Whether you’re battling noise or are short on space, these guides can turn your office into a distraction-free zone.

In the master bedroom, a small, cramped closet was replaced with a wardrobe that is partially obscured by a slatted wooden screen that was built by Metalworks & Design Studio of Seattle. "The idea was you see through it, so in a sense it doesn't feel like a small space," Smith says.

An added benefit of installing the skylights was adding headroom over the day beds, Smith says.

Bamboo flooring and custom built-ins—fashioned from medium-density fiberboard with a white-lacquer finish—brightened Gavin and Sheila Smith’s 650-square-foot attic. Gavin Smith designed the blackened-steel balustrade, which has cable inserts and a walnut handrail.

Charrier transformed a cramped attic into a sunny dining room with Vitral windows and white-tinted pine floors by Dinesen. The Sara table is by Hay, the Shell chairs are by Charles and Ray Eames, and the artwork is a hand-printed textile she had framed.

Attic Bird Houses in Cloud White, Tomato Red, and Robin’s Egg Blue by Studio Chad Wright, from $350.

In the master bathroom, the Smiths worked with a Boston-based company, Artaic, on the mosaic tile.

Smith designed the custom cabinets, which were fashioned from medium-density fiberboard with a white lacquer finish. There are three drawer heights. "The faces are consistent but some, when you open them up, are triple-height," Smith says. "So that helps with things that are really large, like sleeping bags or camping stuff or whatever. They're three feet deep, so it goes into the knee wall, which is really handy. So you get lots and lots of storage."

The house is filled with pieces from Small-Design, the children’s furniture company cofounded by Charrier, including the transformable Cube, which does double duty as a chair or table in the top floor kitchen-dining area.

Both of the children have access to the playspace, which has cork flooring. "Rian and Melissa thought, "How do we want to live our lives? How can the shape of the house create the backdrop for how we live and interact, and how our kids will grow up?" says Feldman. "They were really proactive and I think that's how we created this really special place."

The ladder from the kitchen leads to this "sleeping box," a tucked-away room perfect for visiting relatives, or as Heierle discovered during a trip to work on the project, visiting architects. When light streams through the skylight and down into the hallway below, it adds an "almost mystic element," says Heierle.

A small bed for Maja is tucked under the eaves on the other side of the photo wall.

Attic-“I named the collection Attic because I've always dreamed of finding myself an attic apartment, somewhere cozy and with a view of my city. Rather than bring the birds to the birdhouse, I wanted to bring the birdhouse to the birds, so I started with a foundation and elongated the archetypal house straight up to the sky,” said Wright.

“We tried to envision just two floors, but once summer arrived we decided that we were going to tear the roof off and put on that triangle with windows.”

Before the renovation, the attic was a cramped, cluttered space—a feeling reinforced by the presence of a brick chimney that was later demolished and the relatively low 7.2-foot ceilings.

Here's another attic suite: a peaceful and minimalist space.

With limited space, Heierle maximized the living area with a multi-functional kitchen island. The side facing the living room acts like a bar; a sink and countertop extend the kitchen area; and the counter across from the entryway often holds key or packages when the client arrives home. "It's a miniature of the entire apartment," Heierle says of the centerpiece, "one object having multiple uses." The island, along with all the oak furniture and custom casework in the apartment, was all built and designed by a friend of the owner who lives in the same rural Romanian village where he grew up.

The McDonalds enjoy the extra space afforded by their attic addition.

The view from the open bath, which allows someone to soak in the sunlight without feeling totally exposed, pleased the owner, a civil engineer who deals with water works for a living and wanted something unique for his own home.

Discreetly wrapped around the center of the unit, the open bath and shower create a continuous flow within the apartment. The manner in which the bath extends out into the living space, uncommon for Romanian homes, "profits from the generosity of the space," says Heierle.

Before the renovation, the tiny terrace was more symbolic than practical. Since a modification of the historic building's facade was off limits, Heierle carved out space from the interior to expand the unit's outdoor footprint.

A different perspective of the terrace shows where the wall was knocked down to provide more outdoor space. As the balcony connects with the wall, a small seat was cut from a gap between two planes.

The main issue Lucerne-based architect Andreas Heierle faced during this attic renovation in Bucharest, Romania, was bringing natural light into the cloistered, closed-off rooms. His client, a bachelor in his 30s, wanted a floorplan that was flexible and open, a radical departure from the cramped, dark upper levels normally found in these types of apartment buildings. Heierle installed large windows, which flood the space with sunlight and provide a view of the church across the street.

The calming, minimal bedroom follows the same design direction as the rest of the home; simple color contrasts, with the earthiness of the oak playing against the stark white walls, and custom woodwork. The house benefits from radiant heating in the floor and insulation and soundproofing in every wall.

A white-painted steel-plate staircase leads from the third floor to the attic level.

The attic has space for a compact sleeping area, which can host adventurous guests.

One of the bedrooms at the attic level features a teal scheme that defines the in-built study-cum-bedhead and bathroom-cum-wardrobe area.

Tuckey borrowed space from the former attic to create one open living space with a ceiling that complements the pine. “I think it’s important to have a small space, a medium space, and a big space in every project,” he says.

“The steeply sloping site provides three unique spaces—the living attic, the pool deck, and the garden terrace.”

Patients stores their suitcases in the attic at Bolivar State Hospital in Bolivar, Tennessee.

A very steep and narrow flight of stairs led to my favorite part of the room: a big bathroom tucked into the attic, with original wooden beams arching overhead.

"The attic bathroom was non-existent," explains Claude. "We created an attic shed dormer out the back of the house and added a tile shower, floor, and beautiful restroom/vanity area." The designers also added a large closet to the attic.

The home’s elevator features a glass cab and exposed mechanical elements. The already high Victorian ceilings were extended vertically to the top of the attic’s pitch, where a skylight was added.

A snug attic room.