The concrete-and-steel home by Faulkner Architects gives one family a refined escape in the mountains of Northern California.

Danny envisioned the space between the ADU and the house as an informal place to gather. "It creates a sort of courtyard sensibility, which works for our intergenerational family dynamics."

Danny fitted the kitchen into an alcove outfitted with Ikea cabinets and Semihandmade fronts. The refrigerator is by LG. On the jute rug from Armadillo, chairs from Threshold join a table from Inside Weather.

In the new living room, the floors are covered in pine wood with a Bona Craft Oil finish in Frost, and the walls and ceiling are coated in lime plaster, Mortex by Beal. The handmade hanging chair, made of plaster, is a favorite spot for the couple’s cat, Paka.

In the primary bedroom, built-in storage is ship-like and not particularly plentiful. “I’d rather live in 850-square-feet by the ocean and see the sunrise every morning than in 3,000-square-feet in the suburbs,” Caleb says.

The island of Møn in Denmark has a remarkable landscape with dramatic white-chalk cliffs, so it’s fitting that Birkedal—a vacation rental property not far from the beach—features a shape and form that matches its impressive locale.

After: At the master bathroom's bathtub, the architect turned an existing water feature into a planter.

Natural wood trim—as opposed to laminate—is gaining steam in luxury car interiors. Various veneers are stores in a carefully monitored humidor before they're applied to models for armrests or dashboard and door details.

Here are some of the seat patterns for the various parts. Unlike a lounge chair or sofa found in your living room, this chair is made from many separate components, each positioned to optimize the piece.

The seatmaker sculpts a form out out of the foam. The more dense foam offers rigid support while the less dense sections conform more to a driver's body.

Seating is a large component of car interiors and evaluated on comfort, looks, and functionality. Very specific compositions of foam exist underneath the surface. The different densities create the support and comfort that's needed to make quick trips around town and long road trips equally enjoyable. Here's an example of the different foams in a seat.

Here's an example of all various wood accents one might see within a car. After the shape is contoured and refined by the designers and woodworkers—the same way as the steering wheel stitch is—it's then ok'd for production. This is just a glimpse of what goes into three components and similar processes occur for other parts.

Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.

When husband and wife Chris Hougie and Teresa Raffo came across a defunct campground outside of Mendocino, California, the 36-acre property’s raw beauty inspired them to embark on a new adventure. Their new

Inspirational spaces

After the foam configutation is set, the seat is upholstered and assembled.

The color, texture, and grain of a piece of leather is taken into account for upholstering an interior. Each car GM produces needs to be consistent and uniform in look and customization options. For example, if a buyer sees a caramel leather in a showroom car and wants it in their own, it needs to look the same. The studio makes sure that tanneries will be able to provide the right shade for a piece of leather and will be able to reproduce that on a large scale.

British artist Hannah Sawtell and technologist Avi Flombaum created sawbaum.com, where users can create visual collages using multiple vine streams. "We wanted it to look like a visual comic book, with overlapping panels," said Flombaum. "And we wanted it to be fun!" Photo courtesy Rhizome.

The heart of the camp is the main residence, the Lake House, which has a stacked "cordwood wall" made from Douglas firs found on-site.

Built-in bunks are decked out with a private window for viewing the outdoors, and an adjustable reading light from Prima Lighting. A simple pendant hangs above the main space.

For example, a designer specifies a certain stitch pattern. A sewer then creates the same pattern by hand giving feedback on reproducability. If it's too complex, he or she will offer feedback to the designer; the designer then takes another stab at the stitch's look. The back and forth happens until the detail is refined and meets the aesthetic standards and manufacturing capabilities at GM.

The automotive design process at General Motors involves countelss talented people from ideation to production. After designers come up with ideas for interior and exterior styling—think: the shape of seats, the contouring of a console, the overall look and feel of a cabin—craftspeople create life-sized prototypes at the Interiors and Exteriors Studio. They evaluate the design to see if it's something that can be produced on a large scale given the tools and machinery that's readily available. Even the most minute stitch.

“Sometimes you go with emotions rather than logic,” says Woodhull founder Caleb Johnson. “I just wanted to renovate the little Pizza Hut look-alike my son told me looked like a blowfish.”

One of Amber’s favorite features in in the house is the splash of color in the kitchen backsplash, via a tile called 'Unfading' green slate from Vermont Structural Slate Company.

The walnut-framed bay window is a favorite spot for the children. “My eldest son, the moment he arrives at home after school, makes a beeline for that pop out,” says Bonnie. “He wants to eat his lunch right there build his Legos in that space.”

The light-soaked kitchen and breakfast nook are accented with a blue rug from Anthropologie, pottery from Portugal, and a custom bench seat from Etsy.

A multi-purpose office and pantry is located on the home's main level. “It’s a private space, but it feels open,” says architect Drew Daly. “Traditionally in Japan, the doors are made using rice paper, but we did an architectural play on that using a slatted wall that creates translucency."

Even with multiple structures across their 10-acre property in Maine, Diana Arcadipone and Scott Berk only had one bathroom. This 560-square-foot guesthouse by architect Leslie Benson gives them a second, as well as space for visiting family and friends.

Amy and Tomasz's cat Gustavo "Gus" hangs out in the dining nook. "They weren't super concerned about having a huge dining table," says Sims, "but we wanted to give them some dedicated space for dining." It is now one of Amy's favorite places in the home.

Both the couch and the rug in the living room were purchased from CB2.

In the central tent, a MADE light strip by Martin Doller is woven through a Barn and Werf canoe frame to create an on-brand light fixture above a large Boschedal dining table. Woodbender chairs offer ample seating for groups.

The main living space has a couch from Room & Board and rugs from Dash and Albert, all in colors that reflect the rural parcel. The wood sculpture hanging on the wall is by Don Best.

In the remodel, Lotz reoriented the pool and added multiple outdoor spaces, such as a covered terrace with the braai, as well as an outdoor dining table with built-in seating.

North-facing sliders, from Milgard, fill the ADU interior with natural light. The Benjamin Moore wall paint was customized to match a swatch of nude leather. The desk at left is from Akron Street.

Opening the connection between the basement and the main floor, Plum Projects made the staircase the center of the home. Polished concrete floors anchor the space.

When it came to the studio, homeowner Amy Tran had a vision of a small cabin inside a larger space. Working that into a reality, &Daughters studio designed a raised, built-in structure for Amy and Tomasz's workspace. A built-in cat litter area is noticeable only for its small, square entrance.