Favorites

An onsen, or Japanese soaking tub, with a private garden abuts the master suite.

Aerial View of Backyard

"The generous nearly half-acre lot presents a secluded park-like setting with mature trees, and hillside nature trails leading up to Loma Linda Drive above,

Custom cabinetry in the closet has grasscloth fronts. “That’s going back to the traditional midcentury vibe,” says Maziarski.

The original layout was very much of the time: a perfect midcentury modern flow, with a closed-off kitchen and a fire put in the floor. “They were cool but impractical spaces,” says Schaer.

The media room does triple duty as an office, home theater, and guest room when the Murphy bed is pulled down. “The vibes are right in the morning for writing,” says the wife, “and at night for movies.” The husband adds, “We really intentionally only wanted a TV to exist in the media space.”

Jari and Anna furnished their patio and backyard with pieces from their furniture line, Skargaarden.

To his credit, the original owner and builder of an ’80s-era home in Byron Bay, Australia, kept it “in pretty good nick,” as designer Micka Etheridge puts it. “He’d dusted the window frames once a week for thirty-five years.” Etheridge took that same care expanding the house for its new owners, Cheryl and James Kitchener, who love its greenery and mellow, vintage vibe.

Combine native plants with rockscapes to create gardens that don’t need excessive irrigation. Here, Techo-Bloc’s Industria 600 series slab in Greyed Nickel was imaginatively used to create contrast between the more organic stones and rocks, as well as functional walkways for seating and a fire pit.

U.K. design firm Koto was founded by Johnathon and Zoe Little and Theo Dales in 2017 to provide nature-inspired spaces that enhance an overall sense of well-being. Their prefab residences, turnkey cabins, and now, a sauna designed in collaboration with Out of the Valley (which has one of its own), aim to better connect people to their natural environments with sleek, minimalist interiors that keep an emphasis on the outdoors.

Fusion Landscape Design worked with PATH to remake the backyard into a grown-up playground. Under the stairwell sits a tiny custom cedar sauna and an outdoor shower—just a literal hop, skip, and jump away from the sprawling in-ground eight-by-ten-foot hot tub. Down three short stairs, Gloster’s Elan dining table from Design Within Reach is surrounded by Spark chairs by Don Chadwick for Knoll and a built-in fire pit and DCS grill by Fisher & Paykel—all resting on a smooth surface of bluestone pavers.

They also added a floating teak shelf from Semihandmade, which was a pretty close match to the Lauan wood paneling in the rest of the house.