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A freestanding tub by Mastella occupies a corner of her bedroom.

Interior designer Heather Wells suggested Boffi cabinets in the primary bedroom to continue the industrial vibe. “Paula was always saying she wanted the home to feel industrial and not fussy,” Jahnes says.

“I wanted to go upstairs to a place that was completely clean, serene, and quiet,” says Paula of the library, for which the architects created an open steel bookcase.

Architects William Ruhl and Sandra Jahnes turned Paula Chauncey’s Cambridge office into a live/work space with a new second floor for bedrooms, a bathroom, and a library.

The kitchen acts as the family hub, its multicolored surfaces anchored by a black tile backsplash, sprinkled with dots of uncolored, earth-toned tile.

The couple's remodel included replacing all the windows and doors, which was a substantial portion of the budget.

Architects Nicolás Tovo and Teresa Sarmiento designed their glass-encased vacation home for a site in Patagonia, a two-hour flight from their studio in Buenos Aires. Nicolás calls it “a magical enclave” overlooking Nahuel Huapi Lake. “It’s a panoramic viewpoint where we can watch what happens,” adds Teresa.

The whole project comprised only three months of design, two months of production (some 90 percent of which was completed at a Buenos Aires factory), one day of assembly, and five days of adjustments. The structure consists of just four 9-foot-8-inch-by-19-foot-7-inch modules supported by a foundation plate. “If we want to move it, we can,” says Teresa. “We could get a crane and disassemble it and then reassemble it on the coast.”

The couple noticed the evolving trend of open kitchens in restaurants, and drew inspiration when designing their own: “Kitchen restaurants used to be enclosed in the back. Now in restaurants the kitchen is almost like a DJ booth where the chef is in the middle of it and it's a glass you can look into, Carlos says. “We wanted to open up the kitchen so that you could see into the house when you were cooking. There was a big armoire that divided the dining room from the kitchen. We opened all that up and then positioned that kitchen island so that you're facing out when you’re cooking. We wanted it to feel very open with a nice flow. We sit at the island all the time to have breakfast and dinner.”

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

In leafy northwest Washington, D.C., a two-story addition expands a 1936 home without overwhelming it.

Stunning views of the Santa Barbara Harbor and Channel Islands from the hotbub

Floor plan of Spider Hollow by Christopher Flechtner Inc.

"In some ways the strongest attributes of the house are probably the outside spaces,” says Court. The original cedar deck was replaced with Kebony decking that wraps around a century-old cherry tree. A pair of Andy rockers from Mamagreen face an ottoman by Kenneth Cobonpue. The accordion doors are a NanaWall SL-60 system that allows the main room of the guesthouse to open completely to the deck.