The kids room is outfitted with built-in bunk beds.

The upper two levels of the home are set back from the street, increasing privacy and allowing light to flow uninhibited from the front clerestory window into the communal living spaces. On the top floor, the children's bedrooms are strategically veiled from the street by the slatted reflector screen.

Have your children help you go through their book collections and pick out what books they haven't read yet. If you are able to safely leave your home, you can coordinate curbside dropoff book exchanges with friends.

The office, which is also Lily’s room, features a Babyletto crib and a Smileywalls wall decal applied atop Normandy paint from Benjamin Moore.

A view of the kitchen's back wall shows the bright marriage of the yellow Fireclay tile backsplash with incoming light from the adjacent sliding door and the row of windows just above the hanging Boca Raton blue cabinets. Basked in light, the new kitchen displays an organized and cheerful aesthetic.

Rather than go with the expected hardwood treatment, Scenario installed springier vinyl flooring on the home's top level. Its open circulation incorporates areas for study, eating, and lounging—a key fulfillment of the client’s directive for an engaging environment that maximizes contact and interaction.

A copper mobile by JF Jones hangs over a Leander crib and a vintage Moroccan rag rug in the nursery. The rocking chair is by Hans Wegner for Fredericia.

A pool located just outside the dining space and master bedroom echoes the home's angular forms.

The couple’s ten-year-old twins have connecting rooms next to a play space furnished with Aalto stools, a table from Artek, and a Nanna Ditzel rattan hanging chair purchased at Interstudio.

On the second floor, the sliding door to one of the kids’ bedrooms lies flush with a cork-wrapped wall. In the bedroom, a colorful custom Maharam window shade rests above a window seat with a Kvadrat cushion.

“The backyard, which was kind of the focus of the project, was overgrown and quite disconnected from the house itself,” said architect Nigel Parish. The glass doors of the addition open onto a patio and lawn where the kids can play.

Now UC It In the kids’ rooms, the couple has made fine use of UC Santa Cruz dorm furniture—beds, armoires, and desks have gotten a second life off-campus, and Tershy and Zavaleta report that after enduring years of freshmen, the pieces ably stand up to their kids. Outside the upstairs office, an old couch holds court on a small balcony with great views to the south.

The Tower House is made up of tiny houses, clustered at the southern end of the property and clad in white steel panels and western red cedar shingles. Spinning off the living room on the north side of the main house, the children’s study sits separate from the other pavilions. On its upper level, Oxley netting forms a web on which the kids and their friends can sit and read with views of the leafy street and garden.

Strips of white-oak flooring line the interior of the studio, created by designer Jeff Vincent and PATH Architecture. The George Nelson Bubble Lamp Saucer pendant is available at the Dwell Store; the kitchen cabinets and appliances are by Jenn-Air. All accessories are from Canoe and Relish.

This sleeping area includes a bookshelf and sconce.

The historic apartment has been updated throughout with white paint and minimalist accents, adapting its rustic character to the 21st-century.

The duo added custom redwood cabinetry on the dining area side. The pendants are from Birchwood Lighting.

PATH partnered with local woodworkers Benjamin Klebba, of Phloem Studio, and Bren Reis, of Earthbound Industries, to build furniture and cabinetry into the walls.

A previously empty space became a nature-infused breakfast nook with a built-in bench seat of wood slats painted white. Arthur Umanoff chairs join a live-edge wood slab table. The lines of the Dansk salt and pepper shaker are mirrored in the vintage lamp, with a cardboard shade found at the Long Beach flea market.

For the living room of their house in Genk, Belgium, Michaël Verheyden and Saartje Vereecke mixed furnishings of their own design with classic pieces. Their G55 sling chair and Michel Ducaroy’s Togo sofa for Ligne Roset are both clad in black leather.

Magid selected lively Whitby wallpaper by Mini Moderns for Linus’s room, along with Oeuf’s Perch bunk bed. The homeowner found the light-up rocket-ship mobile on a trip to Mexico City.

Salminen built the bunk beds out of birch, Finland’s most plentiful tree species, for the couple’s children.

In a home in Los Angeles, a child's bedroom has been outfitted with custom carpeting and millwork, a reading nook under a staircase, a mini door and window, and a magnetic chalkboard wall.

Playful stylistic details, such as two-toned dining chairs from Latitude Nord and a creative lighting fixture from Au Courant, are juxtaposed with the rest of the home’s tranquil elegance.

This view shows how the space was previously divided.

Inside the Wibowo house in Puyallup, Washington, the space is spare but infused with color because "painting is the cheapest way to decorate." Twelve-year-old Tabitha's room is pink. Photo by John Clarke.

The kids play in the family room just beneath the stairs.

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design updated a split-level ranch house in Portland by introducing a clean white palette and vintage furnishings.

Averse to the idea of a television being the centerpiece of a space, the owners instead opted for a clever alternative in the library/media room. Continuing the theme of movable and multi-functional design elements, a rolling chalkboard panel was designed to conceal the TV when not in use. Throughout the home, the family’s furniture is an eclectic mix of purchased, custom built, inherited, and self-made pieces. The room is accented with a reclaimed red office chair with custom white oak armrests made by Scholz.

“Everything was chosen to create harmony and be coherent,” says interior designer Frédric Clairoux. “Every piece has a reason.” Much of the furniture was sourced from the same contemporary furniture showroom, Latitude Nord, including the Arper chairs, Tibetan carpet, sofa, and table.

An office nook and library can participate in the open plan or disappear behind pocket doors.

The "rumpus" and craft rooms hide a range of secrets—pin-boards, blackboards, sliding doors, cubby holes, and toy storage. A ladder in the study leads to extra storage space or a place for the kids to hide.

In 1962, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Arthur Witthoefft won the AIA's highest honor for a home he built in the lush woods of Westchester County. Having fended off a developer's wrecking ball, Todd Goddard and Andrew Mandolene went above and beyond to make this manse mint again.

For their A. Quincy Jones house in Los Angeles, architect Bruce Norelius and his partner, Landis Green, retained and restored core elements, such as the living room’s redwood paneling and concrete-block wall.

Her memory remained sharp, says DeMarie. “She always asked what was going on with these tiny moments in the house.”

In this renovated midcentury in Seattle, the living room’s fireplace has been powder-coated orange to complement the vintage furnishings, including a test bomb discovered at an antiques mall.