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Priscilla's younger daughter uses this room when she's home from college. "It's cozy down there and functions well, but doesn't encourage grown people to move home,

Floor Plan of Slope Prefab by Manta North

Atelier Oslo overcame nature’s challenges when they designed Cabin Norderhov, a seasonal, eco-friendly retreat on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Steinsfjorden. The home’s layout revolves around a central glass and metal "campfire" that burns beneath a suspended mantel. Since it’s located at the access level, the fireplace's flickering warmth can be enjoyed throughout the house. The surrounding floor is covered with hexagon tiles cut from marble, which transition into tiles made of birch log in the rest of the house.

To inform the color palette for this interior renovation in Stockholm, NOTE Design Studio began with three inspirational images. The sculptural fireplace, covered in plaster, contrasts with oak parquet floors.

Teak is used extensively throughout the home—from the flooring to the kitchen cabinetry. The dining chairs and table are from Sakura Shop.

This converted attic in a turn-of-the-century building in Berlin’s Charlottenburg neighborhood has a large skylight close the bathtub, on the side-slope of the roof, which allows one to look up at the sky while having a relaxing soak.

Architect Michael K. Chen, founder and principal of the eponymous New York–based firm, resuscitated a four-story, 3600-square-foot home that had been abandoned for 20 years by incorporating a playful color palette and interesting details, such as this oval-shaped skylight.

This waterfront home in Lopez Island with stunning views of San Juan channel and Fisherman Bay has large wrap around decks and a sundrenched atrium with a double-sided propane fireplace.

The home of Primo Orpilla and Verda Alexander in Orinda, in the hills east of Berkeley, California has a corridor with full glass walls and flat, glass roof and plenty of rooms that let sunlight in from many angles.

In the living room, open shelving offers plenty of storage and decoration. Wood-framed glass doors provide direct access to the adjacent terrace, which allows for a seamless transition between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

Architect Johan Sundberg looked to Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for inspiration for the design of a holiday home in southern Sweden. "We call it the Katsura typology, but that's probably sacrilegious," he says. The eaves of the gently sloped hipped roof extend generously in all directions, turning the deck into a covered retreat that’s part veranda, part engawa, the Japanese version of a porch.

Inspired by a homesteading commune he documented in Western North Carolina, photographer Mike Belleme built the Nook, a minimalist retreat in the woods that draws from both Japanese and Scandinavian design. He foraged much of the wood for the 400-square-foot cabin. "Every kind of wood has a certain mood and personality," he says. The exterior features an entranceway of oak blackened in the traditional Japanese method known as shou sugi ban.

Architect Charlie Lazor designed this peaceful, lakeside prefab in Ontario, Canada, with a Japanese-style bathroom clad in richly stained teak with a matching tub and sink by Bath in Wood.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

The kitchen is located within the double-height central core. Glass-inlaid blocks create a clerestory window near the ceiling. All of the cabinetry and appliances are original, with the exception of the modern refrigerator.

The focal point of the room is a glass fiber-reinforced concrete sink that weighs 460 pounds. The material is stronger then regular concrete, so the overall thickness of the sink is a mere two inches. By using GFRC, Archuleta was also able to create a more uniform surface with almost no pinholes—important both for maintaining the minimalistic appearance of the room and to avoid leaks in the areas that would be in direct contact with water. Concrete is also incorporated into the bathtub and shower bases.

In order to give the redesign a seamless feel, Brigham and Archuleta carried the use of wood throughout the room—including the shower. Archuleta researched types of wood that can withstand a high-moisture environment, and the most visually appealing was coastal redwood. He came across an unlikely source of reclaimed redwood: old pickling vats from a company called Trestlewood. Experience in working with reclaimed wood taught Archuleta that “wood that’s been exposed to liquid for long periods of time pulls in minerals that it wouldn't naturally have access to in its living state.” In this case, the iron bands and nails that held the barrels together reacted with the pickling liquid, leaving behind a rich, dark patina.