A kitchen shelf Nick picked up secondhand on Kleinanzeigen. It was very damaged when he acquired it, so he applied spackle to resurface it and painted it red.

Kalia and Olivia in the dining room (the Danish dining table was acquired by Jesse’s parents in the mid-’70s, the dining chairs are by Arne Jacobsen, and the light fixture is by George Nelson).

David Hertz shows how he used a pre-fabricated panels typically used for walk-in refrigeration buildings for the Panel House (above) and a 747 wing to build the 747 Wing House in Malibu.

In the evenings, the refurbished, white sawtooth roof acquires a particularly otherworldly feel.

Friends from Tonko's hometown of Bregenz, Austria, commissioned the studio when they acquired some land next to their home. They use it for drawing and sketching, as well as creating clay and gypsum sculptures that are later cast into bronze. Since the area is close to where he grew up, Tonko was incredibly familar with the view from the hillside.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Spring House in Tallahassee, Florida, was commissioned by George and Clifton Lewis, who sought a comfortable house for their large family that fit within their modest budget. Completed in 1954, the home features an unusual "hemicycle" form—a shape that the designer briefly experimented with at the end of his career. Now, a fundraising campaign aims to acquire, restore, and open the house to the public.

Completed in 2013, the roughly 1,500-square-foot cabin provides an open living area framed by white trusses and concrete floors. The dining table was acquired by the owner from a local inn, and is surrounded by the Eames molded plastic Eiffel side chairs from Design Within Reach. The kitchen features a Grohe faucet, a wood bowl from a shop in Harbert, and an Ikea vase.

"Dead History" designed by P. Scott Makela in 1990 is one of the 23 typefaces recently acquired by MoMA. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A late-1960s spiral stair designed by an aeronautical engineer to lead passengers to the bar inside a 747. From Off the Wall Antiques.

The architects created an office for two in the open living area by arranging a Freijó wood desk along the wall. Shelving above the desk holds Carolina and Marcus's book collection, and the armchair and ottoman, designed by Sergio Rodrigues, were acquired at auction; the poster is by Shepard Fairey. The sitting area is outfitted with a family heirloom coffee table, a sofa by Cini Boeri, and a Jackson Pollock print.

A custom-designed wood dining table is surrounded by chairs acquired at Saint-Michel Flea Market in Montreal. IKEA pendant lamps decorate the space.

The brass fittings are new to the project but are similar to metal that was originally used elsewhere in the project. The fittings, seen here in the children’s bathroom, will quickly acquire a dark patina.

“The main drivers for materials were budget and ease of acquiring them, because I didn’t have much storage space,” says Samantha.

Before: By the 1990s, the home had acquired a front porch and two rear additions.

A handwoven silk ikat print, which Molineus acquired in Uzbekistan, is draped between the kitchen entrances. A Sapiens bookshelf by Bruno Rainaldi stands at far right.

Above the dining room’s Hodgson & Barker Antiques table—found on eBay—are ceramic pendant lights from Hand & Eye Studio. The architect acquired the wood chairs secondhand.

Brambilla used part of the $2.9 million budget to acquire pieces from Hay, including Hee barstools by Hee Welling that are lined up by a long bar in a common area.

You would be hard pressed to find an issue of Dwell without a Bertoia barstool or chair in it. Launched in 1952, the industrial-strength steel seat is a modern classic without drawing too much attention to itself. $747

When the current homeowners acquired the property from its original owners, the house had been well-maintained and was in good condition. The dwelling was even equipped with an HVAC system, a rare innovation for the period and building type.

Many of the points accrued to reach LEED silver status were acquired by installing Energy Star products, especially in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Jared Boudreaux and Tim Hayes.

Eric Lamers of Hammerhead, a craft-based contractor specializing in midcentury renovation projects, worked on the house before Andrew and his wife, Dustin Ferrer, acquired it in 2013, but it still needed a good deal of restoration. The home features an impressive collection of vintage furnishings, including an Elephant Stool by Sori Yanagi and a Luther Conover chair.

The backyard features a vertical garden, called the “picking wall” by the designers of Weller Landscapes, for its selection of kitchen herbs. In regards to the courtyard's wood and concrete finishes, the architects explain how “[The] materials all had an honest raw quality about them, allowing them to age gracefully and acquire their own patina over time.”

Beckmann and Trowbridge have recently expanded The Lautner to create The Lautner Compound, which includes The Lautner, The Park—a 10,000-square-foot open-air event space—and a newly acquired 1957 Californian bungalow called The Ranch House. All the buildings and facilities on the compound were masterfully restored and furnished to reflect the spirit of Lautner.

The 1960's marked a moment where typographers began experimenting in the digital realm. "OCR-A" was by the American Type founders in 1966 and is the oldest typeface included in the group of 23 recently acquired by MoMA.

Donald Judd acquired this New York City building for $68,000 in 1968. His family moved in a year later and renovated over decades. Judd continued to use it to experiment with his ideas even after he moved to Texas in the 1970s.

For the owners of the Jackson Residence—a retired couple with grown children—the completion of their contemporary rural home in Jackson, Wyoming, has been a long time coming. They acquired a sloped plot set amidst a dramatic landscape at the crest of the Gros Ventre Butte long ago—but they decided to wait until retirement before approaching Bohlin Cywinski Jackson to design and build their long-awaited forever abode.

AIA architect David Hertz, known for 747 Wing House, looked to the structure of a butterfly wing when designing this Venice home. The inverted roof of Silver Triangle House (or Butterfly House) captures water that collects in a sump and is used for subsurface irrigation. The roof is just one of the home's sustainable features, which, Hertz says, "are not compromises to the design; they're part of the design." Photo by Laura Doss.

The entry hall is open but inviting. “When you get into the property you can see thru the space, so I didn’t want it to be cluttered,” Bérubé says. The white oak built-ins for coats and shoes are simple and seamless. The Jan Kath rug warms the the poured-in-place concrete floor. The owners acquired the Nicola Hicks bear sculpture at an art fair in Hong Kong from London-based Flowers Gallery.

The front door opens right into the dining room where vintage furniture helps make it feel welcoming. Priscilla reupholstered the seat cushions with a Chinoiserie-flavored floral fabric from Carolina Irving Textiles. The metal drum pendant is from The Urban Electric Co. Priscilla acquired the large oil painting by Claire Sherman from DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea when she was its director. "Identifying a proper hanging wall for it was a priority,

The house is as much a work of art as a showcase for it. The Suarezes are catholic in their tastes: They buy for love not investment, their collection a mix of high and low. In the foyer, prints and drawings acquired over the course of their world travels hang along the attenuated S-curve of the wall opposite the front door.

The dining area, which sits in the same open space as the living room and takes in tons of natural light, is marked by a hanging pendant designed by Louis Poulsen. Silvia purchased the extendable dining table from BoConcept and surrounded it with Vitra’s Panton Chairs designed by Verner Panton. The piece of art leaning against the wall is by Mr. Brainwash, and was acquired when Silvia and her boyfriend visited one of his exhibits for the first time together.

How a highly productive collaboration among a trio of creative Angelenas—and a good dose of Barragán—turned a dark and beleaguered midcentury house into a family home for the ages. The resulting design acquired its own flow, full of colorful narrative, spirited counterpoint, and anecdote. Now, in place of dark, disconnected spaces, outdoor rooms echo luminous indoor ones, and experimental filmmaker Laura Purdy and her family’s eclectic collections of art and personal artifacts share space with flashes of pattern and interior planes of saffron and pink stucco.

In 2005, Gretchen Rice and Kevin Farnham acquired a 1908 home in San Francisco that had been remodeled in the 1940s by well-known local architect Henry Hill. Their series of small interventions have kept the design intent of the 1940s renovation—including an enclosed atrium, wood wall paneling, and unusual built-ins—while updating the home for contemporary living. In the dining area, Metropolitan side chairs by Jeffrey Bernett for B&B Italia surround a Surf Table designed by Carlo Colombo for Zanotta.

Luise Stauss, a former photo editor at The New York Times Magazine, sits in the living room of the downtown Brooklyn apartment she shares with her husband, Nicholas Blechman, the creative director of The New Yorker. The roughly 1,000-square-foot space feels larger than it is, thanks to high ceilings and bay windows. Twin 1962 Bastiano sofas by Tobia Scarpa are joined by a Cité chair by Jean Prouvé and a wood chair acquired from the New York Historical Society. The floor lamp is by David Weeks Studio.

After vacationing in the town of Uzés, France, for decades, Londoners Chris and Lone McCourt acquired a

The wall behind the head of the bed is made with repurposed cedar that Douglas-Hui acquired at no cost.