Tulip

Stephen Malkmus looking out the window.

The next consideration is to decide on placement. It’s strongly beneficial to consider where your home receives the purest natural light, and strategically place your windows in its path. With less need for artificial lighting during the day, you’ll be reducing your energy consumption while being able to enjoy a refreshing stream of sunshine.

Pros: Stainless-steel countertops are used in restaurants and the food service industry because it is durable, easy to maintain, and scratch- and bacteria-resistant. Cons: Installing stainless steel countertops means being ready for louder cooking, with plates and pots making more noise than they would on other surfaces. And just because the surface is stain-resistant doesn’t mean that it’s impervious to denting and scratching.

“We’re here for almost three months every summer—and it works so well that you never feel it’s a small space. The separation and steps between each perfect little box create a great flow.”—Nadja van Praag

A polished concrete floor was selected for its durability. Using a design move inspired by Japanese architecture, Bruzkus introduced a change in height to help separate the sleeping area from the living area.

Birdsall plays with her son Atticus in the living room next to a Charles sofa from B&B Italia. Formwork also designed the coffee table—fitting, since the architects come from strong fabrication backgrounds.

Inside the house, the dogs are a bit smaller. In this case, a Parson Russell terrier fits easily on the back of the sectional sofa.

Achilleas and his girlfriend Alexia lounge on an Extrasoft sofa by Piero Lissoni for Living Divani.

In the main living room, the pillows in the sunken seating area changed colors with the seasons: reds for the winter and lighter pastels for the warmer months.

This trapeze was made by my trapeze teacher when I was living in San Francisco and going to circus school. I lived in a big Victorian house with roommates. The ceilings were so high I could hang the trapeze and practice at home. Now, my kids are taking over: it's the first thing they do when they get up and the last before going to bed. The rug is an old kilim from Turkey; the Eames lounge chair is the one from my living room growing up in Paris (That is a testament to the great quality of this 30-something-years-old chair); the couch is from Room & Board. -Sophie Demenge

The key to making any space feel large is finding clever places for storage. In Dealtry and Barry's place, the architects designed bookshelves in old fireplaces.

This living room is lit by three protruding skylights angled to catch morning and afternoon light. Photo by Raimund Koch.

A Movie sofa, by CB2, and a Rais wood-burning stove are in the living room.

“We put a lot of energy—and at least half our investment—into the bones of the building because we intend to be here for a long time,” says Lauren Snyder, who resuscitated an aging home alongside her husband, architect Keith Burns.