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.

Adrian Jones and Allison Silverman sit at their reclaimed wood dining table. Eco-mindedness is a matter-of-fact part of everyday life for the couple and the designer, Garrick Jones. “Sustainability comes from flexibility and planning for the long term,” Garrick says. “This is not a glammed-up loft.”

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."

When the door to the deck is open, air flows unhindered from the kitchen to the living room. Garrick expanded the radiant heating and added a high-efficiency Fujitsu Halcyon ductless forced-air system for cooling.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Photo by Adam Golfer

Photo by Frank Oudeman

A large OSB structure with skylights, a bathroom, an enclosed baby’s room, and a master sleeping alcove dominates Ryan and Showalter’s Brooklyn loft.

The Torroja pendant light by David Weeks hangs in the dining area, standing in sharp relief to the home’s original brick, now painted white (in Benjamin Moore Paper White)along with the wooden floorboards (in Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter). Radiant heat underfoot means a toasty interior even without a surfeit of textiles. Photo by Matthew Williams.

The architect brought the solid walls of certain rooms down to 7’ 8”, filling the remaining 4’ 2” with glass. This defining feature allows sunlight penetrate deep into the core of the space. The clients say the bright reds, oranges, and yellows of sunsets race across the ceiling and white walls.

This living/dining space is the social center of the apartment. For that reason, the architect designed the cabinet walls as a unifying visual feature that anchors the two rooms and provides practical storage space.

Another view of the library and media room. Photo by Francis Dzikowski/ESTO.

Tom Givone's current weekend abode, nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, is—so far—his capstone project, a synthesis of personal taste, material experimentation, and historically sensitive restoration: a living laboratory for how to bring the vernacular past into the present.

Overhead cabinets now can be easily swung open for ease of access. The kitchens are priced at IKEA’s usual retails. A 10 by 10 foot kitchen fitted with Sektion cabinets will range from around $1,300 to $2,200, excluding appliances.

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Visitor Center, Location: Brooklyn NY, Architect: Weiss Manfredi Architects

Black and white kitchen tiles add visual interest to this stunning modern kitchen by IKEA.

Passive Voice-Julie Torres Moskovitz created New York’s first passive house using a tightly sealed envelope around an aging Brooklyn brownstone’s exterior. Her clients requested a home that was simple and low-maintenance and Torres Moskovitz brought them just that, with the latest energy-efficient appliances and minimalist palette. Photo by: Hai Zhang

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.

The bathroom, located just adjacent to the kitchen, features a pattern of gray and turquoise tiles that climbs from the floors up the walls. They serve as a burst of color among the predominately white walls elsewhere, transforming the bathroom into one of the apartment’s most striking spaces.

This Murphy bunk bed, the Lollipop IN model from Resource Furniture, stows away flush to the wall when not in use.

From Sweden’s studio esinam, the Landmarks Architectural Print Series is a thoughtful collection of portraits of famous international cities. The Brooklyn Landmarks Architectural Print includes architectural drawings of three iconic places in the city including buttresses from the Brooklyn Bridge, the tower of the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower, alongside examples of classic brownstone townhomes.

The careful coordination of color continues in the kitchen, where the gray and white marble backsplash, lit with faint orange lights, mediates between the ashen column and ochre cabinets.

These no-fuss landscaping ideas yield gardens that practically take care of themselves.

How have customers’ expectations of retail experiences shifted in the last few years? What do they come to expect from brick-and-mortar establishments? Has e-commerce impacted what you’re trying to accomplish with Boerum House and Home? The world is a very different place than it was 15 years ago before the era of everything available to everyone always via the internet. The reasons to go to a store versus a website are simple: to have an experience, to get information from a knowledgeable sales person, to touch the product in person and to discover something you didn’t expect. The Boerum House and Home is a retail destination that offers a smart collection of items not found under one roof anywhere else in the world.

Opposite the master bedroom on the top floor lies the sunny kids’ bedroom. A double-sided wardrobe provides storage, and functionally divides two separate sleeping areas. Further storage is placed along the window wall that faces the backyard.

The living room leads to a private outdoor patio. Before the renovation, the slightly below grade area was in plain sight to passersby, as it lays adjacent to the public walkway into the building. This less-than-ideal setup was addressed in the redesign by adding a slatted cedar perimeter fence, along with tall trees and shrubs. Clever hidden doors conceal patio storage under the entry walkway.

Uncovering the original concrete surfacing of the columns, which are unusually thick thanks to the building’s original industrial function, was a major undertaking. Covered in successive layers of white paint, a team worked for over a week to expose the concrete, revealing the space’s gritty character.