Garage

Tucked into the back corner of a Germantown property in Nashville, this 470-square-foot DADU is small in size, but full of personality.

In the Dank Lounge, a film screen lowers in front of room-darkening curtains on movie nights. The deep sectional was built by Lizz and Isaac while the Blob coffee table is by Project Room, and the Scandinavian rya rug is vintage. The couple’s art collection includes works by many friends and local artists. A print by Alex Smith, along with drawings by Cammie Staros and Karl Haendel, hang in the lounge beside a painting by John Finneran and a photo by Lizz.

Unsure of how to light under the loft, Monica turned to a friend from the gym who works in lighting design. He helped her with the design, the installation, and even gifted her materials.

An open plan that runs from the living and dining areas past the kitchen to the back patio allows for the kind of large-scale entertaining that Quynh-Vy loves to do.

The group was budget-conscious when designing the kitchenette. They used Ikea cabinets with custom-built faces in a white oak, cabinet-grade veneer. Braithwaite extended the same material to the ceiling beneath the mezzanine to define the kitchen zone. As a result, “it feels like it is part of the same language,” he says. Instead of traditional plumbing, the group added a filtered water collection system to the metal roof, and opted for an incinerator toilet.

&Tradition's Verner Panton's "Flowerpot

For the heart of the space, Hale designed a double vanity—fabricated with wood from the original house—around an existing column. The pendant is by Lindsey Adelman.

The new dining area takes shape via a pair of IKEA floating shelves installed below the glass block window, which Xu and Becker painted blue along with the other window sills. "Once the blue paint was on, it really made the frame glow with natural light,