Favorites

In addition to a lush lawn, the backyard also offers a partially covered seating and grill area.

With the renovation, Hamilton prioritized enhancing the home's natural light by integrating broader windows, glass doors, and skylights. "We aimed to embracing indoor and outdoor living spaces at each corner of the house,

Tim Hamilton spruced up the historic house with a matte-black exterior, a snow-white interior, and James Turrell–inspired skylights.

Despite facing the street, the master bathroom contains a delightful surprise: a private outdoor shower with a green wall.

sits on a private road developed by another celebrated Bay Area luminary, architect Bernard Maybeck.

Wood-burning fireplace

Architect Robert Klemmedson modeled the 1959 residence at 14 Maybeck Twin Drive in Berkeley, California, after the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan. The home includes many design elements inspired by Heian period architecture.

At the heart of the couple's redesign is the flexible guest room that can be adapted into a playroom, extra living space, or as another bedroom thanks to privacy curtains and two concealed built-in beds.

The guest room features two concealed beds: a wall-bed stored upright and a pull-out bed beneath the indoor garden's raised timber deck. For privacy, the architects have added sliding wooden doors, as well as privacy curtains that can be drawn along a curved track that is recessed into the false ceiling.

The Shinomotos have filled their Southern California home with furniture by Taku and pieces by some of the artists and craftspeople whose work they also showcase at their Tortoise shops and showroom. The couple worked with architectural designer Ken Tanaka to remodel the house, once a cramped, two-bedroom rental. A sofa and tables by Taku join Jasper Morrison’s Three Sofa De Luxe sofa for Cappellini. The sliders are by Western Window Systems.

The Lais designed their house to be theirs forever. As such, they were able to make design moves that made sense for themselves but that wouldn't have high resale value, like the Japanese-style master bathroom in the middle of the second floor instead of off of the master bedroom. The traditional setup features bath stools from Muji for washing off.

At the client’s request the kitchen contains neither upper cabinets (Shino can’t reach them) nor an oven (they only used the old one once—to reheat a pizza). A modular Roche Bobois Mah Jong sofa adds a decorative flourish to the living area while maintaining as low a profile as the traditional Japanese furniture.

A custom-tailored mechanism allows six floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors to open along the entire width of the living space, creating a seamless transition from indoors to out.

This home's open kitchen, living, and dining area includes a small pantry and an office, but the cedar cladding is the showstopper.

The couple asked for a “no maintenance, not low maintenance” backyard. However, Shino tends to “Carlsbad's largest public bathroom for cats” (otherwise known as their Japanese-style rock garden) about once a month. Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

At the opposite end of the house, the soaking tub gets almost daily use. The bath and shower fixtures are by Dornbracht

In the cheerily outfitted office, a Herman Miller Embody chair lets Shino stay comfortable on business calls that can last for hours.

Protected by an overhang, and floating above ground level, this tertiary space is known in traditional homes as the "engawa." To sustain a unified look throughout, the floor and ceiling are clad in ipe wood.