8300 HOUSE

This artfully minimalist Australian kitchen combines concrete, oak, steel, and prefabricated panels with a substantial marble countertop and backsplash.

After: "This garden buffer area serves as a way to get light inside and also act as an acoustic and privacy barrier from the street," says the firm.

Interior designer Eva Holbrook and artist Jamie Williams brought this cozy mountain retreat back to life by embracing an “uncluttered simplicity” design concept. They brought the outdoors in by incorporating wood elements, big windows, and reclaimed materials.

The home has been designed to encourage engagement with the outdoors, with the majority of the living spaces located outside, including the dining area and kitchen. Sliding timber barn doors close off the kitchen space when it is not in use.

The kitchen cabinets are custom-made from 100-year-old wood purchased at Sliverado Salvage. There’s a breakfast nook and a nine-foot island finished in Tadelakt, a waterproof plaster often used in Moroccan architecture, creating a communal and open space that flows into the living room. "Tadelakt is such a beautiful material and provides an old-world, earthy feeling, but using it is very labor-intensive," says Elaine.

In the en-suite bathroom of a California vacation home, the walls and the shower are coated in tadelakt, reflecting the owners' inspiration from the local landscape and travels abroad.

The bathroom features an indoor/outdoor shower. The Wetstyle sink is outfitted with a Blu Bathworks faucet.

L&M Design Lab leveraged the diagonal axis of an L-shaped, 366-square-foot flat in Shanghai to make it feel more spacious, carving out room for everyone’s hobbies—including a mini singing hall. The home, which is on the top floor of an older building, can be traversed in just 13 steps from north to south, say the designers, giving the project its name, A House Within Thirteen Steps. This view shows the diagonal axis of the apartment, looking back to the kitchen.

The designers wrapped the door in cabinetry to create more storage opportunities.

The primary bathroom offers a similar aesthetic, with warm oak flooring and a cool, crisp color palette. Windows surrounding the standing tub and the shower allow the sun's rays to fill all corners of the space.

At the heart of the home is a bright family room offering unobstructed water views through a large sliding door and picture windows. Clerestory windows illuminate the beamed ceiling.

The kitchen features a 10-foot marble island and large windows to frame picturesque views of the waterfront landscape in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Also adding to the bright and airy feeling are two large picture windows, which the homeowners selected instead of upper cabinetry.

The walls of this contemporary one-room cabin are covered in insulating polycarbonate siding.

In Englishman Bay, Maine, where his relatives have summered since the 19th century, a musician builds an idyllic hideaway for his family and their three parrots. In late 2015, the musician and his wife asked Whitten Architects and Nate Holyoke Builders (in Portland and Holden, respectively) for a durable, minimalist home, simultaneously rustic and Scandinavian, that would sit lightly on the land and make use of local materials whenever possible. A board-formed concrete hearth by Harkins Masonry, which can also act as seating, has a monumental presence in the three-season porch, which holds the dining and living areas.

Inside Out Architecture renovated an apartment in the Clerkenwell section of central London, removing interior walls to create an open, loft-like living space. The architects were taken in by the "dramatic geometry" of the existing board-formed concrete ceiling, and their design maintained and emphasized its dynamic criss-crosses and texture.

The interiors are compact and feature abundant, built-in storage. This room faces out onto the spa that anchors the swimming pool on the north side of the home.