ADU

Minimalist plywood cabinetry blends into its surroundings, contrasted by brightly colored floors.

Bob and Goya walk atop the guesthouse, which nestles into a hill.

"Our many ideas were floating around the mountain, and we needed someone to bring them down and turn them into reality,

DiNiord collaborated with craftsman Ken Hood to design the concrete bench with firewood storage and detachable wood back. Douglas fir columns along the walkway creates a colonnade. The mono-sloped roof is a nod to the long roofline of the original house that stood on the property. “Reducing the angles also reflects the strictness to budget,” the wife says.

While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”

Lane also designed a detached screen porch for the property. Its orientation captures the view of a small mountain across the lake. “A New Hampshire lake house always has a screened porch,” he says. “This one allows for a separate experience that connects you to nature.”

Fusion Landscape Design worked with PATH to remake the backyard into a grown-up playground. Under the stairwell sits a tiny custom cedar sauna and an outdoor shower—just a literal hop, skip, and jump away from the sprawling in-ground eight-by-ten-foot hot tub. Down three short stairs, Gloster’s Elan dining table from Design Within Reach is surrounded by Spark chairs by Don Chadwick for Knoll and a built-in fire pit and DCS grill by Fisher & Paykel—all resting on a smooth surface of bluestone pavers.

The interior of the space is filled with natural light thanks to the vaulted ceiling. The owner's work space resides in an upper loft, a volume highlighted by salvaged wood panels.

This 460 square foot addition to a Cape Cod home houses adds much needed space for additional family members.

The main floor of William and Yuki French's addition is a flexible, family-room space that can be used as an apartment with a small kitchenette. The cumaru-clad outdoor deck, which connects to the main house, also includes a hot tub.

Local codes limited the Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (DADU) in size, but subterranean space wasn't included, even though in this case—the unit is nestled into a sloping hillside—it doesn't feel like a basement.

The main floor hosts the open-plan living areas and a full bath. In the kitchen, black walnut cabinets are topped with counters composed of Baltic birch plywood with Fenix laminate. The floor is honed gray concrete throughout.

The 750-square-foot accessory dwelling unit (ADU) that Bo Sundius and Hisako Ichiki of BunchADU designed in Los Angeles’s Atwater Village is filled with bright colors that help to designate the spaces within the small backyard home.

To make the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath dwelling look and feel as large as possible, Sundius and Ichiki maintained sightlines from one end to the other. "We didn’t want to disrupt the flow of the stepped ceiling as it runs the length of the building,

White oak flooring keeps the open-concept space feeling light and bright.

There’s the option to rent out the top floor, but it also makes a great place for family visiting from Europe to stay.