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The black paint on the exterior timber cladding is similar to “falu red”, a permeable red paint commonly used on wooden cottages and barns in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. The paint consists of water, rye flour, linseed oil, silicates, iron oxides, copper compounds, and zinc. When it is time to repaint the house, the old paint is simply brushed or scrubbed away.

Architect Tamira Sawatzky used Ikea components—one-inch Lagan butcher block countertops and inexpensive Ekby Lerberg brackets—when designing the bookshelves along the living room wall in the home/studio he designed for himself and his wife in Toronto.

The house is oriented north-south, with the broad side of the structure facing east-west. This guarantees not only gorgeous views of the sunset, but also minimizes wind exposure.

The custom cabinetry for the bathroom is made of laminated pine board with a water-base finish that's resistant to color change and similar to what you see in the rest of the house as we wanted to create a consistent story,

The ceiling drops down significantly over the built-in bench in the living area to create a cozy nook. “Like the kitchen, it’s a space within a space,” Thomas says. The wooden boards are flush with the window frame, allowing the sun to wash down the wall.

Floor Plan of Woodlands Hideout by Further Society and Arbor and Co.

The designers found OSB without traditional stampings of construction-grade OSB and clad the interior with it for an organic but utilitarian texture. “ I didn’t want anything in the space to be fake,” says Castillero. “I didn’t want it to pretend to be anything it wasn’t.”

The spacious kitchen makes it ideal for entertaining.

The lower terrace, which features a hot tub, is farther down the hill to immerse its users in the landscape.

A covered fireplace and sitting area anchor the deck, which overlooks the water.

Branch and Crystal Chandelier designed by Kim Krans of The Wild Unknown “It looks complicated but it’s actually pretty easy to do,” Azzarito says of this nature-inspired light fixture influenced by the Art Nouveau period. “I love the mix of natural elements with a sparkle, branches and chandelier crystals. That juxtaposition is very modern.”

As in many renovations, decorative touches, like this Marcel Wanders chandelier, were occasionally installed before more critical elements.

Houle designed the ofuro tub in the master bath to mesh with the home’s tallowwood wall paneling. The Ikea sink is outfitted with Vola faucets.

Overlooking Portage Bay in Seattle, this house was designed by Heliotrope Architects for a bachelor who longed for a simple bathroom with a Japanese-style hinoki tub that was installed in front of the windows for the water views. Photo by Aaron Leitz

On an organic beef ranch in Wyoming, Lynn Morrison and her architect James Cline, specified a two-person wide tub of Port Orford Cedar, canted to 5 degrees at the ends and long enough to recline. Lynn likes to relax as she gazes at the plains outside. “I love the lemony scent that fills the room when the tub is full of hot water,” she says. The tub is from Zen BathWorks, which also sells acrylic soaking tubs. Photo courtesy of: Zen BathWorks

Japanese showers are usually set low down so the bather can sit on a stool and scrub, then pour cedar buckets of hot water over their heads for a refreshing rinse. This homeowner in Venice, California mounted a handheld shower head on the wall for added flexibility. The drain is under the removable cedar floor slats, keeping the room design uncluttered. Wood tubs are cleaned with a simple rinse and last for decades, as the antiseptic properties of cedar guard against mold and rot. This ofuro was designed by Santiago Ortiz and fabricated by Bartok Design.