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Furniture designer Tom Deacon teamed up with pal and architect Andrew Jones to renovate his Toronto townhouse. “Architects tend to think of the building first, the interiors second, and last, the furniture. Our approach was the opposite,” Jones says.

Interior designer Ponnie Tan of EightyTwo infuses a Singapore apartment with a striking play of tones, forms, and graphics.

The ultimate escape for forest bathing, Denmark’s Løvtag is a tree house hotel that features three cabins that embrace Scandinavian minimalism. With tree trunks intersecting the interior, large windows, and a rooftop deck, these treehouses promise to make you feel at one with nature.

The street entrance opens into a narrow light well that runs along most of the structure's right side. Six staggered levels are

The kitchen and dining area features wraparound pocket sliding doors for easy indoor/outdoor living. The master bedroom's balcony receives extra privacy with the wood feature.

“The materials are natural, durable, yet contrast in their relation to one another,” he says. "Ultimately, we wanted to balance the crispness of the architecture, like concrete, with the warmer edges of the wood."

"The kitchen is the heart of the home, where we can enjoy the simplicity of being together as a family," Montalba says.

On the rare occasion that the weather is chilly, an expansive concrete fireplace can warm up the living area.

Koto and Plant Prefab will work directly with homeowners to determine optimal site placement and adhere to energy-saving passive solar principles.

The project team discovered brick under the drywall in the room and left it exposed. The brick is indicative of the room once being a "summer kitchen," or a kitchen set up on the exterior of the home to be used during warm weather, which allowed for the heat to escape easily.

The kitchen of this Brooklyn brownstone was updated with a white Carrara backsplash that frames the Bertazzoni range and Dunsmuir cabinetry, providing a white background that makes the Matte-black quartzite kitchen island pop.

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

The large pantry allows all the food to be in one place, visually out of the way, yet still super convenient to the rest of the kitchen.

With the help of California Closets, the homeowners maximized every square inch of space with shelving, drawers, and a countertop area for placement of various small appliances like a microwave, coffee maker, and tea kettle.

The warmth and softness of the wood ceiling is brought down to the cabinets with elegant touches such as the brass island panels, wood counter stools, and wood hardware.

The younger daughter’s room is small, but gem-like in its design. A custom wood frame behind the bed frames hand-painted wallpaper in De Gournay’s Badminton pattern.

The field of neuroaesthetics teaches us about our biological responses to beautiful design. The thoughtful homes below showcase how lighting, colors, textures, and shapes can coalesce to become bona fide sanctuaries. Whether it be a focus on outdoor connection, aging-in-place, or accessibility, these projects are designed to promote wellness in mind and body.