Suzanne and Brooks Kelley at the back of their 1,100-square-foot guest cottage.

The owners toured this home, which surrounds a mature tipu tipu tree, while visiting relatives for the day. The brick is original to the 1947 construction.

Sliding doors by Quantum were made to look like the original panes that couldn't be saved, and they lead to a fire pit outside.

Throughout the house, Curtiss mixed natural materials with industrial ones. Downstairs, fir and cedar wood on the doors and open-joisted ceiling balance the colder, industrial feel of the concrete floor and steel staircase railing. In the dining room, a pendant lamp from RLM Lighting hangs above a table that combines Cherner table legs with a new white laminate top. The yellow chairs are by Tolix.

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.

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

The kids make all the fun they need in their bedroom. Their bunk beds and shelving were bought at Ikea.

While she was pregnant and on maternity leave, Susanna tackled creative D.I.Y. projects to decorate Varpu's room, including stitching these festive cotton flag banners.

Like many enterprising designers, Kyle Hoff and Alex O'Dell took their new product idea to Kickstarter to get their business up and running. The Detroit-based duo's invention, the Floyd Leg, was met with overwhelming support and received about 14 times its initial funding goal. Using clamps to hold a surface in place, the Floyd Leg allows users to create a table using virtually any surface material. Prices start at $179.

Impressed by the simple elegance and understated forms of his work, Hans and Florence Knoll added Nakashima’s work to their roster. This table was designed in 1946 with a low-sheen finish and live grain patterns.

Collage, designed by Stephen Ormandy: “The design was influenced by the floating nature of lily pads and the opportunity to combine individual sculptural shapes into a cohesive useful object”.

In the dining area, a one-of-a-kind table with a reclaimed Carrara marble top by NET—themultidisciplinary design firm of architect Alejandro Sticotti, with whom Nicolas works—is surrounded by prototypes of the company’s Board chair. The family dog, China, sits on a floor made of travertine tiles.

The kitchen features stainless steel prep counters, a Samsung stove, and Panasonic over-the-range microwave. The room is bordered by two full walls of windows, allowing light to flood the space at all times of the day. A custom birch butcher block table furnishes the family gathering space.

Still, it’s possible to remove or relocate non-structural walls in a home with good bones.

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.

To access a secret play area in the 2 Bar House by Feldman Architecture, children clamber up climbing holds purchased from a local sporting goods store.

The Premaydena House by Misho+Associates was designed as a "box within a box," in which two interior structures—an open-plan living space and two en suite bedrooms—sit within an exterior envelope. Inspired by the region’s fiery orange lichen and the indigenous waratah shrub’s bright flowers, the colorful exterior panels are made of heavy-duty galvanized steel to guard from Tasmanian winds, which can reach up to 60 miles per hour.

In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.

A white lacquer Ligne Roset dining table is joined by a wood bench from Room & Board and bent-plywood Cherner chairs. Baconcube 4 by Cindy Wright hangs on the wall.

The compact living area is just off the kids’ room.

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

The children’s rooms, which are reserved for family and an extended network of friends, feature more custom Crasset-designed beds set against a vivid blue backdrop, courtesy of the French paint brand Zolpan.

The second bedroom, shared by two young children, offers a private space away from the rest of the home. The owners and architect alike made sure to maintain the apartment’s original features, including the ceiling moldings.

Original 1925 details include stucco molding throughout the house. A Small-Design Circle table and stools echo outdoor greenery in the room shared by Elliott and Mateo, ages 12 and nine.

In the shop finishing table legs for the Canteen Table

Four easily assembled pieces of wood join together to create Hans J. Wegner's timeless 1944 Peter's Table and Chair set. In maple or in beech wood, this furniture set can withstand life's knocks.

Their parents’ seldom-needed stuff (luggage, winter clothes) is stashed in the higher cabinets. “Believe it or not, we have empty cabinets,” says Nikolova. “There’s space for everything.”

Exclusive to Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. and made right in their Portland factory, this hand-spun steel, powder coated side table is the perfect modern-industrial addition to any home.

Homeowner Simon Doonan stands next to the front door. "We have flamboyance, and we’re not inhibited about anything. [Architect] Gray Organschi gave [the house] that intellectual rigor needed to make it beautiful. We were well matched."

The Birch Pavilion sits atop a 14-by-26-foot platform composed of hemlock and pressure-treated timbers. Photo courtesy of Moskow Linn Architects.

Nadarajah decided to put windows where a backsplash might go in order to bring extra light into the kitchen. "The birch cabinets were custom-designed to be the length of a wok and the height of a cake dome," she says.

The outside deck, made of local celery-top pine, welcomes both humans and the natural landscape further into the house.

The Huguenot Range. "James came up with a great new method for a modular table structure which utilizes a relatively thin steel profile while being incredibly strong," Pedersen says "As we began exploring this, we realized that the tapering leg reminds us of the old French Huguenot furniture, and decided to name the range after these pioneering people. We made the first bench in this range as a gift for my mother, who comes from a long line of French Huguenot farmers."

"I'm a foodie, so this kitchen [holds] a lot of fun dinner parties," Nadarajah says. The island is a deeper shade of birch.

Can't find the right table for your space? Another option is to have a custom top cut for a recycled base, which is what the Deams did for their outdoor dining area. They had an existing Scissor table base by Bay Area designer John Randolph sitting unused, so Chris had a piece of hardy soapstone (it stands up to high temperatures) cut to match by Fox Marble. A subtle facet at each corner plays off the base's design and lends a more intimate feel to the long table. For a fraction of the cost of a full piece, the bases of design classics are often available on Craigslist and eBay.

Though most of the home's interior comes without a splashy designer's name attached, the bathroom is kitted out with a toilet, sink, and bath/shower from Jasper Morrison's line for Ideal Standard. The cabinets are from an Ikea kitchen system.