How to Design with Blue

In the farmhouse architect Lucy Marston built for her family in Suffolk, England, she balanced off-the-shelf pieces, such as a velvet-covered sofa from sofa.com, with customized key elements, like the kitchen. The refrigerator is from Fisher & Paykel, and the tiles are from Topps Tiles.

The pencil-themed desk and stool are by Pierre Sala.

In the bathroom and throughout the apartment, Ryan kept lines as pure as possible by designing built-in storage alcoves. The cutout space in the white cabinet does double duty as a door pull and a cubby for frequently used items.

Modern cabinet finger pulls in bright and shiny chrome dot the drawers in this sleek kitchen in Venice, California.

Bathroom A creative way of cutting costs is on display in son Nate’s bathroom, where the wall tiles are arranged in a whimsical, irregular pattern making use of slim sections of tile cut for transitions and corners. “We came up with a pattern that could incorporate random sizes so we were able to order the exact amount of tile that we needed,” Bischoff says. “It allowed us to get the most out of the tile price because there wasn’t that 20 percent that [would normally go] into the landfill.” The two-bowl sink is the Vitviken model from Ikea; it’s topped with a chrome Hansgrohe faucet and accented by Ikea’s Godmorgon medicine cabinets customized by MADE.

Because the original kitchen had been removed, Alexandra made the decision to widen the gallery-style room by ten inches. Floor-to-ceiling glass makes for ample natural light in the eating area, while the Vitra wall tiles provide a contemporary touch.

Simple wall-mounted strip lighting, seen here in the cloakroom, is used throughout the house. "The beauty is the light, not the fitting," explains Van Everbroeck.

“In contemporary construction you have a layered approach to materials," says Lisa Moffitt. Everything is on top of something else. We tried to avoid that.” Indeed, the house’s materials are few and hardy: polished concrete, maple, and Douglas fir, and white walls with a few bold accents of green and blue.

An architectural designer and an artist harnessed the collective power of their design firm to remake a dilapidated mid-century gem into a hillside perch for their family.

Inside the house, a relatively new Rais wood-burning stove is next to a Risom Rocker from Design Within Reach, a 2009 piece from the designer.

Paul cruises by Metropolitan pieces by B&B Italia in the living room of the main house.

Furniture with emphasized linear elements helps prevent the appearance of clutter in small spaces. It's particularly effective when highlighted in playful colors like the blue bench storage rack in this London guesthouse. Photo by Ben Anders.

The front of the 1910 house belies the modern extension architects Doug Skidmore and Heidi Beebe created to extend the family’s living space.

In keeping with Hayon’s goal of creating a serene and airy home, the master bedroom and sticks to a mostly neutral palette of whites and grays. The bench by the bed is a custom piece designed by Hayon and Klunder and fabricated by their carpenter friend Josep Joffre.

"We wanted something lively for the house, something spectacular but not vulgar," says Bériault of the blue hue of the modest 1,690-square-foot house.