Resident Peter Østergaard (with Maja, 6, and Carl, 20 months) and architect and photographer Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen have been best friends since they were 13, which makes for easy collaboration. Says Bjerre-Poulsen: “There are always a lot of challenges in a renovation, but Peter and Åsa trusted my judgment and gave me a completely free hand. Usually it’s hard to push people into unconventional solutions, but Peter has all these wild and crazy ideas.” One such idea was to embed a transparent glass-and-iron door in the floor, operated by a hydraulic pump, which allows access to the subterranean wine cellar. At night, the lit-up cellar glows, lending the compact living room an increased sense of verticality.

After living on and studying a woodsy acre of land in North Zealand, Denmark, architect Jesper Brask cleared a stand of pine trees and, from the timber, built a getaway open to its surroundings. The house, which Brask shares with his wife, Lene, and sons, Kristian, Jens, and Niels, is used mainly in summer, when the weather is optimal for throwing open the glass doors.

Choosing a kitchen or bathroom countertop can be nerve-wracking, and we understand why—they can be one of the most expensive aspects of a renovation, with the added responsibility of impacting the aesthetics of a space. Read on as we work our way through the pros and cons of seven of the most common countertop materials.

To raise awareness about biodiversity in cities and the benefits it delivers, the EEA façade, overlooking one of the most prominent squares of Copenhagen, Denmark, gets shielded with a vertical garden (shaped like a map of the European continent!) which uses a mesh pattern, similar to a cross-stich pattern, that fills in dirt and various flowers. Via WalkOnWaterOrDrown.

Danish architects John Lassen and Joanna Tench renovated the interior of this quaint 1960s thatched-roof cottage in North Jutland, giving it a clean, modern face-lift.

Lassen designed all the furniture with the exception of a few items, like the vintage Chairman armchair by Henrik Tengler and white IKEA sofas. “To keep it simple, we only used natural colors from wood inside, with everything else being white,” Lassen says.

Tom Givone's current weekend abode, nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, is—so far—his capstone project, a synthesis of personal taste, material experimentation, and historically sensitive restoration: a living laboratory for how to bring the vernacular past into the present.

Overhead cabinets now can be easily swung open for ease of access. The kitchens are priced at IKEA’s usual retails. A 10 by 10 foot kitchen fitted with Sektion cabinets will range from around $1,300 to $2,200, excluding appliances.

Black and white kitchen tiles add visual interest to this stunning modern kitchen by IKEA.

White plaster walls and a curved ceiling play up natural lighting, while minimalist decor and furnishings (many of which they designed themselves) make the small space feel larger.

Lassen says the biggest key for designing a small space is to keep things as minimalist as possible. “Don’t try to make anything bigger or build an addition. Just remove all bad architecture and create clean, simple rooms.”

Daybed by Nina Bruun, part of MINDCRAFT 13 exhibition presented by Danish Crafts. See it at Ventura Lambrate.

A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.

Inside, white paint lightens up the middle of the building. A vintage Danish dining set and Cloud pendants by Frank Gehry for Vitra define the dining area.

As the facade of a Bates Masi-designed home in Water Mill, New York, rises from eight to 14 feet high, the mahogany planks subtly widen. “It was quite a demand to make of the contractor,” architect Paul Masi says. “But the design was so much about traveling through the site and weaving [the house] together with the deck.”

Fed up with flashy, environmentally insensitive beach homes, architect Gerald Parsonson and his wife, Kate, designed a humble hideaway nestled behind sand dunes along the New Zealand coastline. Crafted in the image of a modest Kiwi bach, their 1,670-square-foot retreat consists of a group of small buildings clad in black-stained pine weatherboards and fiber-cement sheets.

The family spends summers and school vacations at the bach. New Zealand's relatively mild winters mean they use the house year-round.

Tanya Wexler and Amy Zimmerman linger in the breezeway designed to draw eyes, and footsteps, from the driveway through the house to the gently sloping backyard and swimming pool beyond.

Kayak in hand, Tom and Will make a break for the beach.

A Renovated Farmhouse in Denmark: This beautiful renovation has a classic Scandinavian feel and soft, but simple color scheme. From The Style Files.

Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner in his studio. Photo courtesy PP MØBLER.

The 510 Cabin is one of Leggitt's designs, executed with the help of student apprentices.

Degrado Amarillo wallpaper by Eijffinger. The Dutch company’s Ibiza collection saturates walls in degrees with a photorealistic paper that adds an of-the-moment gradient effect.

The dwelling showcases the designer’s collection of Danish chairs and loungers from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s — including pieces designed by Kofod Larsen, J.L Moller, Harry Ostergaard, Bruno Mathsson, and Hans J. Wegner.

A series of round cushions piled atop the floor make for a casual lounge area in the upstairs apartment. Acting as both a room divider and a dramatic centerpiece, a custom dining table, created by Nathalie, hangs suspended from the ceiling. She also designed the kitchenette beyond, incorporating vintage cabinets by Danish midcentury designer Børge Mogensen.

A view across the display island to a breezeway betweent the house and the garage that Pacek and Roynon created as part of their home addition. They use the space for entertaining and food service when the weather cooperates.

A Lakeside Prefab in New Jersey A New Zealand expat and her son use their prefabricated lakeside New Jersey retreat as an outdoorsy counterpoint to city life. Photo by: Mark Mahaney Curious on what was popular last week? Click here!

IKEA chairs join a table from CB2; a Kawneer triple-sliding door opens to the family’s new ipe deck.

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.

The exterior mixes pale gray wood on the vertical volume, and fiber cement and black brick on the horiztonal volume. The three trees in the front yard were maintained during the renovation process.

A light interior at Studio Gang HQ.

Using natural materials is one way of bringing nature indoors. Oiled white ash floors and ceilings, along with Italian poplar and Lawson cypress joinery, are found throughout architect Andrew Simpson’s 538-square-foot home outside Wellington, New Zealand.

In the kitchen, the cabinetry is walnut veneer with a weathered finish applied by cabinetmaker David Rogers. “The process involved sanding and rubbing in stain as well as adding a clear finish,” project architect Eero Puurunen says.

Induction cooktops, growing steadily in popularity due to their energy efficiency and speed, are part of the offering as well as as a selection of exhaust hoods.

The industrial stair leads to the upper level, where the bedrooms, bathrooms, and play space are located.

A 17-foot-tall freestanding play structure that designer Sharon Davis designed for her family in upstate New York can only be entered by climbing taut netting and entering through a trap door. Descending requires sliding down two structural-columns-turned-fire-poles.