office

In the living room, spare Scandinavian design takes center stage. Hans Wegner’s Wishbone chairs surround an Essay dining table by Cecilie Manz for Fritz Hansen; a mostly wood palette is enhanced by slate-gray brick around the fireplace. The paper lanterns throughout the home are a mixture of classics by Isamu Noguchi alongside those picked up in Japan and France.

To keep their project affordable, Shelton and Stuth (with Augie, a friend’s child) gambled on an up-and-coming neighborhood.

When he became the dean of Syracuse University's School of Architecture in 2004, Mark Robbins made a plan to help the city and, potentially, the entire country. “I wanted to see if we could build houses that simultaneously made propositions about sustainability and about the possibility of constructing houses in a city like Syracuse,” Robbins said. The result was three green homes for $200,000 each and the promise of more to come. Read more about the central New York project here.

The back of the house has sliding doors that open far enough to expose the entire livingroom to the families' back yard.

Just because your kitchen is on the smaller side doesn’t mean you can’t make it as efficient and effective as possible.

One of the main draws of Kevin Freeman and Jen Feldmann’s house is its connection to the neighborhood, which is why the front porch was a must. “Homes that have a door but no outside space say, ‘I’m not interested in you,’” designer Christopher Robertson explains. “This says, ‘I’m here to be part of the community.’”

Regain focus and boost your productivity—here, we walk you through seven steps to soundproofing your home office.

In the primary bedroom, wood and Mediterranean aesthetics provide the common thread. The bedside lamps are from the Spanish decor chain Natura.

Well-placed skylights flood the built-in desk and workstation with natural light. The elegant desk lamp, which Hara calls the Sunset Lamp, has a maple base and bowl-like shade, the latter finished with gold leaf for a warm glow.