Dream/Inspiration

A custom cast-in-place concrete and blackened steel fireplace.

Clear Rock Lookout seen at dusk.

The interior stair is composed of floating treads sourced from trees cut down on the property. A mix of oak, maple, and birch, each step is different and unique.

The garage door was replaced with a new entry to the building, featuring a custom steel canopy over the front door. The door is painted Benjamin Moore Flamingo's Dream to better contrast with the black-stained, tight-knot vertical cedar siding.

Naturally rusted steel sheathes the cabins that Malek Alqadi built on a 1954 homestead outside Joshua Tree National Park. "I loved the idea of stitching the existing structure back together, reinforcing it, and giving it life again without compromising the beautiful setting it’s in," he says.

The focal point of the home’s modernized exterior is a custom, wood-and-steel entry gate designed by atelier KS and built by DeFauw Design + Fabrication, a local fabricator who also made custom closing hardware for the piece. Franz and Paré-Mayer paired angled cypress slats with an industrial metal frame to create the entryway. A few paces behind the gate, a large glass door provides direct access to the home, fulfilling the owners’ wish for an entry vestibule that would be separate from the street. The angled wood slats offer privacy from the exterior, while selectively allowing light to penetrate through.

This remote cabin in Sullivan County hovers above a steep slope, suspended by the trees that surround it.

Cedar, ash and birch wood were used for the façade, and a mixture of concrete and exposed black painted steel were used for the interiors.

Studio David Thulstrup incorporated green spaces into this old pencil factory in Copenhagen to transform it into a modern home for photographer Peter Krasilnikoff.

This 1,900-square-foot home was assembled on-site in just two days with wall panels consisting of staggered 2' x 4' studs on a 2' x 8' plate, which eliminates thermal bridging and maximizes energy efficiency.

Working as designer, contractor, and builder, Samantha Mink took an unremarkable structure built in the 1950s and transformed it into a home for herself and her dog, Winston. “Because of its location on the street, I kept a kind of stern exterior where you can’t really see into the house,” she says. She treated the Douglas fir with a natural mineral wash and an exterior stain to give the wood dimension.

Hiring a general contractor (GC) may not be as exciting as picking an architect, but it’s definitely as important. After all, this is the person who will determine whether you’re sleeping in a beautiful new bedroom or a motel when your projected move-in date rolls around.

Architect Janna Levitt laser-cut an astral pattern into the garage door of this renovated Toronto home, installing LED lights behind the fiber-cement surface to complete her depiction of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio.

Reclaimed bricks and a pivoting, weathered steel door speak to the industrial flavor and salvaged materials found throughout this office renovation by architecture studio Linehouse. The result is a design that is both dramatic in form and texture, but subtle in its natural palette.