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The family enjoys the outdoor lounge.

A drawing of the Bivvi Cabin, which comes fully assembled.

The raked red cedar ceiling is one of the couple’s favorite aspects of the home. They are particularly enamored with “the small shadow lines we created in the junction between the raked ceiling and the plaster bulk heads…it’s such a tiny detail that tightens everything up.”

Send the kids on an adventurous scavenger hunt that engages their creativity and critical thinking skills.

With wall-to-wall wood and panoramic views, this modish midcentury sets the tone for relaxation just minutes from downtown Portland.

Klopf Architecture's modest 72-square-foot addition at the front of the home blends in with the original structure while giving the owners a greater sense of openness in the master and hall bathrooms. Inside, the re-imagined great room now features dining space.

East Lake House, designed by Robert Young Architects, features two structures to capture sunshine and breezes from all angles.

Silvano Zamò, third-generation winemaker at Le Vigne di Zamò winery, and his wife Brigitte tasked architecture firm GEZA with a holiday home on a hilltop location in the tiny northern Italian village of Camporosso, not far from the ski resort Monte Lussari.

“I’ve loved Moritz Kundig’s work for years,” says designer Josh Hissong, whose home in Spokane, Washington, turned out to be a 1971 work by the architect. Josh and his wife, Shiva, executed a thoughtful revamp of the house, which began with thinning an overgrown stand of pine trees to bring the entryway out of hiding. The exterior is painted Deep Space by Benjamin Moore.

The clients for an existing home in Seattle approached Best Practice Architecture with a need to make space for an aging family member, but the home on-site was already filled to the brim. The firm's answer was to expand the existing detached garage into a gracious and airy living suite. The architects worked with the natural, six-foot slope of the site and built the Granny Pad into the hill to gain the needed interior height. The volume on the right is the original garage footprint, which now houses a kitchen and sitting room. The added volume on the left hosts the bedroom, as well as a bathroom beneath the loft space.

One-way mirrored glass wraps around a portion of the home. "We wanted it to reflect like glass so that when you sit on the terrace, you see trees or the view in all directions—including when you look towards the house," says Larsen. The mirror effect is slightly distorted, and no birds have flown into the glass.

The Japanese "no-brand" masters of minimalism unveil the first single-story design in their line of prefab homes.

In 2013, Jennifer Warner and Cara Frey fell in love with a modest but charming 1920s house within walking distance of their bungalow. The dwelling was dramatically sited, with great views of Portland’s southwest hills and downtown. But according to Michael Leckie, the Vancouver–based architect they eventually hired, "It was the dumpiest house on the block." Leckie replaced the house with a simple, modern design, using a basic square wood box that skews into a rhombus form, which he topped with a sloping roof. Their son, William, 6, swings in front of the cedar-clad house.

At 74 square meters (797 square feet), this variation of the Vinkelhuset line by Danish modular cabin designer Møn Huset is L-shaped in plan and hits all the right notes, boasting clean lines, a practical gabled roof, and simple, attractive detailing on the interior.

The timber used in the scaffolding and off-cuts from the framing were kept and redeployed for furniture and accents on the walls—such as the timber block in the primary kitchen.

The Deep Thoughts Chaise from Blu-dot sits atop a rug from Rugs.com.