New house

Along Victoria’s Surf Coast, a minimalist timber dwellingcombines Scandinavian charm with the laid-back vibes of a New Zealand bach.

The Thornton House sits on a steep site in Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand, with a small footprint of just 50 square meters.

In the kitchen, olive green cabinets pair with Calacatta marble, stylish fixtures, and a circular, wood-clad island.

See Arch removed a wall to create a more spacious kitchen with a stronger visual connection to the dining area. The updated kitchen is outfitted with quartz countertops and Viking, Fisher Paykel, and Asko appliances.

The kitchen features an elegant, rustic vibe.

With a client wish list including ample natural light, high ceilings, outdoor connection, and peak energy efficiency, Mowery Marsh Architects check off all the boxes and more. In the kitchen, oak floors, inset walnut cabinets, Fireclay subway tile, and Caesarstone countertops read more classic vibes, while the furnishings are modern counterpoints. The refrigerator and freezer columns are Thermador, and the wall sconces are by Cedar & Moss.

Shane Michael Pavonetti, an Austin-based architect and contractor, and his wife, Holly, built their eco-friendly home on a lean budget of $175,000. The cedar siding used on the exterior reappears throughout the house. Keen on recycling the wood, the couple added shelving to their kitchen as well.

"In my Alpine Noir project, we used laminate kitchen cabinets because of the ease of maintenance and cost savings," explains interior designer Casey Keasler of Casework. The vintage Moroccan checkerboard runner is from Kat + Maouche.

For this kitchen, the architects paired slate-gray HPL (high-pressure laminate) cabinets by Henrybuilt, cool Basaltina countertops, with custom shelving and a white Corian backsplash.

Some laminate cabinets offer the sleek appearance of wood at a fraction of the cost.

The exterior combines charred cedar siding, cedar beams, and black cement board siding. “Black may seem like an extreme choice sometimes,” says Howe. “It would be hard to imagine any other color though. It sits lovely in the woods. It falls into the shadows in the summer, under the canopy, and it blends with the dark tree trunks in the winter.”

Large slabs of slate were used throughout the home for flooring, adding a natural element.

Located on the site of an existing home, Ridgeview House keeps a similar layout and footprint to the original.

In 2011, clients Brent Habig and Ana Ecclesthe surveyed the property with architect Jim Cutler, planting stakes at a number of sites. Cutler drew up a different house for each, recalling from his youth the region’s vernacular—especially the crisp white barns nestled into lush green landscapes. They would inspire the form of the couple’s new 2,800-square-foot home. It is designed to capture natural light, but also to cool interiors on hot summer days, using tall, sliding shutters that can cover the two-story home’s windows from floor to ceiling.

This kitchen in Austin, Texas, was designed by Royce Flournoy and expertly combines black, Shaker-style cabinets, white subway tiles, Carrera marble countertops, and wooden floors to create a balance between rustic warmth and industrial simplicity.

This contemporary farmhouse was designed for a client that loves to cook and entertain in the open air.

“The main volume presents a traditional front and is wrapped on the west and south by a deep porch,” says architect Erin Sterling Lewis. “Living and dining spaces access the porch.” A standing seam metal roof with a Kynar finish and HardiePlank Lap Siding cover the exterior of this 3,000-square-foot home.

A look at the spacious eating area, office nook, and a bespoke built-in daybed, completed with a reading light. Large doors open the space to the outdoors for integrated indoor/outdoor living during the warmer months.

Unlike its next-door neighbor, R-House, TED wasn’t originally planned to meet the exacting Passive House standard. The building’s green bona fides came largely from four roof-mounted thermal solar panels and a 120-gallon water storage tank that architect Tim McDonald attests would have met nearly all of the home’s heat and hot-water needs. After submitting the proposal, though, he completed a course in the Passive House standard. Inspired, McDonald modified the original approach, ditching the tank and thermal panels in favor of a highly insulated, airtight envelope—the equivalent, he says, of shielding the house from the harsh Syracuse winter with a fur coat instead of a windbreaker.