S'well

"Because the living room occupies the gable, the resultant space is triangular in feel," Thompson says. So she heightened that look with an oversized triangle window, which maximizes views of the cove. Western red cedar was chosen for the walls, and three-inch red oak was chosen for the interior floors. The windows are encased in Alaskan Yellow Cedar.

A horse barn–turned–seaside haven hones in on the ocean’s meditative vibes, with round windows and sweeping glass doors that swing open to let in the salty sea breeze.

Large gum trees offer a natural barrier for the house. Harkness designed the house's footprint in order to minimize the effect on tree roots. “The retained trees offer a sense of layering and age that new vegetation won’t be able to for a long time,” Harkness says.

In this truly tiny apartment, a 240-square-foot shoebox of an apartment in NYC with a sleeping loft over the kitchen, architect Tim Seggerman went straight to his toolbox to craft a Nakashima-inspired interior. Photo by David Engelhardt.

In a family home in Mill Valley, California, Lauren Goldman of l’oro designs kept her clients’ goals of “modern yet accessible” in mind while also looking for opportunities to add functionality. This proved successful when she discovered that the empty space under the steel-and-glass stair landing was the perfect scale for children to sit and read under. The team was inspired to create a kid-sized library, turning a useless space into a perfectly cozy reading nook.

The sofa is a prototype that never went into production—the base slides out and the two cushions become flat for sleeping. Today, one can buy Risom furniture from a variety of sources, including Knoll, Design Within Reach, and Ralph Pucci.

The orange-painted MDF cabinets add a pop of color to the sun-washed kitchen.

The great room in the 2,800-square-foot house that architect Drew Lang designed for his family in the Hudson Woods development north of New York City features generous amounts of white oak, which he says is his favorite material.

The Langs use an outbuilding as a rec room of sorts. "We call that the Grace Studio," Lang says. "It's designed so a car can pull in there, but we use it as more of a rec room and work space."

A consistent wood palette makes the interior feel cohesive.

A slim shelf of raw wood and metal and mirrors lining one side of the wall, creates the illusion of expansiveness in this laundry room in a Japan home designed by Koizumisekkei.

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

Make sure your kitchen fits seamlessly with the rest of your home. A good entertaining space should have a look that's consistent with the overall design, so use finishings, colors, and other elements that compliment the rest of the space.

The Deans’ new kitchen is long and narrow, punctuated by the small windows that dot the façade and one large light-giving window at the end.

The kitchen addition is clad in James Hardie fiber-cement board.