House ideas

Clean lines and midcentury vibes surround the outdoor pool.

The hotel is furnished with rattan furniture made in Sarchí, a Costa Rican town famous for crafts.

A wooden swing is anchored into the exposed, steel cross beam that supports the second story. "It speaks to the playful whimsy of being a grown child," says Young, who found the piece at Peg and Awl -- a trove of repurposed treasures -- and thought it would be fun for the space. His kids like it too.

Mudrooms aren't seen too often in Florida homes but they make for an ideal transition space at the family's main entrance, from the courtyard. The Young home is meant to be lived in, which means that everyone's books, toys and piles are welcome, but it sure helps to have a place upon entering to leave, and keep organized, each person's belongings.

One of the family’s favorite rooms in the house is the library. Young’s wife is an avid reader and founded a children's literacy nonprofit here in Orlando. The couple needed a space for everyone’s books, and finding a place where they could display them side-by-side was important. The bookshelf, part of a larger shelving grid, is built around a bright yellow piano. The piano was Young’s wife's when she was growing up and it was originally a very boring, oak brown. “We wanted it to be the signature feature of the room and painting it yellow is always a fun surprise when you walk in the room. This is the room you can find us in most nights playing board games, playing piano, and drinking wine.”

It was important to the Youngs to use local talent wherever possible. The kitchen cabinets and all of the mill work were locally fabricated. The breakfast counter is supported with an old tire jack -- the kind of found object that appeals so much to Young and that he finds uses for in details throughout the home, inside and out.

The sun-shade beside the pool plays with the horizontal and vertical repetition of the exposed beams that are not only the heart of the home's construction but also its design.

The long hallway from the kitchen to the master bedroom is often used as a racetrack for scooters or cardboard box bobsledding. The exposed steel support beams are at the heart of the home, and the project's design.

The Trues host parties in the glass-walled structure, located steps from their vacation home, or they escape to it to catch some rays and read a book. Bill reclines on cushions hidden under the reclaimed-fir floorboards that are propped up with Sugatsune hinges.

An added benefit of installing the skylights was adding headroom over the day beds, Smith says.

Smith designed the custom cabinets, which were fashioned from medium-density fiberboard with a white lacquer finish. There are three drawer heights. "The faces are consistent but some, when you open them up, are triple-height," Smith says. "So that helps with things that are really large, like sleeping bags or camping stuff or whatever. They're three feet deep, so it goes into the knee wall, which is really handy. So you get lots and lots of storage."

Group vacations are great for splitting travel costs, but not so good for getting restful alone time. That’s why architecture studio Método used vertical space to divvy up a shared vacation house outside Mexico City.

In the bathroom, the sink is by Kohler and the tub is by Maax.