Funky and fun

When Eric and Emily first moved into the house, they found a kitchen that had undergone a partial renovation and divided into two separate sections. They opened it up and added the peninsula for more counter space topped with Silestone.

The entryway has enough storage for the family of four, with spots for guests.

This home features a sliding glass door that opens the kitchen and dining space to the Palm Springs weather. There's another full-length window for the living area.

Featuring a vaulted, plywood ceiling, the kids' room upstairs doubles as a playroom. "It's a place we all lounge in to build Legos and read stories,

The floor is Nemo porcelain tile. The kitchen ceiling is slightly lower than the others in the apartment, so Rick and Vu Bui designed a stepped frame around it to disguise the difference.

Polished concrete floors continue into the kitchen, which sits steps from the living room.

Local furniture maker Nick Tretiak created a custom kitchen table and bench, over which hangs a Noguchi paper lantern. The team wanted to keep the cabinetry as light as possible, designing white oak cabinets that read more as furniture.

Marble countertops run over the wood cabinetry.

“I’ve done shelves in front of windows here and there throughout my life,” says Lanigan, who grew up in a hippie commune in the ‘70s, where plants were always hanging in the windows. “I grew up in a geodesic dome my parents built. That organic ‘70s design is very much a touchstone for me.” Beside nostalgia, this choice offers extra accessible shelving and blocks a boring driveway view while still letting in light.

The backsplash continues into the pantry—25 feet of Zia concrete tiles in all.

A pink-painted front door and fascia enliven a 500-square-foot backyard ADU in Mountain View, California, designed by Shin Shin Architecture.

The open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living space are arranged in a 16-square-foot volume that features a vaulted ceiling, lending a sense of spaciousness.

For the sake of affordability and durability, the architect employed vinyl flooring for $5,980 throughout the ADU. In the open-plan kitchen/dining/living area, a vaulted ceiling lends a feeling of luxury and spaciousness.

The kitchen is adorned with Fireclay olive-green tile on the backsplash that ties to the green-painted custom millwork of the lower cabinetry.