“The home is quite small, but designed in such a way that you don’t feel it,” Herrin says. Lift-slide openings by Quantum Windows & Doors, which were fabricated fewer than 50 miles from the house, make the main living space seem larger.

The kitchen table.

The courtyard acts like an outdoor living room, where the Arnolds’ daughter, Josie, plays freely, safe from nearby traffic. The family dines here most of the year at the custom-designed wood-and-steel table. The picnic table set reappropriates the century-old eucalyptus tree that once grew on the site.

Tall indigenous wetland grasses grow fecund, right up to the border of the saltwater swimming pool.

Maggie Treanor waters plants around her rural home.

Mila designed the home’s concrete pool, which is finished with a custom plaster. The pool area includes sleek chairs from Cast + Crew.

A 41-foot-long heated saltwater pool includes a submerged tanning ledge. The hot tub was created using concrete and stucco. The outdoor area includes lounge chairs from Jøna’s curatory, Cast + Crew.

A Bay Area landscape designer works her yard like a jigsaw puzzle, packing a bevy of distinctive destinations into a steep and diminutive plot. Photo by: Morgan Rachel Levy Read the entire article here.

The table’s base, which itself is an additional storage container, rolls easily into place to support the surface.

Mary Henning and Ann Wansbrough's renovation of a semidetached cottage enables them to use 75 percent less town water than the average two-person home.

Located just off the kitchen, this room was originally designed for dining—the adjustable Ligne Roset Crescendo coffee table can be raised to 28.75 inches—but most days Bill and Abbie prefer to eat outside or at their casual Caesarstone-topped kitchen island. Today the space serves as a sunny reading spot and guest room, with a convertible futon (from Ligne Roset, since discontinued) and a set of leather-and-steel Paulistano armchairs from Design Within Reach.

Located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, the original 1916 factory building was converted to rental units in the 1980s and condominiums in 2005. The extensive drop ceilings were probably cost-saving heating measures by the original owner. With the apartment facing the less-exposed North and West elevations, the architect had to maximize the amount of sunlight the space could admit.

The Best Watering Can Although they admit that a watering can is a luxury (any old pitcher will do the trick) having a good watering can does make the chore easier. They recommend the Haw Bosmere V115 5-liter because it “produces a gentle rain the spindliest seedlings could love.”

Eujin: Soma Water Move aside Brita and Bobble, because there's a new water filter in town. And it's 100% biodegradable and sleeker than that decorative object perched on your living room table. The simple and elegant design (which immediately reminded me of Dieter Rams) is all thanks to great talents Markus Diebel, IDEO's design director, and incase's cofounder Joe Tan, who designed the curved beauty and Manual's Tom Crabtree who took the helm on packaging. The release date is near, so I'd hop to it if I were you.

The Pixo Desk Lamp is a consistent Dwell Store best seller. Designed by Pablo and Fernando Pardo with sustainability in mind, the lamp was created with a small footprint and a compact, energy-saving LED light. The ultra-efficient lamp features a swiveling light shade that makes it easy to focus and redirect light as needed. The Pixo Desk Lamp is currently on sale for 15% off at the Dwell Store until 10/23/2014.

The ground floor’s adjoining staircase, as well as the kitchen cabinets and tables, can be adjusted depending the homeowner's preferences. “The design of the house is an attempt to respond to [French novelist] Georges Perec’s question, ‘We should learn to live more on staircases. But how?’” Simpson says.

Elsewhere, the blocks accommodate other uses, like support for a built-in table and benches in the kitchen and a rooftop observatory (next slide) for watching the sun set over the Ilaló volcano.

In the backyard, Umerani and Fashandi decided to limit the lawn to minimize water consumption.

If their everyday mantra sounds something like "reduce, reuse, recycle," these eco-conscious gifts won’t weigh on their conscience.

They installed water-saving artificial grass on their patio for pup Moxy to enjoy.

A black side table rests outside the bedroom hallway.

A freestanding tub from the Water Monopoly.

At night, the entire studio glows like a lantern, its light amplified by the reflection in the seasonal pond. I

Shōden-ji (2004) - Precursors to what we might today call “user-centered design,” Buddhist temples are scaled to the 1:2 ratio of the tatami, the rush mat designed with the human form in mind.

A skylight carved into the spa building appropriately fills this relaxation zone with natural light.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

The simple, pared-down aesthetic and the open-ended time frame of the project—along with the couples’ building and design skills—helped Odgård and Lyng Hansen achieve their renovation on a miniscule budget, with a project outline that ebbed and flowed with Odgård’s professional successes in product design.

In the living room, guests gather on a matching ebony sofa and daybed from Hudson and a pair of Jorge Zalszupin lounge chairs. An Yves Klein coffee table—filled with the artist’s signature International Klein Blue pigment— provides a vivid burst amid otherwise organic tones. The walnut-and-bronze cabinetry is a custom design.

A New York City apartment with walnut upper kitchen cabinets has a stainless-steel backsplash that ties into the finish of the fridge and the lower cabinets. The walnut dining room table does quadruple duty as a work station and storage unit, and an eating and entertaining area.

In the kitchen area and throughout the home, Mads Odgård, shown here, and Mette Lyng Hansen mixed Odgård’s pieces, such as the Odgård kettle for Raadvad and custom table, with Ikea basics and the Workshop pendant lamp by Louis Poulsen.

The dining room leads onto a terrace with a built-in concrete table and barbecue that are original to Raman and Schaffrath’s design. A pair of Hardoy butterfly chairs from Knoll are positioned by the pond.

A custom table surrounded by NET’s Museo chairs and poplar stools provides a space for the Sarmiento Tovo boys, Manuel, 5, and Julián, 3, to play with the toys their mother makes.

On his patio are a table and chairs from the 1968 Ozoo collection by Marc Berthier for Roche Bobois.

You'd never designed for special needs children before the Bancroft residence, how did you interpret the clients' needs? Jack Hawkins, architect: I would like to say I did tons of research, but I didn't. I went with the parents' lead. I took most of my design cues from them. They're the immediate caregivers, they know their children and about autism. They did all the research and told me what was important.