Kitchen

In the backyard, the couple added a pergola, greenhouse, and outdoor dining space for $6,000.

Ash lives in the detached backyard unit and has comfortably hosted 10 people in the space.

Two pull-down compartments in the kitchen hide an electric cooktop and chopping block, while paper towels are tucked away in a curved yellow container. “I didn’t want anything out in the open,” Ash says.

The budget was nearly as tight as the space in this cheerful renovation of a 516-square-foot flat in Bratislava. The centerpiece of Lukáš Kordík’s new kitchen is the cabinetry surrounding the sink, a feat he managed by altering the facing and pulls of an off-the-rack Ikea system. The laminate offers a good punch of blue, and in modernist fashion, Kordík forwent door handles in favor of cutouts. “I wanted the kitchen to be one simple block of color without any additional design,” he says.

Keep the Home Fires Burning Using wood for heat and energy keeps the Wadhams’ environmental footprint small and helps avoid the use of coal- or nuclear-powered electricity. Come winter, the couple relies on an Esse wood-burning stove for cooking, heating, and feeding a set of small radiators. In summer, they use the stove’s electric component, which is powered by solar energy.