Home ideas

The living and dining rooms were updated.

Some of the Japanese-style rooms were retained and restored.

The architects installed modern, floating stairs with a wooden tread and steel railings.

Elements from traditional Japanese architecture such as warm wood, exposed beams, and shoji screen-style sliding doors characterize the home.

A study area on the second level looks down to the first level.

Glass takes the place of paper in the shoji screen-style doors that close and open to separate and connect the different functional zones.

Mizumoto transformed one of the original Japanese-style rooms into a garden that references the house’s past as a rice field farmhouse.

In traditional Japanese architecture, spaces are divided into "tsubos," a Japanese unit of floor area that’s the equivalent to approximately 35.58 square feet.

Staying true to the aesthetics of traditional, Japanese rural homes, architect Sumiou Mizumoto stuck with simple color and material choices. White and wood elements dominate pure, streamlined spaces.

This classic Japanese room would receive a thoughtful renovation.

The facade of the house in Ritto maintains traditional elements.

The residents furnished the interior themselves, even hand-picking the exposed reclaimed beams from a barn in Pennsylvania. The dining table and shelving unit are 1970s vintage and the sofa is from Design Within Reach (left). The height of the top level varies from around nine to 12 feet.

Old Herman Miller posters hang on a nearby wall. In the living room, a yellow fiberglass stool by Nanna Ditzel sits alongside a French chain-link floor lamp from the 1940s.

In the dining room, there’s a Poul Henningsen pendant, a Hans Wegner table, and Ward Bennett Landmark chairs.

Owner Michael Silber introduced an eclectic mix of furniture with help from interior designer Tracey Garet. By the front door, an antique mirror hangs over a rattan desk; the leather T chairs are by Katavolos, Littell & Kelley.

An interior courtyard.

Pockets of greenery add a warmth to the interior courtyards.

A circular glass light well was implemented in the middle of the cave.

Traditional furniture was kept, perserving a sense of the past.