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.

A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe hangs tough on the only opaque wall of the living room. Russell-Clarke and Moolsintong designed the coffee table, and Marcel Wanders gets credit for the Bottoni sofa for Moooi.

The extensive use of natural wood on nearly every surface makes the inside of The Barn feel like an extension of the landscape outside.

form-ula seeks to explore the "culture of performance" and how it relates to the "performance of culture." Here is its design for a "sushi-teria" in the center atrium of the Citigroup Center building in midtown Manhattan. Image by Barkow Photo for form-ula.

Rocks that were unearthed while digging the foundation make up the hardscape in the rear, beyond the open porch. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the house,” says resident Laura Sohn. Sanders Pace Architecture finished the exterior in western red cedar treated with Sikkens Cetol.

The crumbling stone walls of a 17th-century farmhouse in the remote countryside of Dumfries, Scotland, presented a unique renovation opportunity for Lily Jencks Studio and Nathanael Dorent Architecture, the teams behind this project. Rather than demolish the old walls, they inserted a crisp, modern home within them, so as to emphasize the site's history and passage of time.

Outside, a triangular saltwater pool overlooks breathtaking views.

A yellow epoxy floor matches the sconce in the tiny bathroom that sits under the staircase.

Heva was designed by A6A and manufactured by My Little Loft. A spacious deck and large glass doors allow for seamless indoor/outdoor living.

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

Just adjacent to the house is Whitlock's small shed which houses many of the tools that he used to build the home.

Light floods the living and dining rooms, meaning Schneider rarely needs to turn on a lamp during the day.

A Bright Idea After build-out, the family realized they needed a light for their dining room. Tanya and Jackson took to their storage container, where they found fake flower branches they had bought at Ace Hardware, and paired them with a crumpled string of old Christmas lights. “We plugged it in and that was that,” says Tanya.

Despite a tight site, light floods into every room, including the restroom in the guesthouse.

Natural bamboo flooring was used throughout the home, as well as dimmable LED lighting. The house incorporates a hybrid heat pump water heater, which draws in ambient heat from the surrounding air, moves it across condenser coils, then transfers it into the tank to heat the water. This device creates the same amount of hot water as a traditional electric water heater, but reduces water-heating expenses up to 62%.

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

It's tough to be productive when you're uncomfortable: the 11+ Bottle Humidifier ($90) is a superbly sculptural device that can improve any office atmosphere, visually and literally. Its ultrasonic nebulizer automatically deactivates when its water is completed, ensuring no energy is wasted.

The hallway terminates in the bathroom, flooded in natural light.

Installation started at 11 a.m. and the second floor was stacked by 3 p.m. later that same day.

Casa Volta, located in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, sits among a lush landscape mere steps away from the Pacific Ocean. The almost 1,300-square-foot plan is made of six rectangular areas—alternating between open terraces and the three covered structures.

Architect Michael Cobb used Douglas fir harvested from the site throughout the house, such as on a sliding door outfitted with Swiss Rod SS hardware from the Real Carriage Door Company.

Large Natural Wreath If you really prefer the tradition and smell of an evergreen wreath you can still modernize with scale and styling. via Habitually Chic. Photo by Virginia MacDonald.

Because the residents wanted lighting “to fade away,” the home makes the most of natural light and minimizes fixtures. Each room has two sources of daylight, usually in the form of floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights. Fluorescent lights integrate into the surface of the skylights so they don’t protrude into the space.

Still, it’s possible to remove or relocate non-structural walls in a home with good bones.

The triple-glazed windows provide plenty of natural light.

Every space, including the living and dining sections seen here, has “furniture, objects and artworks that bring us memories,” says Smud. The bench, coffee tables, and dining table are by the late Alejandro Sticotti.