A PK 22 Easy Chair by Poul Kjaerholm for Fritz Hansen adds a dash of yellow to the breakfast room.

It might not make you popular with your contractor, but for a more streamlined look, Chris recommends forgoing trim. "It lends a clean look with less visual clutter," the architect says. In their house, the doors, lights, cabinetry, and even wall sockets (all 22 by Bocci) are installed without trim. This allows the planar surfaces to recede and do their jobs without unnecessarily distracting the eye.

Abutting a costal reserve, the property has uninterrupted views of the Snowy River and surrounding wetlands

Bocci's 22 Series offers stealthy electrical, cable, USB, and phone outlets.

The three arms of the Apfel House stretch out to catch the best views of Ranco Lake and the Andes Mountains.

Mary and Kundan Bhullar built a shipshape country escape that sits lightly on the land in the Aravalli hills near Gurgaon, India.

The Armadillo is parked on a 1,000-square-foot lot that gives the couple ample outdoor space.

Strategic Changes Make a Big Impression: Learn the key moves to create a big impact.

“Every time you challenge a basic assumption, there needs to be some method of expressing the fact that there’s new logic at work.”—Omer Arbel, creative director at Bocci

PeaceBOMB Bracelets by Article 22 "A22PeaceBomb3" $38.00 for three A special product with a special story. PeaceBOMB bracelets are crafted from the reclaimed metal of Vietnam-era bombs dropped on Laos during the United States' conflict in Indochina. Developed through a social enterprise that supports sustainable development through design thinking, its collaborators include Naphia spoon makers, Helvetas’s Rural Income Through Sustainable Energy Project and ARTICLE 22. These bracelets not only represent an opportunity for artisan families to generate income, but also tell a story about their makers and the legacies of a shared history. Buy the bombs back!"

Best Booth went to AF NY.

The W.W. Stool by Philippe Starck.

This kitchen features a sleek Henrybuilt kitchen system in white.

On a rocky bank, Hebra Arquitectos builds a breezy home that opens wide to nature.

My favorite detail in the kitchen.

The courtyard is a secure space with a double-height window that offers seamless interior-exterior connection. “It gives a nice sense of containment and peace, while still engaging interior spaces,” says Cashman.

Steel strips form a security screen on the street side of the scullery. One can also hang pots and pans from them. A skylight filters illumination through glass block flooring to the basement below.

The kitchen is accessible from a raised courtyard across from the main living space. “The double exhaust hood looks like an old industrial gantry,” remarks Cashman. Sandblasted brick and sandstone from the original warehouse dialogue with floating white and grey cabinetry.

Rose sourced the green marble for an upcoming Park Avenue apartment from the same quarry used by Mies for the 1929 Barcelona Pavilion.

“The biggest design challenge was the facade,” says architect Mark Cashman. “It had to step back from the street and recede to give prominence to the heritage status warehouse facade.” Above the translucent bedroom level, a balcony with a herb garden steps back further. From the rooftop garden, downtown Sydney comes into full view.

Simultaneously sculptural and pragmatic, the undulating form of the W Magazine Stand’s molded plywood is both pleasing and useful. It’s compact enough for small spaces, though you may be loath to cover up the figurative grain pattern of the walnut with your magazines.

You might not think a sparsely populated world with the merest suggestion of depth would be a compelling one to live in. But the longer you look through Toronto-based My Shadowplay, the closer you'll become to a convert to Minimalism. Follow along at @my_shadowplay.

My BrooklynIn My Brooklyn, Kelly Anderson and Allison Dean address gentrification in downtown Brooklyn. Watch the trailer here:

Ineke Hans, My Storage, 2011.

The master bedroom features wallpaper by Erika Wakerly. The glass tables next to the Croft House bed were gifts.

This bedside table design was inspired by three different vintage pieces. For this client, our mission was a mid-century look and feel, but we were stuck against tight dimensions in space and running up against road block after road block with sizing of existing, vintage options. I find that it's best to secure your designs in some type of inspiration. All great design needs a "seed"—where are you growing from? What are you referring back to in order to stay on course? How are you utilizing or paying attention to nuance in your designs? Repurposing existing furniture pieces is another way to exercise your creative and win some serious applause on both design and cost-savings. Sometimes your starting place is that ratty old sofa in your living room, or basement. I'm constantly reviewing existing client furnishings and thinking about how we can shift the bases into something more interesting or fresh. It's important to find a great upholstery shop or carpenter who can interpret your designs. You need to establish a successful line of communication with your vendor, and how best they read your designs. Often detailed shop drawings are required, and hand sketches are an incredibly successful tool when trying to elevate your ideals, or communicate to a vendor your desired end result.

It's hugely important to request routine shop images from your vendors. Weekly, or bi-weekly image review is the best way to manage and guarantee the quality of your end result. As the lead designer on any piece or project, minding the details needs to be at the forefront of thought at all times. Quick snapshots like the one shown here are great for detailing and helping to understand how all of the parts are coming together. The TV console and bedsides in the following slides were built by Brooklyn based KWH Furniture.

I recently designed this TV console and chair for a project on the Upper West Side in New York. The oversized chamfer detail on the console draws the eye to the integrated door hardware and leather wrapped panels. While we are still prototyping the "DMc Channel Chairs," one of the big compliments from this client is on the size, scale and comfort. When I approach designing a piece of furniture, I pull my design ideas through four key areas of consideration: Ergonomics–Determining overall size, scale and best function–designing the right piece for the right use with the right fit is foundational. Artisanal Quality–I like to work with artists or masters of craft–the commitment to the process is almost always more genuine and more profound, as well as understanding of materials. Material selection–I focus on sturdy materials that are beautiful and forgiving–furniture is meant to be used and needs to be produced for longevity and with the concept of patina in mind. Finish details–Be bold. Everything you design should have a voice and a level of design saturation that speaks with it's own point-of-view. Think about the details–what takes it forward?

I'll leave you with this image as inspiration for your next furniture design project. Note the architectural detailing both in the room and the bench itself. In this case, we worked with Bright Furniture to add the arms and took our cue from the intersecting geometric patterning of the upholstery fabric. We tied the fabric to the bench, and gave the bench a more dynamic presence as a centerpiece in this living room by adding the additional structure to the base design. Remember, be bold and stay true to quality, comfort and function. If you can zero in on these factors when designing a piece of furniture, you'll be a success every time!

This is a great example of how one can take an existing piece and turn it around completely. In this case, there was a pair of matching sofas. The original sofas were much more traditional, but by shaving down the top of the backs, cutting down each sofa and connecting them at the center, I was able to reuse the pieces to create a beautiful 11' sofa to insert in a wall niche, expand the room and bring forward a more contemporary result. For the client, they achieved the contemporary feeling they were aiming for and saved on the cost of a new sofa by more than half the price.

Take a look at this sofa and flip to the next image.

One of my mantras is "Design = Collaboration" and often, my team works with vendors whose work we love, admire, and appreciate to customize a piece of furniture for the specific needs of our client. The net result is a beautiful collaboration between designers (read as: teamwork). Never be afraid to ask about customization. Great design is about growth, sharing, and evolution. We are all here to add to one another, and expand great ideas. Again, remember my other mantra: "time, energy, effort and expense…" You're worth it. Make it your own. Go for it! This Alana bench from Bright Furniture is a great example a base design from which we launched on a recent project in East Hampton, New York. Flip to the next image!