Favorites

The couple's daughter reads in the cozy nook just inside the front door painted in a vibrant blue from Benjamin Moore. Of the storage area below, Fredrik says, "In Sweden, there's always a place to sit and take off your shoes. This is a version of that."

The space below the stairs in this revamped Brooklyn brownstone was turned into a cheerful play area for the clients' two boys. "We built an egg shaped 'nook' underneath the staircase, and filled it with soft ‘pebble’ pillows," adds architect Frederick Tang.

Clever Details Increase Property Value Doing something unique can increase a home’s resale value, like this paneled nook installed by New York–based architectural design-build firm MADE.

Heath tiles were used in the primary bathroom, and unlacquered brass fixtures from Watermark continue the theme.

The 12-by-18-foot interior courtyard is clad in garapa hardwood and capped with a 1.5-ton steel shade structure. Legge was inspired by the southern vernacular form of the dogtrot house, which features a breezeway through the center to encourage natural ventilation.

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

One of Brooke’s favorite spots in the home were the corner windows in the eating nook. Now the light from those can spread to the rest of the plan. Honed limestone covers the counters. “You can see some of the shells and other things that have been pressed into the stone,” says Brooke. “They have a really beautiful patina.”

“This sink is one of the craziest things I've done in my whole career,” says Kaplan, who had his long-time stone fabricator build it from scratch, crafted with mitered pieces of marble fit together so the veining runs through uninterrupted in “beautiful waterfalls,” and the infinity drain is tiled out of view.

A wet room that combines the shower and soaking tub saves space in the layout.

The stone-tiled rain shower offers beautiful views to the backyard and convenient shelving for towels or your favorite bath products.

The courtyard extends the sense of space in the main bathroom, and although the latter is in a central location in the narrow building, the courtyard brings in that much more light than is typical in a floorplan like this. The floor tile is the Krista Watterworth Kiss Marble ’ tile, and the owners can also open the exterior door there should they want to shower al-fresco.