Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.

Rachel Nolan and Steven Farrell’s weekend house is located a couple of blocks from the beach on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula. Built with passive principles in mind, the low-slung structure features double-thick brick walls for thermal massing.

The Conine family’s Jackson Hole hideaway is completely wired.

Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan collaborated with New Haven, Connecticut, firm Gray Organschi on their midcentury-inspired New York vacation home.

Steve Conine, a software engineer, installed and programmed many of the details himself, like the Dell UltraSharp flat-screen panels inlaid into the entryway of the home.

A narrow building next to the main structure houses storage and an outdoor kitchen.

Rachel Nolan and Steven Farrell’s weekend house is located a couple of blocks from the beach on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula. Built with passive principles in mind, the low-slung structure features double-thick brick walls for thermal massing. The vertical wood cladding is unfinished spotted gum, a local timber.

The long, lean Kobayashi complex includes a bathroom and storage room in the structure on the far right.

A jewel of an island between Crete and Greece's mainland is incentivizing young, vibrant folk to relocate with a pretty attractive deal: prospective residents with young children will get a plot of land, a home, and three-months of subsidized living—not to mention the benefits of the idyllic seaside climate.

A Hunter Pacific fan cools the master bedroom, which has a custom hardwood bed.

To instill a soft juxtaposition to the brick and concrete in the house, Nolan specified Hycraft’s Carramar wool carpet in the living area. Set a step down, the “pit,” as Nolan refers to it, receives the low winter sun but is shielded from harsh summer rays by the deep eaves. The ledge becomes a casual seating area.

A no-fuss sensibility permeates the house. For example, the utilitarian kitchen has laminate cabinets, a stainless-steel countertop, and a Miele stove and dishwasher. The refrigerator is by Fisher & Paykel. No. 18 chairs from Thonet and a reclaimed-hardwood table are stationed atop a vintage Persian soumak rug from Turkey.

Made from Tasmanian oak, the bunk beds, covered in Kivet duvets by Marimekko, can accommodate four.

When building their dream retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Steve and Alexi Conine worked with architect Brad Hoyt to create a smart house that fused technology and design. Like the rest of the home, the living-room furnishings blend high design, comfort, and kid-friendliness, including a table by Isamu Noguchi for Herman Miller, a leather sectional sofa from Four Hands, a cashmere cableknit-covered elk mount by Rachel Denny, and a custom, multicolored cowhide patchwork rug by Linie Design.

It took a craftsman two weeks to shape the fiberglass gelcoat material into the shape of the slide, which connects a hallway off of the kitchen to the first-floor media room.

For Karina Inzunza, Graham Barker, Melana Janzen, and John McMinn (pictured left to right), a shared vacation home on Georgian Bay was the perfect opportunity to pool resources, split costs, and create an extended family unit.

Alexia, Achilleas, and friend Fotini prepare lunch in the kitchen, outfitted with cabinets by Zeyko.

On the north-facing facade, it’s easy to discern where the original glass doors used to open directly to the deck. In spring of 2012, Block Island contractor John Spier replaced the entire wall of glass panels.

In Ibiza, a stunning modern-rustic getaway with unique features like rock walls, is the perfect summer retreat.

Originally, glass doors opened to the deck, but after years of gusty winds, it was decided that a side entrance, protected by a sliding steel door, would be the preferred entrance.

The Conine family engineered the stainless-steel chain-mail mesh curtain system themselves using bedsheets to mock up the design. In the final version, a sunscreen with grommets from Whiting & Davis blocks the blazing sun while standing up to the strong winds of the Jackson Hole valley.

A bright-yellow “R” sign, from a truck that used to deliver furniture from Jens Risom Design, sets off the southern facade. When Jens designed the house, he stipulated that he wanted cedar shingles, not the asphalt ones that came with the original design from the catalog.

Beams extending from the kitchen floor give the impression of an oversize butcher-block stage for a custom walnut-slab table and a dozen Molded Plastic chairs by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller.

The skylights are constantly changing the home's interiors. It's "not just day/night, or dark/light," says Bernheimer, "but the quality of light...changes at any given hour, depending on where clouds are, where the sun is, whether the moon is full or not, all dependent on the time of day, time of year, and so forth."

The living-dining area is outfitted with a Karlstad sofa from Ikea and a fireplace from European Home.

The cabinets are from Ikea, the range is by GE, and the Jenn-Air refrigerator is tucked unobtrusively into the pantry wall. The troweled concrete floor was poured in place by the builder, Peter Knudsen.

Compact bedrooms mean more space for communal areas. The room designed for the Conine’s daughter boasts a custom three-level bunkbed for sleepovers. The wool rug is by Chandra, the bedding is by Coyuchi, the desk is by Misewell, and the chair is by Jonathan Adler.

The restrained 820-square-foot interior is defined by the angular ceiling. Garlick left the prefabricated structural panels unfinished to save on material costs. A True North wood stove from Pacific Energy heats the house. Max, the family’s cat, naps on a vintage rug purchased on eBay.

Light streams from above into the living room and kithen thanks to the home's largest skylight. This skylight isn't one large window but two: one on the eastern side of the double-height volume, and one on the western. In between them are sculptural, pyramid-shaped forms that block and diffuse the sunlight throughout the day. In the words of the architects, they "add to the unexpective quality of light" in the space.

“The site was beautiful as it is,” architect Eric Tremblay said, and he wanted to build a home that had the least impact on the terrain as possible. The lake can be seen on either side of the house, and natural materials—like the Eramosa limestone coating on the exterior—were a priority during construction.

The Risom plot, located on the northern portion of the island, is bordered by a low stone wall, an aesthetic element that appears throughout Block Island.

Nolan and her buisness partner, Patrick Kennedy, strove for a practical structure that reads as a vacation house. They opted for prototypical materials, like cinder blocks for a privacy screen, to hit that note. “It has an association with old beach houses and public buildings at the shore,” Nolan says. After trying different self-supporting configurations, they chose a zigzag pattern. The wall shields the courtyard from wind and doubles as a step for gutter maintenance. During parties, the family likes to place candles into the recesses. “That wall’s got a little bit of poetry, but it’s also doing a few jobs as well.

A UFO bathtub by Benedini Associati for Agape lends an alien touch to one of the master bathrooms.

While the homeowners and their guests have plenty of opportunities to view the outdoors, thanks in large part to windows and doors by Alumilex, an abundance of cedars offers privacy from the outside looking in. “We wanted to cut the least amount of trees,” Tremblay said.

The bedroom is outfitted with only the basics.

Mid-century designer Jens Risom's A-framed prefab family retreat, located on the northern portion of Block island, is bordered by a low stone wall, an aesthetic element that appears throughout the land.