Rodriguez, a designer and architect who runs the studio Agi Miagi, created the pendant lamp and terrariums in the dining area. The space is open to the living area, where Brown’s son, Hugo, sits on a Living Divani sofa. The countertop-table is by Bercy Chen Studio.

The Kelleys furnished the cottage with help from Suzanne’s daughter Betsy Burbank of Betsy Burbank Interiors. Classic modernist icons, such as a Saarinen Womb chair for Knoll, a Herman Miller Eames lounge chair, and an Eileen Grey E1027 side table look at home alongside present-day pieces such as an Encore sofa (which handily folds down into a sleeping surface) from Room & Board and a Doka rug designed and produced by Stephanie Odegard. The Wohlert pendant lights from Louis Poulsen were designed by Vilhelm Wohlert in 1959, but grouped as such, they appear distinctly contemporary.

The kids room is outfitted with built-in bunk beds.

The upper two levels of the home are set back from the street, increasing privacy and allowing light to flow uninhibited from the front clerestory window into the communal living spaces. On the top floor, the children's bedrooms are strategically veiled from the street by the slatted reflector screen.

Debbi Gibbs’s son Blake had one primary design requirement: bunk beds. Specifically, he wanted "two sets of single bunks, one on each side, with a bridge over the top." Gibbs says the Venetian-style arched bridge connecting the two beds exceeded her expectations: "I was expecting a flat platform, but our builder decided to take Blake’s request (to connect them) and made him his very own Bridge of Sighs."

Halfway through a pregnancy isn’t exactly the ideal time to buy a house. So after spending months scouting San Francisco’s Victorians and turnkey cookie-cutters—and almost defecting to the East Bay—Lorena Siminovich and Esteban Kerner decided to put the hunt on hold until after their baby was born. But then one afternoon Kerner, a design director with Old Navy, logged on to Craigslist on a whim. He saw a below-market listing for a single-family home in Noe Valley, their neighborhood of choice. With crumbly brick cladding, peeling rust-brown paint, and rotting garage doors, the house lacked curb appeal. But the Argentine couple was drawn to the interior. "It was amazing and strange at the same time," says Kerner of the 1,485-square-foot, multilevel, midcentury maze. "Mind-boggling," adds Siminovich. "It was just a knot of doors and a series of insane stairs to nowhere."

Builder Ross Percival helped finesse the finely tuned detailing that separates the internal slope from the rock outside (opposite). The Pedro wire stool is by Craig Bond for Candywhistle.

The concrete wall mimics the slope of the hill outside as a reference to early Maori structures that were dug into the land. The simple kitchen has strandboard cabinetry and an MDF island that conceals a fireplace at one end. The ceramic works on the built-in seat at right are by Raewyn Atkinson and Robyn Lewis.

Nate’s Bedroom Now three, Nate occupies coveted corner real estate in a third-floor room with a treetop-level view. “It’s a great space,” Casale says, “although it is the noisiest room in the house because of the street. But by now he’s so used to sleeping through all of the sounds, I don’t think it bothers him.” The brightness of the space is enhanced by an accent wall coated in fire engine–red chalkboard paint (Benjamin Moore Natura flat-finish paint in Vermillion mixed with unsanded grout) that Nate can scribble on—as soon as his parents get around to telling him that it’s allowed. A matching red pendant lamp from the Soho shop Kiosk hangs above a six-foot-tall teepee by Dexton Kids.

Interior designer Anne Sophie Goneau gave an apartment in a former factory a bright makeover. The minimal gas fireplace is from Ortal, acting as a focal point in the room, complete with integrated shelving.

A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe hangs tough on the only opaque wall of the living room. Russell-Clarke and Moolsintong designed the coffee table, and Marcel Wanders gets credit for the Bottoni sofa for Moooi.

The Tower House is made up of tiny houses, clustered at the southern end of the property and clad in white steel panels and western red cedar shingles. Spinning off the living room on the north side of the main house, the children’s study sits separate from the other pavilions. On its upper level, Oxley netting forms a web on which the kids and their friends can sit and read with views of the leafy street and garden.

On the outskirts of Austin, Texas, author Chris Brown and his dog Katsu head to the river; the path was once a dumping ground on top of a long-defunct underground oil pipeline. The green roof was conceptualized by John Hart Asher of the Ecosystem Design Group at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.

Edgeland House, built on a cliff-top lot in Austin by architect Thomas Bercy for lawyer and writer Chris Brown, is topped by a living roof that helps it blend into the landscape. The concrete, steel, and glass house is divided into two distinct public and private halves.

Unable to alter the footprint of the building, the Deams created a backyard living area that nearly doubled the home's living space.

In the kids’ bunk room, Maca designed walnut beds with built-in storage and fabric headboards, and covered each one in hand-knit blankets by Marcela Rodriguez-Chile. The giraffe sconces are from Jonathan Adler. The girls play on a hand-embroidered Olli lounger from Heath Ceramics.

“It’s a great house for a young family—playful, practical and different,” Tribe says. “You can sit on the windowsill in the sun and feed the baby, kids can climb in and out, often through the windows, and you can see everything that is going on.”

Now UC It In the kids’ rooms, the couple has made fine use of UC Santa Cruz dorm furniture—beds, armoires, and desks have gotten a second life off-campus, and Tershy and Zavaleta report that after enduring years of freshmen, the pieces ably stand up to their kids. Outside the upstairs office, an old couch holds court on a small balcony with great views to the south.

An architectural designer and an artist harnessed the collective power of their design firm to remake a dilapidated mid-century gem into a hillside perch for their family.

Salminen built the bunk beds out of birch, Finland’s most plentiful tree species, for the couple’s children.

The living room is further lit by three protruding skylights angled to catch morning and afternoon light.

The home’s original living and dining rooms were updated with custom cabinetry and new fir floors. The living room sofa, coffee table, and lounge chair are from Blu Dot.

French doors in the living room let light into the kitchen and open onto a lovely garden.

The second-floor bridge that leads to the front door flows from the outside in. “Tractor seat” stools designed by Bassam perch on a floor of pristine white terrazzo.

The nuri-en (an exterior overhang) is one of the few Japanese touches on the home's exterior. Paired with the continuation of the interior floor right out into the backyard, the home opens up to the outside quite nicely.

For a slightly funkier feel, opt for a variety of high-design chairs around your table. A less rigid approach to hanging art can also ease the hard lines of much modern decor and add to a more bohemian vibe to your home.

Its living room features an Eames LCW, Bertoia Barstools, and Eames Tandem Shell Seats.

Alex relaxes on the first-floor couch, with is filled with an array of pillows from Crate and Barrel, CB2, West Elm, Muji, and Blu Dot.

Architect Tamira Sawatzky used Ikea components—one-inch Lagan butcher block countertops and inexpensive Ekby Lerberg brackets—when designing the bookshelves along the living room wall in the home/studio he designed for himself and his wife in Toronto.

In Marquina and Font’s living room, a pair of kilim-covered chairs by Philippe Xerri, a chest of drawers by Piet Hein Eek, and a handmade Tunisian rug provide bursts of color amidst the overall scheme of white, ecru, and cream.

Behind the resin screen is the property’s centerpiece: an entry garden that Trainor recast as an outdoor living room. Sparta stacking chairs, a deep-wicker Baia sofa, and matching Baia armchairs, all by Mamagreen, are arranged around a custom concrete fire pit. Orange kangaroo paws lean in from the sides, creating a sense of privacy without sacrificing views. It’s a welcoming space that serves as a casual gathering spot when the weather cooperates.

Overhead, a 102-square-foot skylight fills the interior with daylight that streams through the catamaran net, where Ulla lounges.

The industrial stair leads to the upper level, where the bedrooms, bathrooms, and play space are located.

Surrounded on all sides by a sweeping Canadian hayfield, the 23.2 House is an angular ode to rural life.