A family of cost-conscious Hamburgers converted a kitschy turn-of-the-century villa into a high-design home with a strict budget in place. To unite the quaint masonry of the original villa with the squat, ugly add-on built flush against it, the architects decided to paint the old-fashioned facade graphite gray and then covered the box next door in plain, light-colored larch. Photo by Mark Seelen.

Lisbeth Juul and Laust Nørgaard drew upon their years of experience living on the water to design and build an 860-square-foot floating home in Copenhagen Harbor. The home’s minimal form and furnishings reflect the residents’ desire to downsize following three years on land.

On one side of the house, a white central staircase leads to a split-level landing the Robertsons call "the reading room." "We needed a place to hang out and for the kids to read," explains owner Vivi Nguyen-Robertson. Awaiting the birth of the couple's son, she relaxes in a built-in reading nook in the library.

A family in Hamburg, Germany, turned a kitschy turn-of-the-century villa into a high-design home with a few exterior tricks, including sheathing the exterior in one-dimensional, murdered-out black.

An elegant built-in shelf lies above the bed.

With its green features, durable materials, and clean-lined minimalism, the house represents the new generation of building for its mostly colonial neighborhood.

While it's not your traditional backsplash material, when properly prepared and treated, wood can make for an effective, functional, and beautiful backsplash. Here, the wood backsplash matches the wood of the nearby kitchen island in an otherwise white kitchen with white cabinetry.

According to Paul Raff, the biggest design challenge was creating a functional home that would accommodate the family's regular activities (dining, music, play, homework) all on one level. This was solved by "collaging spaces of different shapes and sizes together, and by interconnecting them all with a very open and seamlessly integrated kitchen." The airy family kitchen features Loire limestone floors, BassamFellows Tractor stools, and an Eames molded plastic chair.

The room also features built-in bookcases fabricated by Earthbound Industries and a vintage Sesann sofa by Gianfranco Frattini for Cassina.

“Keeping the kitchen and bathrooms simple saved money for the important things,” Harkness explains. They went with a soothing color palette and hardware from Reece.

Built-ins reduce the need for furniture.

A matching desk also folds up and away.

The staircase leading to the master suite features aluminum treads supported on stainless steel tubes. "We wanted something that would allow the resin panels behind it to reflect the light from the windows at the top of the stair," Slade says.

Maja demonstrates another use for the guest bed: a trampoline. Behind her is a wall of storage, an essential attribute in the 1,260-square-foot house. Extreme editing of material possessions also helps.

The home was built in only about five months using a hybrid system.

Resident Ty Milford peruses a book by the George Nelson–inspired built-ins fabricated by Big Branch Woodworking

Amy requested a quiet, sunny reading nook with a view; In Situ obliged with a built-in bench housing her collection of books.

Alex enjoys a sun-filled breakfast at the built-in dining table and bench, one of many space-saving designs.

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

The adjoining master bathroom is connected by mirrored pocket door with bronze trim at the frame. The graphic space features a Kaldewei tub, Domus tiles, and Dornbracht faucets and fixtures. A marble vanity top and medicine cabinet sit against the far wall; a compact wood bench slides smartly under the vanity.

A south-facing wall of windows allows for spectacular views and maximizes passive solar heating.

Here's what you need to know before undergoing a building project with a contractor but no architect.

It might not make you popular with your contractor, but for a more streamlined look, Chris recommends forgoing trim. "It lends a clean look with less visual clutter," the architect says. In their house, the doors, lights, cabinetry, and even wall sockets (all 22 by Bocci) are installed without trim. This allows the planar surfaces to recede and do their jobs without unnecessarily distracting the eye.

When not in use during winter, the tub is hidden from the home’s view. The entrance has a sheltered overhang for car parking.

A tight construction budget informed the choices Sean Guess made as he designed a house for a couple in Austin, Texas. Budget-minded materials, like the James Hardie fiber-cement siding, helped hold construction costs to $130 per square foot. Sherwin-Williams’s Cyberspace hue colors the exterior and Parakeet coats the custom kitchen cabinets by Austin Wood Works. The planter is made from Cor-Ten steel.

In Hamburg, Germany, a cost-conscious couple renovated a tiny home with an adjacent minimart. To transform it into a minimal, modernist home, the architects decided to paint the old-fashioned facade graphite gray and then covered the box next door in plain, light-colored larch.

Paul finds a hiding place amongst the bedroom built-ins.

Inside the sleeping cabin, a fireplace built of local granite marks the midpoint between two bedrooms and a bathroom. The floors and walls are wrapped in warm-hued Douglas fir.

A pizza oven and built-in storage spaces line a hallway, saving space. "6,000-square-foot houses for single families don't make sense ecologically—or in my opinion, functionally," says Hirsh. "The house is a nice size for our life—plenty large, but not unwieldy." Photo by Ron Johnson.

The unit can be configured to allow room for meal preparation around a built-in kitchen.

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.

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.

A staircase leads to a roof deck with striking views.

During the renovation, Grimley and Smith added built-in storage to keep clutter in check.

A vintage Molded Plywood Lounge Chair (LCW) by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller sits in front of built-in shelving in untreated hemlock.

A John Baldessari photograph rests on a shelf above a built-in desk just around the corner from the kitchen.