What the original building lacked in period detailing, it made up for with massive interior spaces, natural light, and a hardy palette of wood and raw brick. Working with these loft signatures, David developed the hall’s liveable side, adding under-floor heating, and a gigantic kitchen on the upper floor running the width of the building, with a 37-foot-long solid walnut counter on top of stainless steel cabinets. This unites the dining, cooking and social spaces that run the length of the front façade on the upper floor.

Get the whole family involved in the kitchen, whether it be teaching young ones a tried-and-true recipe or exploring a new dish together.

Alex Gil and Claudia DeSimio created a duplex in an apartment building where they’d been renting for years in Brooklyn, New York, and set to work gutting the interior and adding a new rooftop addition clad in panels of Cor-Ten steel.

A closer look at a Wallpiercing.

A closer look at the typography.

A couple takes a minimalist approach to their Brooklyn apartment, focusing on supple materials, subtle gradations of color, and custom finishes by local craftsmen. The Mandayam–Vohra family gathers under one of Workstead’s signature three-arm chandeliers, shown here in its horizontal configuration. Bartenschlager designed the white cabinets and is responsible for the walnut counters both on the kitchen island and near the stove.

Blacktop originally wrapped around two sides of the building. Today, 10-foot-high sliding windows let in abundant light, and overlook a lush garden with mature trees to the rear, and a 22-foot-wide side yard with water features and alluvial boulders brought in from Long Island. “We had to move them with a huge forklift and almost crushed a car with one of them when they were being lifted off the truck,” says Berridge.

The gutting of the ground floor uncovered a former union meeting hall, with a steel beam spanning 45 feet. “With renovations on buildings like these,” says Berridge, “you never know what you’ve got until you start doing demolition. Once we started, none of us could figure out what was holding the building up, because there were no posts. It was quite something. That’s what allowed us to have this huge open space on the ground floor.” Bartlett didn’t want plugs that would protrude below where paintings hung, but the building code demands a certain amount per room, so the architect designed recessed ones that interrupted the plane of the wall as little as possible.

A closer look at "Power Up."

A closer look at the Gramophone Chandelier.

The MLamp from Juniper Design was inspired by iconic English coal miners' lights—though this mobile source of illumination uses efficient LEDs and its integrated battery can recharge 2,000 times without degrading.

Architect William Carpenter, glimpsed in his second-floor design studio, built Lightroom 2.0 to sit unobtrusively among its 1920s neighbors in Decatur.

Exterior of the backyard studio Riley McFerrin of Hinterland Design built for his client, a children's book illustrator.

A covered walkway provides a sheltered passage between the main house and studio. The fire pit is used during social gatherings.

“I made a very conscious decision, when I realized that the house with nothing in it was such a fantastic work of art,” says Greg Wooten, “to go out of my way to pull back and only select pieces that complemented the architecture and would allow both the house and the furniture to breathe.” The place is furnished minimally with vintage finds he chose for the rooms over time.

Designer in Brooklyn, New York "The pieces in the space are a combination of industrial reclaimed finds and bespoke, often both in the same item. The cabinets were a vintage medical find, powder-coated and set up on welded stilts. The mirror was commissioned from Made In Chinatown. Ceiling color and texture came through lots of trial and error in order to avoid the heavily toxic and arduous process normally involved in staining concrete. The mezzanine sign which marks the space was acquired through a long chain of inside jokes from a friend—I'm still unsure exactly of its origins, possibly the bygone New York Subway signage system."

Phillips designed Judith a stark white, glass-fronted art studio.

Bartlett’s bedroom is in a ground-floor addition that was built onto the back of the building about 50 years ago. It is adjacent to her painting studio.

Here's a closer look at the Otto bookcase.

The bathroom tiles were a point of contention: Bartlett wanted Mexican tiles, while Berridge’s design favored a bare-bones, Donald Judd-like approach in keeping with the warehouse experience. The compromise was that he used industrial sinks and designed the stainless-steel hardware to be as utilitarian as possible, and commissioned a set of plain tiles with a strict color palette of five yellows, five blues and five whites, derived from Bartlett’s work. She then arranged them on one wall as she would one of her installations. That way, both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms have Jennifer Bartlett originals on the wall.

The Bradford table plays to the theme of individual pieces that can be grouped as a whole. Prices range from $610 for the triangular wood-topped table to $1,290 for the stone hexagon; the bases are blackened steel.

"In general, we're inspired by things that are well-crafted and beautiful," says Ellis. "That could be an Art Nouveau cabinet, a Shaker chair, a building by Peter Zumthor, an image of a quarry, a sculpture by Donald Judd, or the pattern on a quilt. We are always looking and absorbing."

This brass credenza ($7,600) is one of the collective's first pieces. The warm metal has seen a surge in popularity, especially this year as designers experimented with ways to make modern design feel fresh. "We looked at a lot of modernism and a lot of postmodernism during our education. Our teachers armed us with the ability to design clean, simple, functional objects and we still intend to do so; however, like previous generations of designers, we are beginning to find our own voice for our own time," says Ellis.

The cabinet opens to reveal a bar station. For teetotalers—or those lacking closet space—there's also an armoire version of the cabinet. For more information, visit Egg Collective's website.

Senior Editor Kelsey Keith.

In the sleek kitchen, the white Ikea cabinet uppers seem to disappear into the wall, while the bases get a distinctive custom walnut wrapping. Flanking the cabinets are open bookshelves, which provide secondary function as a spacial divider for the children’s play area. A Dornbracht faucet sits on a slab of Vermont Olympian White Danby marble, which is also used for the island and backsplash.

Architect Alex Gil and his wife, Claudia DeSimio, affixed a 750-square-foot addition to the roof of a 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse, transforming their cramped third-floor apartment into a modern duplex. The original fireplace remains, but has been stripped down to exposed brick, as have the surrounding walls, creating an almost wainscot-like design of exposed brick with flat white drywall above.

A closer look at a Chilewich bamboo rug .

The demolition of the upper floor, which had been carved up into many small rooms, revealed an expansive loft with an assortment of old skylights. Bartlett often works on a scale that demands the viewer stand 10 feet back to see it best. When each new piece is ready, it comes up here for the second part of her creative process, further work and viewing. The sofa is a custom plywood piece Bartlett designed for her last home.

In the upper-level bathroom, tiles painstakingly fired by DeSimio cover the walls and ceiling.

The ensuite master bathroom features Ann Sacks slate floor tile, contrasted with white Carrara marble that wraps the Kohler Tea for Two tub. The shower features tile from Heath Ceramics.

An intricate coverlet over a white cotton duvet on a Design Within Reach bed adds a pop of color in this clean, simple room.

The 12-sided Haynes mirror ($2,800) slips into solid brass or nickel-plated brass brackets. "Many of our designs are made with materials that will patina over time," says Ellis. "For example we intentionally don't laquer our brass pieces so that they will age as they are used. We think this speaks to the lifespan of our objects."

"We think that there are many styles appropriate for this current moment in time, not just ours. But, like many other designers, we are currently very interested in exploring how contemporary design can still feel warm, feel like it was made—not manufactured—and feel like something that is worth keeping," says Ellis.

The Hawley side table ($1,850) has a hexagonal solid brass top and a base made from pietra cardosa marble. Use solo or group a fleet together to form a honeycomb-like coffee table.

The open plan living room and kitchen areas utilize natural materials, from reclaimed oak flooring to custom-made cabinetry. The Oscar sofa by Matthew Hilton from Future Perfect marks off the living room area.