Lalita stands in front of the coffee nook in the couple’s kitchen—one of several details that relates to their shared Brazilian heritage. Her childhood was split between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, while Fabio grew up in São Paulo before moving to various cities around the world as part of his career in advertising.

In the living room, guests gather on a matching ebony sofa and daybed from Hudson and a pair of Jorge Zalszupin lounge chairs. An Yves Klein coffee table—filled with the artist’s signature International Klein Blue pigment— provides a vivid burst amid otherwise organic tones. The walnut-and-bronze cabinetry is a custom design.

We are all bibliophiles and magazine-philes so Offi’s Embrace Media Table by John Green is perfect for extra storage. $299

The walnut coffee table in the living room is by Samuel Moyer.

Adrian designed the Basic coffee table.

The coffee station features a professional-grade Rocket Espresso machine. Jang and King designed a stainless-steel pullout shelf for a cream and sugar station.

The master bedroom has a sitting area with a Twilight sofa from Design Within Reach and Noguchi's Prismatic tables from Vitra. The pillows are upholstered with Missoni's Kew fabric.

Tyler and Brown’s living room is packed with furniture yet manages to avoid feeling cluttered. The coffee table is a Nelson Platform Bench from Herman Miller, and the low tables are Tablo Tables by Magnus Löfgren for Design House Stockholm. The Nørreskoven fireplace is from Cleanburn Stoves.

Located in the Östermalm neighborhood of Stockholm, Cafe Foam channels "Spanish temperament with Scandinavian cool," according to its designers, local firm Note. Indeed, the interior features the prototypical Scandinavian blonde wood and spare detailing with splashes of magenta that evoke a more fiery feeling—an unexpected mashup as the latitudes (not to mention the design sensibilities) of Spain and Sweden are about as far flung as one can get in Europe.

Manual Coffee Maker Designer Craighton Berman says his new coffee maker is "at the intersection of slow food and design.”

Linda Hutchins and John Montague hired Works Partnership Architecture to turn a former Portland, Oregon, warehouse and auto repair shop into a versatile live/work space.

Very civilized coffee service at Karimoku New Standard gallery installation in Brera (plus new table by Scholten & Baijings).

Omaggio Coffee Press by Stilleben for Kähler, $125 from danishdesignstore.com Fresh brewed coffee served in a simple Scandinavian vessel. What more could one possibly want?

You can set the schedule up to a week in advance, and get push notifications when a fresh pot is ready. It brews at about 205 degrees Fahrenheit, and you can adjust the strength. You can also pause in the middle of the cycle in order to pour a cup.

Ziesel’s coffee table, made in 1993, puts her swirling, whimsical themes in a different medium, available at Design Within Reach.

Manual Coffee Maker The first entry in his new Manual houseware lines, the MCM exemplifies Berman’s approach, slowly crafting products at the intersection of design and food.

An example of one of Nakashima’s most iconic designs, this large piece was crafted from walnut.

Coffee and San Francisco!

One-inch-thick slate clads the fireplace in the living room, which opens to a terrace. The reclaimed coffee table is by Scott Chambers.

The team from the interdisciplinary firm Commune Design joins us to talk about their role in revitalizing the city of L.A., from their work on the city’s major residential multiuse projects to the recently opened Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. Photo by Spencer Lowell.

Quaffing a perfect cappuccino is this writer’s true weakness.

Here's the cafe space, which is set off to the side of the building. The kiln (currently under construction) will be behind the bank of windows in the background. We love how the building hosts a multitude of uses: a social space for the neighborhood, retail, and manufacturing. It's also two local businesses supporting each other—a customer might come in for a coffee and come out with a new place setting, and vice versa.

Zoku claims its insulation can cool the liquid down to iced temperature in less than five minutes. Compared to cold-brewing your own batch, or just waiting for a hot mug to cool down, the convenience provided by a purpose-engineered liner is worth the $30 price.

Arroyo designed this slatted-wood coffee table in 1956.

Coffee makers like this Cuisinart feature smart tech in sharp packaging—but they still clutter my counter.

Fusion Coffee Table by BoConcept, $289 from boconcept.com/en-... Coated in a durable lacquer, this particle board living room table can withstand plenty of loving use.

Wired coffee table in gloss yellow and smoked gray glass by Phase, $1,450.

Santa Cruz–based company Verve has three locations in the beachside city. Its roastery is sited in a structure that was built in 1914 to house the Seabright Cannery, which operated until 1989. After that, it became a warehouse for skate and surf companies. Fuse Architecture was called into convert the space into a roasting plant and retail storefront that opened in 2011. "The roastery location is in an industrial warehouse right in the middle of a neighborhood," says Dan Townsend of Fuse Architecture. "Other tenants in the complex are Oneill Surf Boards, Santa Cruz skate boards, Santa Cruz Mountain Bikes, Element, Pacific Edge Climbing, and others. The neighborhood had not dealt with the smells, noise and traffic of a coffee roaster so the Owners wanted us to design the space where the neighbors would feel like they could walk up, see the operation, and order coffee."

Designed by jones | haydu, Coffee Bar's sleek and contemporary second location is built to stand out amongst sprawling high rises. The bold and expansive metal and glass exterior provides an alluring peek into the action inside. Limited by the relatively small space (it is under 500 square feet), Coffee Bar keeps things simple with backlit maple plywood panels and brushed concrete floors. Indoor seating was deliberately excluded from the small space to meet the pace of the bustling demographic; the outdoor teak seating is by Selamat Designs and complements the warm wood interior. 101 Montgomery Street

Wisconsin. Misewell's approach to modern furniture-making prioritizes ease of assembly. Each leg of the walnut Conrad coffee table snaps effortlessly into a steel bracket, which is available in a range of colors.

Timer-activated coffee makers have been around for years, so it's almost hard to believe it took this long to make the device smart. Finally, Belkin made one from a partnership with Mr. Coffee, and it goes beyond scheduled brewing.

The walnut Conrad coffee table's legs snap into a stamped steel bracket, which comes in powder-coated black, ivory, or this sunny shade of yellow ($1,150).

Coffee Talk While some resign themselves to the coffee shop, the resourceful caffeine lover knows better. A cup of coffee sipped at home from your favorite mug is a much better way to launch into your day than a barrage of goateed baristas, surcharges for “hot,” and a tragic display case of objectionable croissants. (Drip, machine, espresso, or even in the form of a table, we all love coffee. Read here for more great products.)

Seventy percent of smartphone and tablet owners say they'd like to control something in their house remotely from bed, such thermostats, lights, or coffee makers (an appliance 27 percent named specifically).

This is what the building looked like before Verve moved in. Fuse served as designers and builders of the project, which was key in accomplishing the desired effect.

Manual Coffee Maker sketches by Craighton Berman