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The headboard is a custom fabrication from a live oak felled on the property, made by DeVos Custom Woodworking and Jobe Fabrications and in collaboration with JCA. The headboard “brings so much texture and life into this tiny room,” says Corral. Custom steel shelves are poised below, with a sconce from Serena and Lily mounted atop.

In the bathroom, large tiles and a freestanding tub create a soothing spa-like feel.

“We sandblasted, I don't know how many layers of paint off the ceiling, but we sandblasted it, and it turned out beautifully,” says Maziarski. “And then we just sealed in its natural color.”

Custom built-in storage was a splurge Michelle and Haden were willing to spend on. In the laundry room, Fireclay tiles were another high-spend choice. "It was out of our budget," Michelle says, "but it was so dramatic, and we saved so much by using inexpensive white tile in the bathroom.

The gallery includes a built-in bookcase painted in Farrow & Ball’s Hay, which complements the white oak flooring. A sculptural light, chosen in white to match the ceiling and walls, adds visual interests.

A Samsung Frame TV blends in with other artwork collected by the homeowners.

BEFORE: Awkward posts closed off the kitchen.

The home's multi-colored exterior and wave-like roof pops against its lush green lawn.

Lee Buchanan of Lee Build created a screen of white ash slats beside the kitchen as well as the entry. "The stairs are beautifully integrated into the kitchen so the kids and I are always talking and someone is always sitting on the bottom steps,

Dining room

The slim, steel staircase is designed to allow maximum light and sight-lines.

The studio is furnished with a massive wood table, a sofa, and built-in Western Red Cedar shelves.

Sharon and Mike Matas use the studio to design, create, and research.

The remote studio/office that Robert Swatt of Swatt Miers Architects designed for a Healdsburg, California, property is marked by glass walls that provide the feeling of working in nature.

Located on New Zealand’s North Island along the Coromandel Peninsula, this timber-clad shipping container house by Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects captures the simplicity of living with nature. An open-plan layout extends the interior toward the surrounding landscape and ocean, while a built-in mechanism reveals a drop-down deck on one side of the unique holiday home.

The weeHouse exteriors are clad in corrugated Cor-Ten, but with a custom pattern of folds to create an organic randomness. The foundations were designed with a shallow recess around the top to make the modules look like they’re hovering. After they bought the property in early 2014, the Siegels camped there for two summers while they saved up money and planned a permanent structure. In his research, BJ came across this design, a customizable prefab house by Alchemy Architects. "Of all the things that I found, I was drawn to that one because it was absolutely the simplest and cleanest," he says.