A dramatic departure from your typical cabin on the lake, this unique retreat adds shades of black to a tiny island awash with local color. A modern brick outdoor fireplace, tall and slim, is flanked by Philippe Starck’s outdoor chairs for Kartell for cozy fireside seating.

This outdoor fireplace in Austin, Texas is generously sized and created out of board-formed concrete, with a spot directly adjacent for firewood storage and a wood shelf running in front for added storage.

Tigg Coll Architects took a new approach to a straightforward town house renovation and expansion in London. The home’s rear extension has its own personality, with with pivoting glass doors, sharp red support beams, and a wood-burning fireplace. The overhanging concrete plinth acts as a hearth or, as Tigg imagines it, a sort of contemporary inglenook. Wood piles neatly between the beam and wall. The fireplace, a Stovax Riva 2, is flanked by a Lampe Gras wall lamp; firewood is cleverly stored in the narrow space between the fireplace and the red support beam, creating a fun moment of practical texture in the room.

Jennifer and Mattias Segerholt renovated a five-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot post-and-beam house in Portland, Oregon. Though the house's features were a complete mess upon purchase, its form was perfectly preserved, including the brick wood-burning fireplace whose chimney rises up the walls to the ceiling.

Linda Taalman and Alan Koch built a home by Joshua Tree National Park, where temperatures can span from 32 degrees to over 100. The two opted for a glass enclosure with raw industrial style and green design that allowed them to live lightly on the land. iT House has floor-to-ceiling windows to take in the landscape, a suspended fireplace by Fire Orb for cold nights, and an abundance of spaces that open up to the outdoors.

Anyone fond of putting flame to food will appreciate the appeal of the Mangiafuoco fireplace. Pile wood up high for a roaring fire or place the accompanying grill over the kindling and throw some steaks on it.

The fireplace that Lake|Flato designed for the deck is the compound’s focal point. “People can go tuck their small kids into bed and then creep back to the fire pit area and be gregarious late into the night,” Wallace says.

The outdoor shower situated off of the master bedroom is enclosed to offer privacy and features a courtyard garden. Michael Arp of Lanoha Nurseries designed the house's landscaping.

Architect Janna Levitt devised a creative emellishment for a residence in Canada. Photo by: Philip Cheung

A collection of vintage furniture, including a rattan armchair and a drafting table, is gathered around the terrace fireplace, which shares a volume with the hearth in the adjacent living room behind. Outdoor sconces are from iGuzzini.

To inform the color palette for this interior renovation in Stockholm, NOTE Design Studio began with three inspirational images. The sculptural fireplace, covered in plaster, contrasts with oak parquet floors.

The living room and dining room were originally separated by a central fireplace, which interior designer Nicole Hollis removed to create this great room. She installed a modern, custom eight-foot-long open gas fireplace in the living room, equipped with sensors that automatically turn it off when someone gets too near to the flames.

The open-plan home’s core is the towering chimney—clad in the same double-long, thin bricks that sheathe the Kolumba museum in Cologne, Germany. It holds three fireplaces, a conventional oven, and a pizza oven; all vent into three distinct flues, emerging from the chimney as their own kind of architectural statement. Inside, life revolves around the brick chimney, which the architect surrounded with a concrete counter that wraps from the kitchen to the living area. The stools are vintage.

Many home buyers are looking for some original or character-defining features.

The modern fireplace is located at the original chimney stack of the building. Robb Studio created a sculptural fireplace using exposed concrete, steel, and shou sugi ban wood for the hearth seat.

Two-year-old Annika and five-year-old Soren make music on the "nap swing," a popular hangout spot for kids and adults alike.

Ryan Anderson of RAD Furniture designed the stools as well as the table and benches on the pool deck.

A 500-square-foot outdoor space with a grill, a table, and a hammock sits just off the entrance level of the townhouse, offering extra room for dining, relaxing, and entertaining. The corner couch is a custom piece inspired by the large cushions of Moroccan sofas. The Fermob table is paired with Hay Hee dining chairs by Hay.

An outdoor shower was the family’s first construction project. “Doing the shower made us realize we can build things the way we want to build them,” says Meg.

Their daughters, Annapurna, left, and Siddartha, play with their dog, Anouck, beneath the kangaroo paws in the entry garden courtyard.

During construction, Mariscal’s team adjusted the design to accommodate the boughs of an old pine tree in the backyard. The unique detail imbues the home with a spirit of wabi-sabi—or beauty through imperfection.

Classic butterfly chairs from Universal Patio Furniture are stationed by the pool. The mural is by street artist Morley, a close friend.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.

There's little concern about privacy considering the canopy of trees that surrounds the house. Alexander, and the chickens, take advantage of their sunny Northern Californian clime.

The land is adjacent to the Colorado River, along which Brown and his girlfriend, Agustina Rodriguez, walk their dogs.

Architect Alex Gil and his wife, Claudia DeSimio, affixed a 750-square-foot addition to the roof of a 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse, transforming their cramped third-floor apartment into a modern duplex. The original fireplace remains, but has been stripped down to exposed brick, as have the surrounding walls, creating an almost wainscot-like design of exposed brick with flat white drywall above.

The glassy pavilion containing kitchen, dining, and living areas is elevated three feet off the ground on posts so it appears to hover among the dunes.

Architecture firm _naturehumaine designed a dream hideaway in eastern Quebec, complete with a centralized fireplace. The modern fireplace was built into a custom, multi-purpose cabinet welded from sheets of hot-rolled steel. It stores firewood on one end with an open shelve, holds a TV, and even acts as a guardrail for the staircase.

Three small pavilions connected by a deck form a summer retreat that balances privacy with a panoramic view—all in less than 900 square feet. Among the three pavilions are the standard comforts of any home: a kitchen, living space, and dining area are situated in an open floor plan in the main cabin, where a collection of vintage pieces—including leather lounge chairs from Belgium and a modern fireplace by Preway (whose chimney stretches into the tall ceilings)—mix with white Bertoia wire chairs and Noguchi table lamps.

Scandinavian architecture firm C.F. Møller designed a serene, zinc-clad home in Aarhus, Denmark. On the interior, a large, three-sided fireplace incorporated into a floating wall helps connect two spaces and warm up the home, and the wall also incorporates a purpose-designed niche filled with firewood for easy re-stoking.

PROD Architecture + Design created a farmhouse in Penafiel, Portugal to fuse the aesthetic of traditional homes in the region with contemporary, floor-to-ceiling windows that respond to the environment. Made up of four distinct structures, the home takes on the shape of an existing gabled-roof structure on the site. To complement the stone building, the home incorporates a series of muted materials including granite for the base, zinc for the roof, and Scandinavian pinewood for cladding.

Interior designer Anne Sophie Goneau gave an apartment in a former factory a bright makeover. The minimal gas fireplace is from Ortal, acting as a focal point in the room, complete with integrated shelving.

A brick fireplace feature creates a low window from the kitchen into the living room to keep a connection between the rooms without relying on a completely open floor plan. Energy-efficient MR16 halogen lights are recessed into the wood ceiling to further emphasize the clean lines throughout the interior spaces.

Armed with a keen eye for design and a yen for vintage furniture shopping, Glee star Jayma Mays and actor Adam Campbell revitalize a formerly jumbled Los Angeles house. On an outdoor deck space, the couple placed their fire engine red fireplace, found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

Movable and space-saving design elements define this creative family home in San Francisco’s Mission District. A midcentury home was transformed, and through the renovation, the molding at the fireplace was taken down, as was the cast plaster mantle. The sleek, new, metal fireplace design features a white oak custom bench made by Zack, accented by a vintage carnation milk crate from his mother’s childhood.

The Irwin pool house designed by Landis Gores in 1957 boasts a central room with high ceilings and an unobstructed view of the landscape. In 2005, the Town of New Canaan purchased the property and added exhibition spaces, as well as rooms for lectures and events. The small pavilion also houses an oversized, monumental brick fireplace design that divides the main space from the kitchen area.