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In leafy northwest Washington, D.C., a two-story addition expands a 1936 home without overwhelming it.

“Sometimes you go with emotions rather than logic,” says Woodhull founder Caleb Johnson. “I just wanted to renovate the little Pizza Hut look-alike my son told me looked like a blowfish.”

“I like the darkness of walnut. Other woods tend to yellow if you don’t stain it, while walnut stays true to itself,” Caleb says. The white glass tile backsplash melds with the wall.

The architecture of Hood Cliff Retreat defers to the landscape, as evidenced by the cedar planks incorporated into several rooms of the home. Wittman Estes Architecture repurposed beams and siding from the original cabin as countertops and interior cladding. The firm's focus on simple details and a restrained material palette kept the construction budget to a minimum.

Designed by Dratler Duthoit, this apartment greets visitors with an illuminated central living space.

See Arch removed a wall to create a more spacious kitchen with a stronger visual connection to the dining area. The updated kitchen is outfitted with quartz countertops and Viking, Fisher Paykel, and Asko appliances.

In the kitchen, interior designer Emily Knudsen Leland replaced purple laminate cabinets with flat-sawn eastern walnut, and added PentalQuartz countertops in polished Super White for contrast. The cooktop and oven are from Miele.

HabHouse renovated this Pasadena midcentury and gave it a completely new kitchen designed according to its original footprint. The materials were chosen in accordance with the original architect Calvin Straub's favored materials: vertical grain Douglas Fir.

Portland-based pastry chef Andrea Nicholas purchased a 1953 midcentury ranch whose 2,500 square feet needed "a lot of TLC." Nicholas hired architect Risa Boyer to design the renovation, which involved opening up the kitchen to the dining room and creating a contemporary open-plan living space.

8. "How often do I like to communicate with my realtor and what's the best way to do so?" "Your agent should know how you like to check in and by what method—text, email, or phone,” explains Hoffman. “The biggest complaints we hear from clients who have worked with other agents is that their agent did not communicate with them in the way they wanted."

By balancing the light from a variety of sources and ensuring that every corner was illuminated, Terry Ohm increased the feeling of expansiveness in the 12-and-a-half-by-14-foot kitchen.

Ohm searched out two-foot-wide appliances for his tiny kitchen, including a fridge from Fagor and an oven from Verona.