Modern Living Rooms

An Arco floor lamp from Flos arches over a Bend sofa by Patricia Urquiola for B&B Italia. A pair of Low Pad chairs by Jasper Morrison and a Sunset chair by Christophe Pillet, all for Cappellini, are arranged around a set of Pebble coffee tables by Ligne Roset.

A bright, modern living area opens onto the porch.

In the living room are a sectional by American Leather for Room & Board, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman, and a custom floor lamp and coffee table by Jeremy Clark and Ed Haynes.

The bookshelves lining the walls of the living room were inherited from family.

A vintage sofa purchased from Open Air Modern mixes with Low Pad chairs, by Jasper Morrison for Vitra, in the living room, which features a window inspired by Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum of American Art.

The panoply of tile continues in the living room, which is anchored by a second fireplace that Karen wrapped in oval Heath tile. The architects tactically preserved the home’s most worthwhile features and modernized the rest, such as the vinyl windows they replaced with natural milled aluminum.

Hufft Projects designed the blackened steel "fireplace wall," which includes a Lennox wood-burning stove and an entertainment center. Ample firewood storage is incorporated below the fireplace and television, with enough wood storage for over a week.

The flooring throughout the interior is maple. A vintage Ercol sofa and arm chair, Eclipse coffee table by Stua, Wide Wale rug by Bev Hisey Textile Design, and Moon floor lamp by Estiluz Spain furnish the living room. "Extensive planning went into ‘aging in place’ forecasting a host of different scenarios about what that meant physically and psychologically," architect Alex Tedesco says. "We did ‘day in the life’ modeling to understand all the various barrier free requirements that might arise."

A wall-mounted fireplace is a dominant feature in the living room.

Custom walnut and stainless steel sheathes the kitchen, which is open to the living-dining area and the patio. The Twiggy lamp is by Foscarini; the sliding doors are from Fleetwood.

The architects and interior designers did away with the home's cramped, darkened layout and recast the interior as an open space defined by clean lines.

The living room is furnished with a Vita modular shelving system from MDF Italia, a Lili coffee table by Add Interior, and a custom sofa by Linea P International. The Dot cushions are by Hay.

In keeping with the island’s rugged character, the new home was pared down to the essentials. Even the floor in the living room, elevated during the construction process to give seated guests sight lines of the coast, helped frame the outdoors. With this philosophy in mind, Vieira da Silva sourced and designed simple, light furniture, such as the custom bookshelves made from “criptoméria," a type of Japanese wood planted in the Azores for construction. The floor lamp, a Sampei model by Davide Groppi, is set above a Lamino Easy Chair by Swedese. Both the sofa and table are also Swedese.

In true mid-century fashion, a George Nelson Bubble Lamp is paired with an Eames Lounge by Charles and Ray Eames in a corner of the living room. The glass walls and mitered corner are original features of architect Saul Zaik’s 1956 design.

Sohn and Carlos Anderson’s friend Forrest Kirkpatrick did all the built-ins, including the benches along the living room wall.

Hughes’ collection of hundreds of books is stored on a vertiginous two story bookcase, which takes up the whole of the northern wall of the living room. It’s an ingenious solution to the small-space dwelling that draws the eye up, adding texture and interest to the room without taking up floor space.

The living room is furnished with a cherry-red Rest sofa and ottoman by Muuto, a Nest footstool by Foersom & Hjort-Lorenzen for Cane-Line, and a Redondo armchair by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso. A Kast modular storage unit by Maarten Van Severen for Vitra sits under the television.