Favorites

BEFORE: Built-in storage was easy to repurpose.

"My goal was to carry on the client’s family legacy by creating a very special place that took inspiration from the landscape,” explains architect Tom Kundig.

A Metro modular sofa from Room & Board offers a comfy place to perch. A Hase Collection Tula 8191 wood stove by HearthStone strikes a balance between refined and rustic.

Flooded with natural light through picture and clerestory windows from the E-Series by Andersen, the open living area is where the cabin feels most like a tree house.

The kitchen, located on the top floor, is open and bright. Concrete countertops by Anomal echo the flooring beneath, while the pale blue Moda Vetro glass tiles from Pental offset the neutral color palette. The Kungsbacka cabinetry are from IKEA.

A window in one of the bedrooms frames a view of the garden. The wallpaper is from Superflower, a company run by the couple. It uses Andrew’s images of flowers, which Niki says have a beauty in their “formal and objective” quality, adding depth to traditional patterns.

Harvest Homes, with a manufacturing facility 20 miles outside of Albany, New York, has been building distinctive, energy-efficient custom homes since 1961. With thousands of homes built throughout the Northeast, the company offers more than 50 different models that vary in size and style to fit nearly any budget or site. Each of their homes has been closely considered for thoughtful circulation, kitchen layout, and ample closet space.

Family-run Buffalo Modular Homes specializes in building custom modular homes, and they offer a turnkey package to their customers, where they do everything from pulling the necessary permits, to bringing utilities from the street, to constructing the home. They service Western New York, and clients can customize their finishes for items like hardwood floors and quartz or granite countertops.

Australian expats Carla and Paul Tucker tasked designer Dan Gayfer with expanding their Melbourne bungalow without adding any square footage. In the kitchen, a soft palette of wood, laminate, and tile created cohesion, impressive considering the clients didn’t see a single finish, color, or material in person prior to their homecoming. The kitchen cabinets were clad in Russian birch plywood, and the countertops were concrete.

Reclaimed wood graces the exterior and wraparound deck of the ADU, which is surrounded by native landscaping.

The designers re-sized the cabinetry and extended the custom stove hood up to the high ceilings to better balance the proportions of the room. The fronts were kept deliberately minimal, with no hardware.

A new deck extends the cooking and dining outside.

Les Rochers floor plan

The couple chose partially open shelving in the kitchen. “We’re not minimalists, and we wanted to display different objects we’ve collected,” Vincent says. The cabinetry, conceived as freestanding pieces of furniture, turned out even better than they had imagined. The dining chairs are from Ikea and the appliances are by KitchenAid.