The home’s enclosed courtyard sits at “the heart of the structure,” says Baumann, who resides with his wife, Lisa Sardinas, and eight-year-old son, Oskar. “This is clearly the dominant space; everything flexes towards it.” Baumann cast the square concrete floor tiles himself, enlisting the help of his son. A small, neat patch of grass—a playful nod to the archetypal domestic lawn—is edited down to a charming folly.

The family that works together stays together: Hachigian and Day at his-and-hers workstations in the shared lower-level study.

The bedroom’s vertical, floor-to-ceiling window lets occupants admire the graceful trees outside. A Mini Tolomeo lamp by Artemide sits on the bedside table.

In an industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, a verdant green roof of native grasses, wildflowers, and fruits creates an oasis.

The Gregory Residence is a masterclass example in design. Furnished by renowned New Hope woodworker George Nakashima, this private and rustic home offers ingenious versatility over its 1,644 square feet of space on a 10-acre lot.

Designer Christiane Hogner, Bruxelles

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.

The project’s unique challenges—a tight budget and steep, difficult terrain—led architecture firm _naturehumaine to a creative solution that gave the house its delightfully sculptural appearance. Making the first floor’s envelope slightly narrower than the top one’s saved money while minimizing the amount of excavation required.

The guesthouse hovers above the motor court. "The main area was broken up into four zones: the kids wing, the guest suite, the master suite, and the living-dining room and kitchen, which is a transition area, where public meets private," says Hawkins.

The architects stuck to a gray-scale color palette, installing slate tile floors that softly contrast with the white walls and Eames dining chairs. “It lets the views out the windows become the focus,” Dworkind explains. Doses of pure black accent important features, like the central wall that divides the kitchen and master bedroom behind it from the main living space.

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.

Architect Lorcan O’Herlihy created a remarkable residence for himself and his wife, Cornelia, just off Pacific Avenue in Venice, California. Photos by: Misha Gravenor

Baumann designed the plywood bed frame and shelving unit in the master bedroom, adjacent to an exposed cinder-block wall, a new addition to the structure.

The house is oriented to maximize views of the ocean and Edgartown to the west, and Nantucket and Cape Pogue Bay to the east. Natural sea grasses sourced from the surrounding area cover the roof of the building, providing thermal insulation while also dampening the noise of rain, improving air quality, and helping to manage rainwater flow.

The Baumann family residence in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is all geometry up front, with a rectilinear grid of steel and cypress comprising the structure’s double facade.

The upstairs showers are particularly ingenious: Operable skylights loom above, and perforated, galvanized-steel platforms open up to spacious, sunken bathtubs.

Large sliding glass doors suspend the living room within the landscape for family gatherings or larger events.

The thrill of a home renovation can quickly be diminished by unforeseen circumstances, stretched budgets, and other unexpected issues. The good news is that most of the time these problems can be mitigated, if not avoided entirely, by keeping an eye out for warning signals. Read on as we go through essential home renovation tips to consider before kicking off your own revamp.

The relationship between interior and exterior becomes crucial in the articulation of the residence.

The first floor consists of two long and narrow structures that intersect in an open kitchen, providing distinct programmatic areas and settling into the tree-lined landscape, allowing yards to surround and permeate each room.

Maximizing daylight is only one of the sustainable design strategies used in the Low/Rise residence.

Sleeping nooks that look like the grooves in a block of cheese.

Long, unobstructed corridors along the spine of the house provide ample cross-ventilation during warmer months—as well as sightlines that unite different areas of the home’s narrow, linear footprint. “When you’re in the back of the building, you can literally see the front door of the person across the street,” says architect and resident Philippe Baumann. Thick industrial glass lines the footing of the stairwell with subtle transparency, allowing light to also traverse the space vertically.

A flat roof and all-white interior unifies the home's three volumes.

One North Face tent sits atop a deck; another caps the main building, which contains a kitchen and dining area. Photo by: Dean Kaufman

What was once a single-family residence now comprises five different apartments, all of which are defined by distinct palettes that bring together dreamy, chromatic combinations with colorful ceramic tiles, ceiling artwork, and contrasting furnishings and painted walls.

The landscape Marx designed for Gustavo Cavanellas in Petropolis, Brazil, was revolutionary: rather than a structured garden, he opted for bold swathes of graphic color made from then-unfashionable local plants.

The kitchen opens to the elements thanks to sliding doors from C.R. Laurence. The anigre in the kitchen is the same employed in the master bedroom.

Anne Suttles waters the bamboo muhly, palo verde, strawberry tree, and magic carpet thyme thriving in their Austin yard.

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

In this sustainable home in Silicon Valley, the primary suite opens to a deck and fern garden with large, sliding glass doors.

The Lais designed their house to be theirs forever. As such, they were able to make design moves that made sense for themselves but that wouldn't have high resale value, like the Japanese-style master bathroom in the middle of the second floor instead of off of the master bedroom. The traditional setup features bath stools from Muji for washing off.

Working is much more pleasant when you have natural light to brighten up your space. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a window, then invest in some stylish lighting.

Architecture firm _naturehumaine designed a dream hideaway in eastern Quebec, complete with a centralized fireplace. The modern fireplace was built into a custom, multi-purpose cabinet welded from sheets of hot-rolled steel. It stores firewood on one end with an open shelve, holds a TV, and even acts as a guardrail for the staircase.

In the bathroom, the architects mounted a Kohler sink on a sloped, custom-slate countertop. Since the stone doesn’t hold up well in water, the architect switched to black mosaic tile in the shower. The faucets are from Cabano’s Century series.

In the kitchen, the architects reigned in the house’s high ceilings for a more intimate feel; its lower height also tastefully hides unsightly ducting necessary for ventilation. Beneath the bar sit two Kaysa Black Bar Stools by Baxton Studio. A Gessi faucet complements a Blanco Modex sink.