Located in West Village, designer Suchi Reddy constructs a modern family-friendly apartment.

A floor-to-ceiling wall unit accommodates a fridge, stove, oven, and convertible custom cabinetry. The pendant light is from the Multi Luminaire showroom in Pointe Claire, Quebec; the appliances are from Bosch and Miele.

A mattress bed sits atop the seven steps in Michael Pozner’s just-under-500-square-foot abode in Greenwich Village.

No whiteware here. In this moody apartment in Berlin, multi-toned charcoal gray subway tiles make up the backsplash, which contrasts with the pop of rosy color on the kitchen cabinets.

Piet Hein Eek's wooden chairs add a touch of color to the monochromatic Amsterdram apartment of Hunter Hindman and Shelby Carr.

The renovation revealed a 30-foot-deep well beneath the bedroom, which the team half-jokingly considered turning into a fish tank. Instead, they opted for a simple bedroom with plenty of built-in storage.

All of the apartment’s fixtures are by Kohler, including the kitchen sink and faucet as well as the Tea-for-Two bathtub, Vox square sink, and Catalan mirror in the bathroom. The Thassos marble subway tile is by Ann Sacks.

Shibata made the 10-person dining table using $130 sawhorse legs from Maruki Wood Products Company topped with a sheet of birch plywood. A hole in the sliding wall fits over the table, enabling it to be used in both the library and the meeting room. malki.jp A movable wall clad in wainscoting on one side slides along tracks in the dining-room ceiling, dividing the room into a meeting space and a library. The Shiro Simple Modern Pendant lights can be easily removed and reattached after moving the wall. vanilladesign.jp

In an 850-square-foot loft in Montreal, Quebec–based firm Gepetto built understated, custom cabinetry to suit an aging couple's needs. Here, the Murphy bed that folds into a larger walnut storage unit. The wall, which also conceals a washer and dryer, does double duty as a partition between the bedroom and the loft’s entrance. Modern Murphy beds like this one often incorporate sleek lines constructed in dark-toned woods.

The street-facing entrance door of the apartment.

In Seattle's rapidly developing South Lake Union neighborhood, the Art Stable is a classic example of urban infill. Built on the site of a former horse stable, the seven-story mixed-use building carries its history into the future with highly adaptable live/work units.

Of the seven steps in Michael Pozner’s not-quite-500-square-foot aerie in Greenwich Village, five contain drawers. His small set of table and chairs is from CB2.

Ethan Schussler built his first tree house at 12 years old. His tree house in Sandpoint, Idaho, sits 30 feet above the ground and can be accessed by an "elevator" consisting of a bicycle that, when pedaled, ascends a pulley system to the top.

Avoid unwanted surprises and dodge disappointment by following these six easy tips for buying furniture online.

This eye-catching villa in the Netherlands, designed by Next Architects, proves that you can go big and go home as well. While some homes feature hints of color, the Villa van Vijven structure garners well-deserved attention thanks to its warm orange facade that is meant to mimic the tiled rooftops of Holland’s country buildings. The orange of the exterior also carries over into the communal entrance beneath the building, offset by natural elements such as stones adjacent to the entryway.

BSC designed suspended powder-coated and walnut open shelves to demarcate the kitchen from the rest of the living space. The detailing on the cast-iron columns inspired the perforated pattern of the semi-transparent screens.

It is all very mindful. “We proceeded with a philosophy and a vision,” says Chamberlin. “All of us understood that the poetry of what you look at is very important.”

The old wood floors throughout the open-plan space are painted a dark eggplant. The vintage PP19 armchair is by Hans J. Wegner for PP Møbler. The painting above it is by Ruben Toledo, a friend of Peter Fehrentz, the resident. A trio of Tom Dixon lights hangs over the Pirkka dining table, with bench seating by Ilmari Tapiovaara for Artek. The Berber rug is from Morocco, purchased from the Paris shop Caravane.

Architects Anne Marie Lubrano and Lea Ciavarra limited the material selection in their renovation of a town house dating from 1899. The powder room on the first floor is located in a former waiting area (the previous resident used the level for his dental practice). It features a custom Alabastro marble sink and fixtures by California Faucets. The architects kept the original marble fireplace, paying homage to the structure’s history. Benjamin Moore’s Super White paint was applied to the ceiling and the White Dove hue to the walls. "Positioning the faucets on the side wall emphasizes the horizontal," Lubrano says. "Wall-mounted fixtures feel less grounded and materials can continue uninterrupted below. We wanted the spaces to feel light, spacious and light-filled."

Sheer gray curtains by Ulf Moritz for Sahco add to the apartment’s moody atmosphere.

The new building (at right) utilizes traditional forms and materials, but declares its modernity with asymmetrical windows an an exterior shutter with oversized graphics.

Kimball House (Decatur, Georgia) With its amber-tinted lighting and Damask wallpaper, Kimball House—designed by Square Feet Studio—recalls the luxurious hotel lounges of yesteryear, yet resists stuffiness thanks to a few personal touches. The owners integrated their childhood toys and home barware into the decor.

"My directive was to create something very comfortable, calm, textural, and modern,” explains Reddy, who used a palette of reclaimed oak, bleached wood floors, blonde millwork, and white plaster. “It’s a space where you want to linger,” she says. An ExoFly pendant by Laurent Massaloux hangs above a custom WRK dining table surrounded by Morph side chairs by Zeitraum and a banquette covered in Glant’s Liquid Leather.

Showcasing a variety of weaving techniques, the Village Rug demonstrates a style specific to certain rural Moroccan tribes.

Segal’s urban-infill units (like the Titan shown here) eschew typical features like dysfunctional balconies and underground garages.

Cees, Jacquelien, Jillis, Lucas, and Thijske Noordhoek gather on the lawn; Andy Dochter looks out of the window while his wife Miriam stands on the terrace with sons Thomas and Vincent.

Strand Design in Divergent Strand provided everything from dining room tables, benches, storage cabinets, stools and kitchen shelves to the window screens found on homes in the Abnegation village.

Windows in the laundry room offer a glimpse of the garden.

“What could I have that would feel luxurious, would make me feel really great?” muses one of the homeowners. “My husband and I travel a lot in Europe, and we always loved the marble showers. So we put a marble shower up against the window.” The sink and countertop are from Batimat, while the wall-hung vanity is another custom piece by Gepetto.

The sunshine-yellow spiral staircase stands out against the pale tone of the brick facade.

Color Me Rad To give the exterior of your home a chic, contemporary veneer without splurging on expensive cladding, use a bold accent color.

Alex Gil and Claudia DeSimio created a duplex in an apartment building where they’d been renting for years in Brooklyn, New York, and set to work gutting the interior and adding a new rooftop addition clad in panels of Cor-Ten steel.

This 450-square-foot apartment includes an origami-like desktop that unfolds to reveal a perforated-steel divider that allows the passage of computer cables hidden inside the office compartment. This transformer-like cabinet helps maximize limited square footage.

With four levels and five private terraces, the penthouse cantilevers over Beekman Place in Manhattan.