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The living room features a sectional sofa and leather chair by Zanotta, coffee tables by Porro, a Kymo rug, and a floor lamp from Flos.

Almost everything about Bob Butler’s Nashville home is unexpected. Its sunken living room, open beams, and carport hark back to the 1950s, yet it’s barely more than a year old. The breezy, rectilinear residence transports visitors to midcentury Hollywood Hills or Palm Springs, though it’s located in a city known for Craftsman bungalows and the rococo mansions of country stars. Most surprising of all, Bob designed and built it himself, with only a few years experience under his belt and no formal training, and on a budget that would get the attention of many area residents: $115 per square foot.

Isabelle Olsson leads industrial design for Google Nest, and the home products she has created are sprinkled around her Silicon Valley house. But you would have to look hard to find them. "The whole design philosophy is for them to blend in so that you don’t even notice they’re there,