Living Room: Updating your living room can be as simple as a few new side tables. Try the exquisitely reproduced Albers Nesting Tables made in solid oak and MDF topped with lacquered glass tops in sumptuous shades of green, yellow, orange and blue.

Josef Albers's nesting tables represent one of his earliest, most functional exercises in color theory. Designed in the late 1920s while Albers was at the Bauhaus, the oak-and-glass tables are still available today.

Cartagena Nesting Tables by BoConcept, $539 from boconcept.com/en-... This tiny trio from BoConcept offers the surface area of three tables for the footprint of one.

Not only are these black resin Nesting Tables elegant, but are non-porous and scratch-resistant. Also available in dual pour and sold individually or as a pair. Castors and custom heights available upon request.

The kitchen table.

The courtyard acts like an outdoor living room, where the Arnolds’ daughter, Josie, plays freely, safe from nearby traffic. The family dines here most of the year at the custom-designed wood-and-steel table. The picnic table set reappropriates the century-old eucalyptus tree that once grew on the site.

3 Blocks is a group of nesting tables that can also work as stools.

A modern reproduction of a 1926 set of tables, these nesting tables show Josef Albers’s mastery of color. The set was originally built for the Moellenhoff family in Berlin, Germany. Although their home was destroyed in the war, this piece, along with many others, was saved and brought to the United States prior to the outbreak of World War II.

The Dado Cube set from Fat Brain Toy Company includes ten plastic blocks which can interlock to create countless surreal structures.

A Bay Area landscape designer works her yard like a jigsaw puzzle, packing a bevy of distinctive destinations into a steep and diminutive plot. Photo by: Morgan Rachel Levy Read the entire article here.

The table’s base, which itself is an additional storage container, rolls easily into place to support the surface.

Located just off the kitchen, this room was originally designed for dining—the adjustable Ligne Roset Crescendo coffee table can be raised to 28.75 inches—but most days Bill and Abbie prefer to eat outside or at their casual Caesarstone-topped kitchen island. Today the space serves as a sunny reading spot and guest room, with a convertible futon (from Ligne Roset, since discontinued) and a set of leather-and-steel Paulistano armchairs from Design Within Reach.

The Pixo Desk Lamp is a consistent Dwell Store best seller. Designed by Pablo and Fernando Pardo with sustainability in mind, the lamp was created with a small footprint and a compact, energy-saving LED light. The ultra-efficient lamp features a swiveling light shade that makes it easy to focus and redirect light as needed. The Pixo Desk Lamp is currently on sale for 15% off at the Dwell Store until 10/23/2014.

Available in the Dwell store, these Nest 9 Plus polypropylene and plastic nesting measuring cups by Morph for Joseph Joseph are durable and suited for precise and colorful cooks.

The ground floor’s adjoining staircase, as well as the kitchen cabinets and tables, can be adjusted depending the homeowner's preferences. “The design of the house is an attempt to respond to [French novelist] Georges Perec’s question, ‘We should learn to live more on staircases. But how?’” Simpson says.

Elsewhere, the blocks accommodate other uses, like support for a built-in table and benches in the kitchen and a rooftop observatory (next slide) for watching the sun set over the Ilaló volcano.

If their everyday mantra sounds something like "reduce, reuse, recycle," these eco-conscious gifts won’t weigh on their conscience.

A black side table rests outside the bedroom hallway.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

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.

A New York City apartment with walnut upper kitchen cabinets has a stainless-steel backsplash that ties into the finish of the fridge and the lower cabinets. The walnut dining room table does quadruple duty as a work station and storage unit, and an eating and entertaining area.

In the kitchen area and throughout the home, Mads Odgård, shown here, and Mette Lyng Hansen mixed Odgård’s pieces, such as the Odgård kettle for Raadvad and custom table, with Ikea basics and the Workshop pendant lamp by Louis Poulsen.

The dining room leads onto a terrace with a built-in concrete table and barbecue that are original to Raman and Schaffrath’s design. A pair of Hardoy butterfly chairs from Knoll are positioned by the pond.

A custom table surrounded by NET’s Museo chairs and poplar stools provides a space for the Sarmiento Tovo boys, Manuel, 5, and Julián, 3, to play with the toys their mother makes.

Prepare lounging snacks with this set of three ash wood bowls. Stained in soft, soothing hues, the set is then waxed and polished for deep glowing finish. It is now on sale at the Dwell Store.

Set of four stacking tables. Ca. 1927. Ash veneer, black lacquer and painted glass. Gift of John and Andrea Weil in memory of Fritz and Anna Moellenhoff: 1) 15 5/8 x 16 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. 2) 18 5/8 x 18 7/8 x 15 3/4 in. 3) 21 3/4 x 21 x 15 3/4 in. 4) 24 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 15 7/8 in. Photo: Tim Nighswander. Image licenced to Eleonore Hugendubel The Museum of Modern Art by Eleonore Hugendubel Usage : - 3000 X 3000 pixels (Letter Size, A4) � Photo: Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY / Art Resource

Song's walnut nesting bowls are available from Kaufman Mercantile.

On his patio are a table and chairs from the 1968 Ozoo collection by Marc Berthier for Roche Bobois.

You'd never designed for special needs children before the Bancroft residence, how did you interpret the clients' needs? Jack Hawkins, architect: I would like to say I did tons of research, but I didn't. I went with the parents' lead. I took most of my design cues from them. They're the immediate caregivers, they know their children and about autism. They did all the research and told me what was important.

“There are a lot of well-loved, well-used pieces that were destined for this house,” Andrea says of the couple’s furniture collection. They placed a solid alder Homestead table from Whittier Wood Furniture in the office, which also overlooks the pond.

Jasper and Maeve take five. One of their requests was for their dad to create a secret door to connect their bedrooms together.

When the family wants to eat meals inside, they can sit around the dining table on Eames chairs.

Often, the text that accompanies the images will provide information that is otherwise unable to be communicated through a photo—the thickness of a mattress, the way a fabric shimmers in sunlight, even suggestions on how to pair the item with other pieces.

An adjustable dining-room table is relatively common in Europe, according to the couple, who ordered their hydraulic legs from Switzerland. They allow for up to four presets, so the Garneaus have one for dining, one for working, and two for cooking, depending on who’s the chef. The table itself was designed by Robert’s firm, Studio Garneau, and has five drawers in it, some big enough to store Robert’s oversize flat artwork. skf.com Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!