Living

The wall of joinery with its cozy built-in bench seat is the kids’ designated play zone, with the sleek cabinetry making it easy to pack away toys.

A steel staircase connects the living room to the new second story while acting as a functional sculpture in the space. Cameron repurposed the timber paneling from another building site.

A view of the main living room, which to one side is nestled against the trees and to the other side enjoys expansive views of the vineyard.

The stairs connecting the three levels of the house are made of concrete, with iron railing. “The are no white walls in the house; everything is either paneled in pine wood or or converted in a stucco that mimics the look of concrete,” says the architect.

A family room on the second floor gets dappled light. Coco, the resident pet, looks out into the tree-shaded shaded garden

The combined kitchen and dining room, featuring two pieces of family-heirloom furniture, feel spacious thanks to a vaulted ceiling; it and the walls are clad in Douglas fir.

A custom-built island anchors the kitchen-dining area, the most social area of the home. The dining table and chairs were made with wood rescued during the renovation process.

Windows and doors were enlarged to allow a natural transition to the outside.

Half-buried in the hillside, the house has stable indoor temperatures in all seasons thanks to thermal mass and passive ventilation. In winter, radiant heating in the floors and a sculptural fireplace keep things cozy.

Megan picked out the exterior colors, and wanted a bold shade for the front door against the all-over black siding.

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

“They gave us so much storage there are still empty cabinets,” says Kirsten.

Stairs lead from the entry to the upper level with the bedrooms. The wood-paneled, vaulted ceiling adds warmth to the double-height space.

We achieved making this home feel much larger than 2100sqft by making using a two story ceiling height in the main area of the home.

We achieved making this home feel much larger than 2100sqft by making using a two story ceiling height in the main area of the home.

Murphy took a completely different approach to the color and material palette in the second house. “We wanted to show that with very small changes, you can have a totally different space, and there's a lot of potential in these little houses,” says Murphy. Custom shelving, made of stained oak and metal, anchors one end of the living room, with an armchair from Southwood Home.

Conceived and developed by Arctic explorer Børge Ousland, these award-winning waterfront cabins are located on Manshausen Island, Norway.

On the first storey, a seat is extruded into a platform that allows for ad-hoc, multipurpose use.