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The solid support wall was swapped out for a wood slat wall. Dunn Edwards “Revival Rose,” an update on the terracotta color, was used to define the kitchen from the rest of the home.

The outdoor areas weren't dramatically altered during the renovation—simply cleaned and repaired.

At Alex Strohl and Andrea Dabene’s Nooq House in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana, highlights include a suspended fireplace, cathedral ceilings, and expansive windows. "The windows are my favorite feature. I've loved seeing the colors change in the fall, snow in the winter, and bears in the spring," says Andrea.

The built-in cabinet bench is original to the home, while Ginger’s low, clean-lined furnishings underscore, without distracting from, the incredible views.

Mac describes adding the fireplace’s Domingue plaster finish as a real "labor of love." "The end result was a credit to the builder and his team. It really pulled the spaces together, and there is nothing better than the natural light playing with the plaster finish," explains the architect.

BoConcept couches anchor a Restoration Hardware coffee table and a Crate and Barrel carpet in the living area. The gray pouf is by CB2, and the artwork is by Senechal.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

The spacious set up makes for easy entertaining.

Before: The "blocky, brick home" was built in the 1930s in a spate of new development. "This is something you see a lot of in D.C.," says VW. This one was small, but had a floor plan the architects knew would be malleable. "It was like the smallest house in the neighborhood, but we knew that we’d be able to build efficiently out the back without sacrificing a room in the process," he continues.

Architect Christine Djerrahian turns an industrial space into an unconventional family dwelling that celebrates open-concept living.

The living room and kitchen.

The Cabinet Face's DIY paint-grade flat panel doors and custom panels are installed in the island.

Now, an eight-foot sliding door brings light into the kitchen and enables fluid movement between inside and out. The wider steps can serve as seats during a party, and they make for a graceful transition to the yard.

The bathroom features terrazzo floor tiles—which have a similar pattern to the material used to construct the fireplace in the living room.

This colorful terrazzo makes a bold statement against the all-white cabinetry.

Whereas others might look at a board-formed cement wall in a basement and see, well, a concrete wall, Jess and Jonathan Taylor, the design duo behind the L.A.-based firm Taylor + Taylor, were inspired. The couple had purchased a virtually untouched 1952 house in east L.A. and that concrete wall became the backdrop for a new guest kitchen in the basement. "It was really the starting point of the whole design," says Jess Taylor. "As designers, our goal is to always try to incorporate the existing surroundings whenever possible, utilize them in practical ways, and be inspired by them."