Furniture designer Pat Carson created a plethora of custom fixtures for this guest room, including a riveted aluminum Murphy bed. The best Murphy beds raise and lower easily, often requiring only one hand. This unique wall bed employs a hand-cranked wheel-and-pulley system.

Sally challenges Gibson to a game of backgammon in their second-floor living area.

Two San Francisco art and travel addicts overhauled a loft—and customized a pair of shipping containers—to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions.

In the guest bathroom, Givone installed a hand-chiseled sink made of 17th-century marble quarried from the hills outside of Rome.

The second floor holds three bedrooms and a living area for the girls. Here, Paula, 11, and Sofia, 9, hang out near an IKEA PS 2012 sofa by Nike Karlsson. The slatted wall at left allows a view to the downstairs.

The outdoor room is backed by a gabion wall made of stone. Rainwater runs off the roofs into a channel before being funneled through pipes concealed within it to an underground concrete tank.

A new product in 2014, the BN-171 Watch from Braun is an innovative addition to Braun’s fleet of watches and clocks. Prior to its launch, a fully ceramic watch only existed as a concept product. Through careful design and engineering, the BN-171 Watch is completely comprised of ceramic, including the bracelet-style band. The result is a timepiece with a luxurious look and feel, complete with a weighty presence and a smooth finish.

“The old living room and balcony on the sixth floor were transformed into the master bedroom with an en-suite open bathroom,” Hammer said. Flos lighting illuminates the space above the vanity.

Activity Floor

A 1960s midcentury home in Austin was renovated by local practice Webber + Studio, with a second story added while preserving the home’s original character.

A double-height corridor runs the length of the house, and a slatted wall on the second floor overlooks the space.

The patio at the front of the house offers a view of the balcony that connects the second-floor bedrooms.

In the second floor lounge, a Flex sleeper sofa in Gravel from CB2 sits opposite an antique Chinese coffee table Flanders inherited from her grandmother.

Deyan Sudjic: Badoiiing game, 2012 winner of the museum’s Design Ventura competition for 13-16 year-old D&T students.

"Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." While Fuller’s ultimate goal was audacious, the idea of a real-time simulation in the ‘60s, accessible to before widespread access to computing, was just somewhat less ambitious. Fuller’s game—so-called to be accessible to everyone—was a further expansion of his Spaceship Earth philosophy, and is currently being utilized as a model by the O.S. Earth Institute. (Pictured: Bucky's Time cover from 1964.)

The bedroom takes up the small second floor of the house.

In the Spotlight“I’m a huge proponent of lighting as architecture,” says Nix, who suggests illuminating objects instead of empty space. “Light on an object creates ambiance.” In their apartment, they’ve trained track lights from the Polish company LightArt on the Cube, as well as on the handmade cabinetry. The fixtures, which Novak-Zemplinski describes as “good quality and inexpensive in comparison to more well-known brands,” are also installed at the MoMA in New York. lightart.pl Practical DecorationOne of the secrets to living neatly in a small apartment, says Nix, is lots of storage space. To that end, the couple built big cabinets along the walls. To create a sense of visual unity throughout the eclectic but compact space, the couple hand-carved the tree pattern from the kitchen into these cabinet doors (from a template) using an electric router. It’s more than ornament: The cutouts eliminate the need for jutting cabinet pulls. biolinia.com

Mike's second-floor office features locally-sourced cabinetry. Photo credit: Dale Christopher Lang PhD AIAP

Second Floor Hallway with Open Loft Area

An existing home in San Francisco was renovated by architect George Bradley as his home with Eddie Baba, an attorney. The house was reconfigured to accommodate the entrance on the second floor, but the couple retained the in-law unit as a rental but shrunk it from two floors to one, creating space in which to carve out an office and a guest bedroom on the bottom floor of the main house.

As per the owner's request, the second floor’s open landing receives ample sunlight. The space is used as a study and the home's two bedrooms are situated to the right, their doors just outside the frame.

Designed by Kaj Franck in 1945, the Toto Wooden Dolls are turned from wood and hand painted. Each of the dolls features clean lines and primary colors, which show a conscious continuation of the Bauhaus legacy—something the savviest kids will appreciate. The Toto Wooden Dolls are a historical design gift that make a decorative accent when not in use.

These hand painted wooden balls make Bocce, a game with roots going all the way back to the Roman Empire, an excellent contemporary pastime for children and adults alike.

Anna: Fontspotting Flashcards Ok, we're all magazine typeface lovers here, and this game accentuates our mad font skills. Fontspotting is a flashcard game you can download for free that tests your knowledge of typeface recognition. Created by designers Dustin de Souza and Jessica Witt for their own typographic memory testing, they decided to share it with the rest of us word geeks.

Mixing neutrals with brights is fresh and modern.

More hand-woven lighting by S.C. Vizcarra.

Bower is releasing a series of mirrors that were sourced and cut in New York City.

The Blue Sky prototype house leads a second life as desert getaway for David McAdam and his partner Scott Smith.

Made in the Pacific Northwest with 100% USA beeswax, the Totem Candles are a sculptural take on a home decor staple. Hand-turned on a lathe, each of the candles features intricate elements that are reminiscent of traditional woodcarving.

Solo Hand Pump Sprayer, $15 at solousa.com Florists and landscapers love Solo's built-to-last goods, like this handheld mister that gently quenches any plant's thirst.

The lounge at the back of the entrance level exhibits the wide plank flooring common throughout the house. The view through the windows is made more compelling by the strip of green roofing extending the treetop canopy and the glass curtain wall that climbs just high enough to draw a sightline to the patio.

From the second level of the house, Griffin climbs the stairs his own way.

Maple flooring was used on the second level.

To create a sense of luxury on a budget, the architect ran a thin concrete border along either side of the fireplace flue and flanked it with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The second story has two lofts joined by a steel bridge.