Primary Colors in Home Design

Sliding doors disguise the small Pullman kitchen. "Painting the sliding doors meant that my daughter could paint and repaint the apartment just by positioning the doors into new combinations," says Giovannini.

To mirror the mountaintop, Wibowo drew three points at the top of the roof (one at the apex, two at intermediate points), then connected all the walls off at least one of those points. The result is a jagged yet sliding set of angles capping the structure. Inside, the top of the house is like a bright white snowcap.

When residents want privacy (from the outside world or from other family members), sliding curtains, like this one dividing the office from the staircase, create temporary walls between rooms. "When you close the curtains, you can't see anything," says Wibowo. "It's more like Asian culture, where you don't want to show everything all at once. We want to be in control of what guests see."

Sunlight streams through formerly boarded-up windows in the living area that was once Madame Wong’s stage. “When we took off the drywall, we realized there were windows in there. So we had more made to match these four,” says Dan. The new windows open up the east side of the building to views of the courtyard below and the San Gabriel mountains in the distance. The apartment is furnished with an eclectic mix of furniture, including an Eero Saarinen womb chair.

Lewis descends a metal-tube set of stairs fabricated by a maker of ship’s ladders. A bannister from the original restaurant stairway serves as a railing for the sleeping loft.

This London guesthouse's primary colored decor is centered around an abstract painting. Photo by Ben Anders.

A lofted sleeping pod offers a bit of privacy and helps maximize space. Beneath it is a zippy yellow bathroom.

“Stacey hopes that we can use this as a prototype for a development of artists’ studios someday—we talked about maybe siting several of them together, like an old mobile home park.” The steel sculpture is by San Antonio artist George Shroeder.

Texas architect Jim Poteet helped Stacey Hill, who lives in a San Antonio artists’ community, wrangle an empty steel shipping container into a playhouse, a garden retreat and a guesthouse for visiting artists. Photos by: Chris Cooper