The wooden box is as functional as it is finely crafted, with room for clothes up top. Each niche holds treasures from travels, family keepsakes, books, and more.

The couple's daughter reads in the cozy nook just inside the front door painted in a vibrant blue from Benjamin Moore. Of the storage area below, Fredrik says, "In Sweden, there's always a place to sit and take off your shoes. This is a version of that."

Furniture designer Pat Carson created a plethora of custom fixtures for this guest room, including a riveted aluminum Murphy bed. The best Murphy beds raise and lower easily, often requiring only one hand. This unique wall bed employs a hand-cranked wheel-and-pulley system.

The wall beneath the stairs holds hidden storage, including an Enomatic wine dispenser and Sub-Zero refrigerated drawers.

The Walnut and Marble Storage Cube from 2131 takes the simplicity of a box and elevates it with rich walnut wood and luxe marble. The cube includes one interior surface that has been inlaid with Italian Calacatta Gold marble, which frames the storage cube’s contents. Available in small and large sizes, the Walnut and Marble Cubes can be stacked or structured to create a distinctive storage display, or they can be used individually as a striking accent.

Made of stainless steel and TEKA hardwood, a Curzon dining table by Modloft is surrounded by a quartet of Victoria Ghost dining chairs by Philippe Starck for Kartell. A striped Missy pendant light by Filipe Lisboa hangs overhead. Four Chill White media consoles from CB2 line the western wall.

Davor (with his wife, Abbe, and son, August) designed the main living and dining pavilion as a double-height space to increase its perceived volume, and added high cubbies for extra storage.

Hynam built additional storage along one angled wall of the bedroom loft and beneath the skylight.

Another double-duty item, the ObjectBox Large Wooden Storage Box acts as both storage and display unit. Each European wood oak box's sliding translucent lid reveals its contents through a colored haze. The The ObjectBoxes comes from designer Maya Bille for Applicata.

The screen porch serves as an auxiliary dining area and extends past the house to capture views and cross breezes.

The staircase leading to the master suite features aluminum treads supported on stainless steel tubes. "We wanted something that would allow the resin panels behind it to reflect the light from the windows at the top of the stair," Slade says.

The lower level is covered in traditional red brick, while the upper level consists of coil-coated aluminium sheet with large glass panes.

The 3-in-1 Tray Box from Nomess Copenhagen is a simple design with multiple positions and functions. Comprised of three sections, the Tray Box includes a base with the largest capacity for storing items, a middle layer that can be used to store pens, pencils, and small items, and a top lid. The lid, as well as the middle layer, can be removed from the box and used as individual trays. The Tray Box is a versatile desk accessory that can be used both to conceal and display items. In addition to being used at a desk, the Tray Box can be used on a dresser for storing jewelry, in an entryway for storing essentials like keys, or for storage on a bookshelf. Made of cardboard and paper, the Tray Box has a soft touch and visual texture.

By the door, shoes get organized on a built-in by JKK Woodcraft.

Clothing can play a vital part in post-disaster comfort and survival. Be prepared with lightweight, versatile items that are appropriate for the highs and lows of your region—bonus points for bright colors like neon yellow or orange that might help emergency workers spot you. Make sure you have clean underwear, layers (including a light jacket), and a hat that would protect you from the sun. Extra blankets, shoes, boots, socks, and bug spray might be necessary depending on where you live.

HotBox: Michaela MacLeod and Nicholas Croft (Toronto) A mysterious monolith on the landscape, this warming hut, a cubic room wrapped in rubber and egg shell crate foam, provides a space for socialization.

When the Casali family gave Michael Krus and Prishram Jain of TACT Architecture free rein to work with unconventional materials, the architects responded by creating a geometric 4,300-square-foot smart home encased in aluminum panels by Agway Metals. The front facade features Cor-Ten steel fabricated by Praxy Cladding.

Alex devised a system that takes advantage of ocean views while protecting the cottage from that same northeasterly orientation. The large windows and doors can be shuttered with corrugated aluminum panels.

The view from Bruce's cabin is a sight for sore eyes. One of the outermost inhabited islands on the American eastern seaboard, Criehaven (technically Ragged Island) is located 20 miles off the Maine coast and one mile south of Matinicus Island.

The resident, a Tokyo transplant, commissioned architect Tadashi Murai to create a fully-equipped structure that comes with its own power, heating and cooling, water, and waste-disposal systems.

The ObjectBoxes from designer Maya Bille allow you to both store and display items in one simple step. Each European wood oak box includes an acrylic sliding lid that has enough transparency to reveal the box’s contents, and enough opacity that the eye focuses on the color of the lid and the fine craftsmanship of the wood box.

"Many cooks focus on getting the pie crust just right, but then forget they have to get the fragile pie to the party or picnic in one piece. This handsome pie box does the trick, in style." Pie Box at Provisions, $35.

Designer Christiane Hogner, Bruxelles

Master Bath Casale and Crofton’s bedroom is configured as a casual open suite, with a sliding aluminum screen as the only barrier separating an adjacent bathroom and walk-in closet. The screen’s dappled, lacelike pattern was designed by Fiyel Levent, a local artist and architect. Bischoff handed her design to a metalworker, who then carved it into aluminum with a digital laser cutter. It runs on a track in front of a partial wall covered in wallpaper by Neisha Crosland. The vanity, designed and built in the MADE studio, sits atop the legs from an antique refrigerator that Bischoff and his team found in a junkyard. Calacatta mosaic tile, another MADE leftover, lines the floor of the shower (not shown). The firm had a limited surplus, so the amount of tile available dictated the shower stall’s footprint. “We have a keen understanding of the challenges presented by integrating the new with the existing,” Bischoff says of his approach. “We took this blank canvas and tailored it to the needs that Dawn and Dave had for their home. The result is fresh and unique but retains the patina of the many parts from which it was made.”

Andrew Magnes’s hanging screen composed of aluminum circles and lines, cut with a CNC water jet, separates the entry from the staircase and rear kitchen area.

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.

The countertop is a solid aluminum plate. The cooktop, hood, and dishwasher are Miele.

This living/dining space is the social center of the apartment. For that reason, the architect designed the cabinet walls as a unifying visual feature that anchors the two rooms and provides practical storage space.

“Materials were a major consideration in this house,” says Massie, who created a curtain wall with steel supports adorned with sandwiched layers of birch plywood and amber acrylic. “When light enters that wall, the layers of acrylic allow it to come through and glow—it’s really quite beautiful,” says Massie, who added the same acrylic for the thin window at the end. “That plays off the yellows in the Gambone ceramics and the Eames storage unit,” notes Wooten.

Aluminum "chips."

Lynda's knick knacks and crafty supplies are kept in the kitchen's metal shelving system, which came with the couple from their previous apartment.

During the renovation, Grimley and Smith added built-in storage to keep clutter in check.

Momaboxes are jeweltone plastic boxes in a variety of shapes and sizes. (For a quicker fix, the Container Store sells similar compartments fromAmac.)

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

Light Box Peter created a simple uplight at the top of the wood box by wiring together energy-efficient fluorescent fixtures typically used under cabinets and countertops. “The cheaper magnetic models hum unacceptably loudly, so make sure you get the electronic ballast types,” he warns. He then painted the cavity white to reflect light and covered them with quarter-inch-thick acrylic from TAP Plastics. homedepot.com tapplastics.com

Sliding aluminum panels on the facade of Green Orchard not only mirror the local flora, they also allow residents Fred and Edna Wadham to control how much sunlight enters their 2,150-square-foot home.