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Keisha Martin and her cousin, Mickeda, chat underneath the house’s crowning glory, the oculus, which allows light to spill onto each floor of the house.

Custom linoleum cabinets, pegboard rail.

The added top floor houses the master bedroom and bath, as well as a rooftop terrace.

Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves provide ample storage for books and memorabilia.

The back of Eva Pianezzola’s Toronto home, designed by Kfir Gluzberg of Kilogram Studio, features a bright red facade that may look a little extreme at first glance, but the color and form of the structure play off the redbrick gabled homes around it.

In their query letter, Ben and Sarah were clear that they wanted a home that could accommodate all of life’s messes. “We don't want a white display kitchen that only looks good when it's clean and not in use. We want our kitchen to be able to work hard. We love to cook and when we do, there are usually lots of things on the go and a mess being made.”

"Everyone who visits speaks of the warmth created by the timber lining boards and the interest of the raked ceiling in the kitchen,” says homeowner Sarah.

The kitchen table was scored for a charitable donation at the school where Natasha works.

The kitchen is now part of the large open living space. The 1960s Hygena formica cabinets in Polyester Pumpkin were a vintage find. The white pendants are from IKEA and the blue is from Habitat.

In the booming British beach town of Margate, longtime locals Natasha Hart and Oliver Whitmarsh teamed up with newcomer architects RL-a to salvage a 19th-century workers’ lodging. Their son Stan’s bedroom includes a vintage Habitat Skipper bed by Loïck Peyron and a climbing wall designed by Natasha. The plywood finishes are kid-friendly and also affordable.

The back is now a clean expanse of steel and glass, with folding doors by Trade Glaze giving wide access to the outdoors. The table by SCAB Design and IKEA chairs were found, like most of the furnishings, via closing sales and secondhand websites.

Floor Plan of Sterling Townhouse by READ Architecture Design

The bathroom is a “compromise” for the couple, as Michelle didn’t want tile, and Augustin preferred the space to have a darker wall finish. They agreed to ensconce it in charcoal-colored plaster. The stools are by River Valadez.

“I just love looking at how the sun and the light enters the house,” says Augustin. “That's something that you can’t imagine in the rendering…You only experience it in full once you live in the place. I really enjoy discovering it still to this day, throughout the seasons.”