The table is situated in front of the house’s rear wall of skyscraper glass. Laminate kitchen cabinets by Ikea are framed in wraparound bluestone; the 48-inch commercial range is by FiveStar.

Maja demonstrates another use for the guest bed: a trampoline. Behind her is a wall of storage, an essential attribute in the 1,260-square-foot house. Extreme editing of material possessions also helps.

Building with Cor-Ten steel—weathering steel's nom de plume—is a bit like watching a painting slowly come to life over time. Exposure to the elements adds textured hues of red and orange to the material until it steps into a character completely its own. From the Dwell archive, we bring you nine Cor-Ten steel homes with facades that will continue to shift through shades of ochre, amber, rust, and sienna.

A massive white island range is anchored by locally sourced Italian slate floors in black. In this black and white kitchen, cabinets, countertops, and walls are finished in white so as to prevent the space from feeling too dark. To shed even more light, a glass ceiling at the far end of the kitchen presents an open-air feeling.

In keeping with Hayon’s goal of creating a serene and airy home, the master bedroom and sticks to a mostly neutral palette of whites and grays. The bench by the bed is a custom piece designed by Hayon and Klunder and fabricated by their carpenter friend Josep Joffre.

"I put everything that I've always loved into this house," says Tyler—and that includes white tiles edged with gray grout in the bathroom, a design move previous clients had balked at.

Another view of the kitchen. What looks like drawers are not all drawers—some are false cabinet fronts that conceal appliances.

Here's another instance of a bit of bright color (on the countertops) giving an appealing accent to what is an otherwise pretty sedate palette. And if affordability is the name of the game, often a splash of color is more achievable than a spendy material.

'Objects for Cleaning' (2013) by Raya Stefanova, also featured in the Sparks' exhibition, encourages household dwellers to re-consider the beauty of and possibilities for engagement with utilization of sculptural tools, which the designer envisions being left out in plain view as part of the domestic dialogue. Photo courtesy of Raya Stefanova and Sofia Design Week.

The pattern on the sheets (from Macy's house line) are one of the few breaks from the master bedroom's strong minimalism.

"Cleaning Up," Bangkok, Thailand. (2010)

The footing surface after cleaning with a trowel.

The After Kelly’s successful Kickstarter campaign, the first modboxes were produced for the public in 2014. The modbox design is characterized by its use of color, line, and geometry, and features an easy-open door and cheerful red flag. Although originally designed to complement a midcentury modern home, the colorful mailbox will also look striking at a contemporary, modern, or any other home.

No shoes on set keeps the green seamless, nice and clean.

It starts with a stick of mistletoe, stripped clean of its leaves.

The cast-concrete sink, glass detailing, and steel appliances add to the clean, minimal, space-saving feel of the kitchen.

“The structural elements were left rough and exposed while the baths were designed to be clean and sleek,” Severns says. The bathroom is by Henrybuilt.

The master bath is a clean and spare space, a mixture of white and concrete.

Bassom-Fellows Kitchen

“The roof is my favorite part of the house,” says Henrik. “It’s a real challenge to get this lightness of roof with the whole construction in line with the Case Study Houses in Sweden. We have the weather here. Many houses don’t get the proportions right and it looks like a hat on a house.”

Photo promo card by Manjari Sharma, a sample of her "The Shower Series."

A frame from Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series."

A frame from Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series."

A frame from Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series."

A close-up frame from Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series."

Clean tropical modernism in one of Oppenheim's many domestic designs.

From there it's into the industrial washing machines to clean the tarps up for production.

The hardware is my favorite part; it's simple, clean and easy to adjust.

A clean connection detail shows how the parts of the staircase are vertically held together.

The Felds’ new kitchen is clean, modern, and laced with industrial touches (laboratory faucets, lab glass pendant lamps designed by Sand, stainless steel appliances) while animated by materials and crafted elements that radiate warmth: fir floors unearthed from beneath two layers of linoleum; a fireclay farm sink made in England; Carrera marble counters that extend up the walls; walnut shelving; and industrial mechanisms that put the hardware on display, such as the suspended rolling blackboard that conceals the water heater.

A grid of the entire series of Manjari Sharma's "The Shower Series."

A clean and simple bathroom add to the modern feel of the space.

The minimal material palette extends into the bathroom with muted tiles and clean lines.

The simple, clean-lined kitchen and dining area is the heart of the home.