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The oversize sofa is from Piet Boon.

Large double-hung windows, like this one from Loewen, help illuminate the home's three stories.

Recently retired and ready to downsize, Paul and Melonie Brophy found a lot in Palo Alto that gave them the chance to start fresh. Their glass, concrete, and wood house, designed by Feldman Architecture, seems to float above a landscape by Bernard Trainor. Of the board-formed concrete wall, architect Taisuke Ikegami says, "It connects the building to the ground plane while allowing the house to be a landscape element."

An expansive picture window frames views of the natural landscape in the bedroom area, where the headboard doubles as a bar for the dining space.

Set on a narrow, 18-foot-wide site, Melt House presents a corrugated exterior.

An all-over black paint job would make a room feel bold and dramatic.

Sparse built-in furnishings allow the spaces to be easily reconfigured for different functions. Within the first two years of living here, the owners have used the private courts as bedrooms, home offices, storage, and even as workshops for producing candles and soap for sale.

Shannon Richards, Caleb’s partner, often uses her laptop at the 13-foot long banquette, which needed to be finessed a bit because the initial version looked too bulky. The team laid the maple floorboards at an angle and used a white-tinged stain that will preserve their natural appearance.

The guest bathroom was enlarged and finished with Moroccan plaster.

One of the largest construction challenges was the plumbing in the showers. "After our bathrooms were finally completed, we found water leakage coming out the base of both the showers," says Elaine. "Nothing seemed to solve the problem. It turned out it was a faulty plumbing job, so we had to open up the showers, fix the plumbing, and redo all the tadelakt." This set their timeline back by months.

The master bedroom features a custom-made platform bed and curtains, a sconce with a rattan shade from Tine K Home, a vintage Turkish kilim rug, and Sika Design side tables.

The villa has five bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms, fireplaces, and air conditioning.

The kitchen cabinets are custom-made from 100-year-old wood purchased at Sliverado Salvage. There’s a breakfast nook and a nine-foot island finished in Tadelakt, a waterproof plaster often used in Moroccan architecture, creating a communal and open space that flows into the living room. "Tadelakt is such a beautiful material and provides an old-world, earthy feeling, but using it is very labor-intensive," says Elaine.