlife and playing in the tepee they built in a secluded space in the woods.

With a gentle push, the bookshelf swings open on hinges to reveal a secret media room.

The walnut staircase and slide in a Chicago town house leads from the main level to the basement. To protect people on the ride down, a “crash pad” fashioned from a standard gymnastic mat covers the wall at the slide’s base.