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"The arched shower was not part of original plan,

The living room is anchored by a sofa and lounge chair, both by Børge Mogensen, as well as a Conoid bench by George Nakashima. An Isamu Noguchi pendant lamp casts a warm glow onto the Brasilia coffee table, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Swedese.

The Valles Suite screams rustic luxury with warm textiles and accents, contemporary furnishings, a wood-burning fireplace, and natural elements.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves and storage bookend a cabinet that conceals the television.

"A steep or unstable site can make it difficult and costly to seismically retrofit a structure, or stabilize the site,” says Thomas Schaer at SHED Architecture and Design, a Seattle-based firm with extensive experience in adaptive reuse, as well as midcentury remodel. “There also may be land-use code provisions that limit or prevent development on the lot."

View to the Entrance

Blogger and stylist Annaleena Leino Karlsson has designed her 1950s farmhouse to have a mostly white interior. Her workspace is next to a rustic brick and stucco fireplace, which is adorned with cacti and decorative objects.

Tigg Coll Architects took a new approach to a straightforward town house renovation and expansion in London. The home’s rear extension has its own personality, with with pivoting glass doors, sharp red support beams, and a wood-burning fireplace. The overhanging concrete plinth acts as a hearth or, as Tigg imagines it, a sort of contemporary inglenook. Wood piles neatly between the beam and wall. The fireplace, a Stovax Riva 2, is flanked by a Lampe Gras wall lamp; firewood is cleverly stored in the narrow space between the fireplace and the red support beam, creating a fun moment of practical texture in the room.

Artist and corrective-exercise specialist, Ruth Hiller, moved to Winter Park, Colorado from New York knowing that her home would be glass and steel with wraparound windows. She hopped on the phone with architect Michael Johnson, he drew the sketch, and it took a mere five minutes to decide on the design. The common areas are suspended and cantilevered over the backyard ravine, offering views of a winding mountain creek while also doubling the square footage. A Bathyscafocus by Focus Creations fireplace warms up the modern abode.

A husband-and-wife design team revived a 1940s home in East Los Angeles's Mt. Washington area for a single man. Bearing few tell-tale signs of bachelorhood, aside from a photography and music studio in the garage, the renovation retained the home's dual fireplaces and added an array of modern tiles. A transformed modern fireplace surrounded by Japanese tile flanks a custom banquette table in the dining/kitchen area.

At a renovated farmhouse on a 19th-century homestead, a gas fireplace fronted in weathered steel warms up the lofty master bedroom, whose spare decor is framed with beams discovered in a Pennsylvania barn. The Tizio desk lamp is by Artemide.

When JAC Interiors was commissioned to revive an old 1,200-square-foot Hollywood home, the clients—a young couple who the designers call "fun and quirky"—requested the firm find a way to transform the space with as little construction as possible. The fireplace is a custom-made, three-dimensional feature that stands in stark contrast to the soft woods and white walls that make up the rest of the room.

At a contemporary farmhouse in a canyon in Utah, the site is adjacent to the Park City ski resort with ski-in access, and texture and natural materials are found throughout the project. For example, the living room fireplace extends outdoors with a board-formed concrete bench.

Serenity and purity of the elements inspired the concept of r3R residence, a project realized in an existing building. A low-lying modern fireplace design in the living room brings warmth to the space.

The original circular brass Malm fireplace sits atop its new tiled platform in the opened up living room. Since the home's setting feels very park-like, the new covered deck—visible just outside the windows—was designed to add year-round living space to the home.

The dining area features a distinctive cinder block fireplace. Molded plastic side chairs are arranged around a Segmented Base table, all by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller. The space is illuminated by a Saucer pendant lamp by George Nelson from Modernica.

A home near Rye, England, opens onto a deck through a Sunflex door. The living room features a sofa by Terence Woodgate, 620 chairs by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ, and an Oluce Atollo 239 lamp by Vico Magistretti. The wood-burning fireplace sits along one wall in the room, with a bright orange flue acting as a sculptural focal point.

In legendary designer Jens Risom's home, the painted white brick fireplace is flanked by wood bookshelves that join to form a mantle.

Queenstown gets cold in winter, hence the installation of a sauna. Outside, the landscaping was kept deliberately casual, with rock walls and gravel paths.