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.

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

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.

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.”

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.

Available in the Dwell store, the Cherner Children's Table with Storage is a sturdy and supportive workspace made of molded birch plywood and laminated birch.

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”.

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.

The couple's daughter reads in the cozy nook just inside the front door painted in a vibrant blue from Benjamin Moore. Of the storage area below, Fredrik says, "In Sweden, there's always a place to sit and take off your shoes. This is a version of that."

The birch-plywood cabinets, floor storage space, and banquette were all designed and built by the couple.

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.

Manuel Raeder's coated birch plywood X Chair serves both as a stool and as a modular shelving unit suitable for books and magazines.

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.

The wall beneath the stairs holds hidden storage, including an Enomatic wine dispenser and Sub-Zero refrigerated drawers.

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 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.

A 24-by24-foot Cor-ten-clad pavilion tops the three-story addition.

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.

Architect Grant explains that the recessed orange wall with built-in storage shelving is a counterpoint to the view of Boston in the opposite direction.

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.

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.

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.

Davor (with his wife, Abbe, and son, August) designed the main living and dining pavilion as a double-height space to increase its perceived volume, and added high cubbies for extra storage.

The wooden box is as functional as it is finely crafted, with room for clothes up top. Each niche holds treasures from travels, family keepsakes, books, and more.

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.

Hynam built additional storage along one angled wall of the bedroom loft and beneath the skylight.