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The fireplace is a salute to midcentury-modern design. Brick is used both here in the living room and in the den.

Exterior view of the drive through to the interior courtyard, wild flowers beyond

A clean-lined bathroom of stone and concrete.

A view of the sauna building before the patio and seating were constructed on the other side. The log cabins were constructed by a specialist company, and another builder helped with the interior walls. Jussi-Pekka and his father did all the other building and landscaping work, apart from the electrical and plumbing—often working 12-hour days.

Stones excavated during the foundation dig were redistributed to level out the yard while simultaneously creating a drainage curtain around the leach field.

The roof structure of William F. Cody’s 1963 Shamel Residence protects the interior from direct sun and provides shade over the patio, pocket gardens, and part of the pool. Courtesy Julius Shulman photography archive © J. Paul Getty Trust, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)

“The house is kind of crooked, with rough floors, and no fancy finishes—but it has lots of personality,” says architect Francisco Mesquita Moura.

Sometimes all it takes is a little luck. For a young married couple, it came in the form of this rare find: a 19th-century, three-story, single-family home in the heart of Paris. The building was a charmer with good bones, but was in need of some serious care. In a vibrant retrofit by architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier that includes structural reinforcements, the reimagined design is set off with a new floor plan. The lower level now serves as a space for the couple’s children, with the public areas—including an open-plan living/dining room and kitchen—on the floor above. Upstairs, the attic has been transformed into a very large primary bedroom with a green-and-white bathroom suite. The living room (pictured) showcases the firm’s bespoke carpentry work with a beautiful, mossy-green built-in bookcase that frames a new fireplace, and a staircase surrounded by arched doorways that hold hidden storage. “We created visual breakthroughs in order to connect the different spaces,” says Gerlier. “The rounded arches are there to help magnify these moments.”

A series of “stacked boxes” laid the foundation for this Sea Ranch–inspired home on a narrow site set on two flood zones and filled with protected redwoods.

In the dining room, the original steel window mullions were painted Farrow and Ball's Radicchio red, along with the railings and stairs below. The dining table is vintage David Naylor, and the chairs are vintage Danish modern with custom upholstery in Ghanaian textiles.