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"The wardrobe in the bedroom looks like expensive built-in joinery—but it's actually from IKEA,

In Hanna Bui’s Sausalito houseboat, designed by architect Craig Steely, sea creatures seen through an enormous back window animate bay views.

After a wildfire ripped through Jeff Waldman and Molly Fiffer’s 10-acre retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains in August of 2020, the couple was determined to build a new home. They were hesitant about investing too much money, though, as they knew that California was only getting drier and more prone to fires.

The DIY conversion kits include labeled panels made from birch plywood and a how-to manual.

The goal was to turn the space into a guest suite that “feels like an out of body experience; a Willy Wonka vacation hideaway,” says the designer, who now lives in the ADU

Amy Tangerine worked with Dan Brunn Architecture to turn her home into a quirky, lavish abode in Los Angeles, California. The primary bathroom, in particular, has exquisite balance, creating almost identical dimensions for the soaker tub and shower. This large bathroom fills with natural light thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows. One of the finer details is the sliding glass door on the shower side, which opens to enable the user the sensation of showering in the fresh outdoor air.

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.”

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