Designer Ismael Medina Manzano stretches the limits of an 861-square-foot flat in San Sebastián with mirrors, curves, and a kitchen island on wheels.

Warwas offset the rear of the ADU to accommodate the power lines running behind the house, and he designed a window in the office/guest room upstairs that meets the roof in the same way that the window off the dining area/kitchen meets the ground.

Studio Becker Xu streamlined the kitchen by building all of the appliances into the millwork. The budget-friendly countertops are a Formica solid surface.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing and a linear skylight help welcome the landscape within the cabin’s small footprint.

A blue checkered Moroccan rug amps up the visual interest in the space, along with a new yellow Togo couch and Herman Miller coffee table. Switching out the mullioned windows for new tilt-and-turn windows from Semko help the space feel larger and increase energy efficiency.

Adair and Kopp commissioned the metal fabricator who did the railings to create the monkey-bar rungs that line the hallway, powder-coated in seafoam green. Rings can attach to the monkey bars to give the boys a different type of challenge.

The couple added the wainscot, installed by Seamus, and painted in Farrow & Ball Red Earth to continue the “color story” from the breakfast room. The white oak built-in has much needed storage behind the cane cabinet fronts and display. The Caitlin couch by Everygirl for Interior Define sits atop a vintage checkered rug with an Anthropologie coffee table and Hay Paper Shade overhead.

The previous homeowners had cultivated a large, Asian-inspired garden. The courtyard centers around this towering, bushy tree.

A corner that's used as a home gym.

Considering that much of their Los Angeles neighborhood was closed due to Covid-19, Monica’s partner agreed to move with her to residential Torrance. A lover of sports and physical activity, Antony has embraced the move and even gotten involved in motivating Monica’s father to do his physical therapy.

“I wanted you to come into a place that was inviting, but with a muted warmth,” says Kara of the decision to immerse the dining room in Farrow & Ball’s Green Smoke, including walls, ceiling, cabinetry, and fireplace, the latter with a relocated mantel. The table is a 17th C. Spanish Walnut Trestle Rectangular Dining Table via Restoration Hardware, surrounded by Ceremonie Green Mohair dining chairs by Athena Calderone, from Crate&Barrel. The Tambor Buffet, beneath windows that Seamus relocated from elsewhere in the house, is from Anthropologie.

Inside the 1,930-square-foot structure, which is their full-time residence, con-crete floors and pale woods mimic the outdoor palette. A sliding glass wall from Fleetwood opens to an expansive patio and perfect sunset views.

The original and relatively narrow galley-style kitchen was isolated from other rooms, and had suffered damage to its floors.

Previously, the apartment was segmented into many smaller spaces with bedrooms on the perimeter, leaving the main living area in the center dark and cramped.

The primary bedroom features a massive window and rift cut white oak built-in shelving.

Poured polished concrete floors, plaster walls, and the pine ceiling with hemlock beams infuse subtle interest and warmth. The bend in the gathering pavilion follows the site’s topography.

This painting was just intended to be a placeholder in the mock up, but the homeowners loved it so much they commissioned an identical one.

A brick hearth designed by Winter was updated with a gas fireplace. The couple redid the kitchen without enlarging it, in an effort to stay true to Winter’s plan. “We were trying to do a modern version of what would feel right in a house designed in the ’70s,” explains Rick.

The breakfast room’s storage was purposefully designed for the children’s belongings. “We made them very deep cabinets, so all the toys can live in there, and that's amazing,” says Kara.

An all-over black paint job would make a room feel bold and dramatic.

Architect Rick Cook imagined his ideal family home and then found something surprisingly similar for sale on a wooded two-acre lot in Palisades, New York. Cost, indecision, and the scale of the project, which included the original 4,000-square-foot home and a sizable addition, all slowed the pace, but so did the couple’s desire to honor the intent of the original architect, Charles P. Winter, who designed the house in 1972. “It made me think about every move we made,” says Rick.

By keeping the upper sections of the walls transparent, the apartment is flooded with light and there is a view all the way from the patio on one side of the apartment through the bedroom windows on the other side.

The central stair landing doubles as a music room. “In many ways this is the center of our home,” says Rick. “The entire house literally circles it.” Hanging on the wall is a 16th-century Tyrolean wood figure of Christ purchased from the original owners.

An opening in Eva’s closet looks into her bedroom. The photograph she is adjusting was taken by her friend and fellow artist Julian Lennon. “He is the only person I take design advice from,” she says, adding that the circular opening was his idea. On her bed are Rose and Lili, the mother-and-daughter pair who have traveled the world with Eva.

Before: The couple refinished the existing Heart Pine floors throughout.

Used primarily as a storage area, the side of the garage closest to the house opened to a small grassy play area.

BEFORE: The kitchen featured vintage cabinets and black and white tile.

Before: In 2022, Kara Harms and Robin Berenson, co-founders of lifestyle website Whimsey Soul based in San Francisco, bought this 1456-square-foot rental cabin in Arnold, California, with the intention to fix it up themselves.

Before the renovation what is now the main living space of the apartment had been used as an office.

Before: The kitchen, which had no stove or cooktop.

Before: The kitchen had crooked cabinets, vinyl flooring that recalled Kara’s childhood in the 90s, and a stove in the island, which was nearly a deal breaker. But it was too costly to do a complete gut in the room. “It was just not in our budget,” says Kara.

Poured-in-place concrete counters complement rift cut white oak flooring and cabinetry in the kitchen.

“Economy was always at the forefront of all of our decision making due to the high cost of building in California,” explains Kille. But that did not stop her and the design team from selecting strong color choices, like green kitchen cabinets and a bold orange-red front door.