Just Right: 5 Homes Tailored To A Tee

Whether centuries old or new, houses big and small, stateside and abroad, have been tailored to meet their site and occupant needs.

Step Inside Geographically Distinct Homes From New York To Portugal

Brooklyn, New York, Home by Bo Lee Architects

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Natural light, room to grow, and a con­nec­tion to and respect for the environment were top priorities for the gut renovation of a young couple’s four-story Cobble Hill town house. Natural materials abound, particularly in the cherrywood-paneled solarium-dining area, which extends into the re­imag­ined garden, pulling sunshine into the adjoining kitchen with white-oak cabinetry. The top floor, above the main suite’s spa-like tiled bathroom, contains child and guest bedrooms, the latter with artwork by local painter Sara Woster easy to convert for more offspring when the time comes.

---

Palm Springs, California, Ranch by Studio Todd Raymond

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Desert modernism meets mid­century Brazil in a three­-bedroom, three­-bath ranch designed in 1964 by architect Charles Du Bois. What began as a decoration commission morphed into a full renovation for the client, a boomer couple that uses the residence as a weekend retreat in the offseason. Retaining the original concrete breeze-­block, the house was returned to its studs, then outfitted with old and new furniture and art pieces, including the dining area’s custom table by James De Wulf, Thierry Jeannot chandelier, vintage Brazilian chairs, and Malcolm Hill mural, and a vivid Oswaldo Vigas painting above the den’s cozy Avery Boardman sofa.

---

Warsaw, Poland, Cottage by Noke Architects

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

For a creative couple seeking proximity to nature but also urban buzz, a microscopic garden plot near the city center provided the perfect opportunity, albeit with serious limitations, namely that a permanent structure could not exceed 35 square meters. Deliberately hidden behind greenery, the spirited tidy cottage is indeed amid the elements. Tile encircles the bathroom, which, despite looking open-­air, is glass roofed. Cobalt switches to rose red in the combined living/ kitchen/sleeping area, where plywood paneling is stained with natural oil.

---

San Francisco Home by Studio Vara

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

With a winding stair and stark-­white, contemporary envelope, it may be hard to believe this seven­-bedroom home plus carriage house were built in 1894 in the Queen Anne style—a revitalization, in collab­oration with Cello & Maudru Construction, proving that preservation rather than teardown can result in something entirely fresh and modern, one that minimizes energy and material waste. Now, original moldings join orb­-shape kitchen counters in crisp Corian, monolithic terrazzo bathroom vanities, and a gallery-esque dining room with wide oak floor planks and a sculptural Lindsey Adelman chandelier.

---

Costa Oeste, Portugal, Summer Home by Pura Cal

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The renovation of a seaside summer home retains its original mid­century flair while integrating such local materials as marmorite ter­razzo for flooring and cobogó, a ceramic screen typically used on facades but here partitioning the kitchen. Guests are greeted with nautical stripes in their sleeping quarters, while, in the living room, the family mascot not only gets to lounge on a 1970’s Portuguese sofa reupholstered in côtelé velvet near a vintage bamboo lamp shaded in new Pierre Frey fabric but also has a custom commissioned portrait of herself.

Arnau Reyna Unveils A Stool With Sustainable Flair

Spanish studio Arnau Reyna debuted a stool at this year’s Hábitat València fair that, in a thrillingly concise move, has just two components: an upholstered cylindrical ottoman and a tubular-steel armature that sidles below to provide even footing and extends ramrod-straight to terminate in a half-moon backrest…which itself doubles as a carrying handle. Tibo comes in three sizes and is available just as the ottoman and with optional casters. (The collection also encompasses three side tables made from the same powder-coated steel tubing.) The design neatly reflects cofounders Ramón Arnau and Mariola Reyna’s ethos of versatility and functionality and is sustainably made, too, at Mobboli’s workshops in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. ¡Viva España!

This Design Duo’s Lisbon Apartment Is A Study In Ceramics

“It’s about materiality, too,” Garcé continues, “using marble, stone, wood, and ceramic.” The last is particularly important, appearing as massive sculptural legs on the Mimi coffee table, for example, or as wall tiles with a painterly glaze—developed with artist-potter Lígia Guedes—in the kitchen. Similar tiles in a larger format are used as baseboards in the dining room. The clay is locally sourced, as is the chest­nut that tops the coffee table, composes the chunky Hélios sofa, or panels a wall in the study. Local design and art includes a Studio Haos aluminum dining table and several Pedro Batista paintings, while Korean American talent Minjae Kim, a frequent collaborator, is represented by characterful chairs, tables, and lighting that epitomize the apartment-gallery’s creatively eclectic spirit. 

Ceramic Details Abound In Olivier Garcé and Clio Dimofski’s Lisbon Home

Stay Awhile At This Luxurious Vacation Compound In Southampton

The parents live on one continent. One of their grown sons and his own family live on another. The other son and his crew make their home in New York. But the big, far-flung group wanted to spend summers under one roof. So the parents bought a piece of waterfront land in a quiet corner of Southampton, on the South Fork of Long Island, New York, and commissioned Bates Masi + Architects to build a house that could accommodate everyone, approximately 10 people—often more when guests join the gatherings.

But it wouldn’t be just any house. With so many people involved—spanning three generations, with the children ranging widely in age—the program grew to be extensive, eventually including an indoor pool, a gym with a sauna and steam room, communal home office, home theater, playroom, and guest bedrooms. Accommodating it all would involve a staggering amount of square footage. “The challenge was how to integrate this program into the landscape,” recalls Interior Design Hall of Fame member Paul Masi, who cofounded the local firm with the late Harry Bates, devising homes that live lightly on the land. The solution for him and Bates Masi partner Aaron Weil sprang from “the idea of weaving,” Masi adds.

A Home By Bates Masi + Architects and Bart Verhelle Interiorarchitect

Rising only two stories but encompassing nearly 18,000 square feet and resting on a stone plinth so it’s lifted above the flood plain, the home’s interiors and exterior are indeed woven together in a patchwork. It is divided into five glass-sided sections with terraces and courtyards in between—like the courtyard on the north side of the house that leads to the front door. And with each section bordered on three sides by open areas, the interiors gain maximum daylight, cross-ventilation, and views. “With the doors open, indoor and outdoor are all connected into one,” Weil explains.

The outdoor spaces aren’t only on the ground level, either. The upper level cantilevers over the lower, providing room on the second floor for outdoor showers and intimate decks enclosed by screens made of live-edge cedar boards. The cantilever also shades and shelters portions of the ground-floor open areas, which are outfitted with lighting, radiant heating, and cooking equipment so they can be in use—and members of the family outside—even when the sun goes down or the temperature drops. An expansive terrace of Italian Repen marble skirts the south-facing rear of the house, extending the living space out into the landscape.

Embrace Quiet Luxury In This Vacation Compound

The same marble was used liberally inside too, helping tie the expansive house together and to its setting. The stone—which has “subtle, muted” veining, Weil notes—is found on ground-level flooring, a towering fireplace in the double-height living/dining room, and in the steam room, where it’s finished three ways: flamed for walls, honed for seating, sandblasted for floor. Elsewhere inside, Bart Verhelle Interiorarchitect, a Belgian firm that had worked with the clients on previous residences, took the lead in specifying furnishings and collaborated on finishes. Director Bart Verhelle chose lime plaster for walls and the enclosure of a spiral staircase leading from the underground parking area to the two guest bedrooms. In the kitchen, the plaster merges nearly seamlessly with a sleek Corian backsplash. Oak was used for stair treads and upstairs flooring. The limited palette of materials creates a calm, neutral backdrop that “at the same time, radiates sufficient character,” Verhelle says.

A sophisticated selection of furnishings adds to the feeling of quiet luxury. Some pieces—such as slender aluminum pendant fixtures by Michael Anastassiades and comfy sofas by Francesco Binfaré—are used repeatedly. Verhelle also designed a few items himself, including an 18-foot-long walnut dining table that provides plenty of room for everyone in this clan—plus a couple of guests—to gather round. Eight so-called Hand Grenade pendants, designed in 1952 by Alvar Aalto for the Finnish Engineers’ Association Building in Helsinki, light the table from above.

The understated setting focuses attention on views of the landscape as well as on the owners’ prized pieces of art. It also allows the life of the family to take center stage, which, after all, was the whole point of the house in the first place. Upstairs, four bedrooms and baths for the grandkids are clustered in their own wing, encouraging cousins to bond during summers together. Another wing is devoted to two suites for the sons and their wives. The eldest members of the family have their own domain, of course. The house was carefully designed to accommodate them as they age, with thresholds that are level with floors and an elevator tucked inconspicuously away—all to ensure that they can comfortably use the house, and join in all the fun, not only now but for many years to come.

Walk Around This Vacation Compound On Long Island

BATES MASI + ARCHITECTS: RYAN BERRY. MICHAEL BOUCHER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. RADIANCE LIGHTING: LIGHTING DESIGN. SL MARESCA & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. DULA: WOODWORK. MEN AT WORK CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT EDRA: SECTIONALS (LIVING AREA, THEATER). CONDEHOUSE CO.: CHAIRS (DINING AREA). ARTEK: PENDANT FIXTURES. MICHAEL ANASTASSIADES: PENDANT FIXTURES (STAIRWAYS). BENCHMARK: STOOLS (KITCHEN). MIYAZAKI CHAIR: ARMCHAIRS. DuPONT: CORIAN BACKSPLASH. ARCWAYS: CUSTOM STAIR (GUEST STAIR). BASSAM FELLOWS: STOOLS (POOL BAR). SUTHERLAND: CHAIRS (DECK). AGAPECASA: TABLE. KASTHALL: CARPET (THEATER). PROFILS: PANELING. MINOTTI: SIDE TABLE. BOFFI: TUB (BATH­ROOM). OUTDOOR SHOWER COMPANY: OUTDOOR SHOWER. THROUGHOUT SPARK: CUSTOM FIREPLACES. LEVOLUX: WOOD SIDING. POLICH TALLIX: METAL SIDING. SCHUCO: CUSTOM DOORS, CUSTOM WINDOWS. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.

Bask In Roman And Williams Guild’s Latest Lighting Collection

Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams Guild—the much-fêted set designers of Practical Magic and the creatives behind such zeitgeisty interiors as the original Ace Hotel and the Boom Boom Room, to name a select few—launch a collection that showcases lighting as art and science. Among the 12 fixtures are the Porto sconce, which features thick, denser-than-usual glass that offers greater flexibility for bulb selection; the Lentium sconce and table lamp, with brutalist cast-bronze armatures hand-sculpted by Alesch; and Seed, a pendant of tinted rippled glass. Six of the designs exploit the skin-softening glow of lit-from-within alabaster, such as the fluted Petra egg pendant. And for the first time, Roman and Williams Guild, which is located in New York, staged an off-site exhibition, “A Certain Slant of Light,” featuring 100 of its original lighting designs, including the new dozen, at the former New York Mercantile Exchange in TriBeCa from November 19 through December 1.

Inside Maharam’s First Global Showroom At The Mart

Textile manufacturer Maharam launches the first of four new global showrooms, a 1,500-square-foot space at The Mart in Chicago spotlighting residential offerings from the Edelman, Knoll Textiles, and Maharam brands. Designed by Neil Logan, Architect, it’s gallerylike, with gridded wooden cubbies along a sidewall and a 25-foot-long central table with a Piet Mondrianlike display of colorful, textural samples. Other highlights include a custom credenza with slide-out drawers for displaying leathers and a sunlit confab table—the ideal spot from which to peruse new fabrics, like Sir Paul Smith’s indoor-outdoor slubbed-yarn polyesters, Ladder Stripe and Stepped Plaid.

Design Reads: Indulge In Chic Italian Interiors

Current designers are here as well. Mirta Ottaviani’s Puglian vacation retreat mixes limewashed white with vibrant accents and has ample outdoor access. In contrast on the very next page, a Tuscan home by Baciocchi Associati is earthier, its walls made of cocciopesto, a concrete dating to ancient Rome. 

As for Ponti, his work appears in the form of Casa di Fantasia, a Milan apartment he originally completed in 1953 for an art-collecting couple that’s considered, as the name implies, one of his boldest commissions. It was recently reinterpreted by David/Nicolas studio founders Nicolas Moussallem and David Raffoul, who not only pre­served the surrealist style but also added it to with such elements as French oak boiserie inlaid with tiger stripes—exactly the sort of joy-sparking detail il signori Ponti spoke of when imagining the perfect Italian interior.

Technogym Showcases 40 Distinct Benches To Honor Anniversary

Since its founding in 1983 by Nerio Alessandri, Technogym has been laser-focused on wellness, through its high-end sports equipment, sustainability-driven Italian headquarters, and commitment to social and economic health for all; in fact, its Instagram hashtag is #letsmoveforabetterworld. In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the brand launched “Design to Move,” an exhibition that debuted during Milan Design Week last spring and culminated this fall during London Design Festival at the new Piccadilly boutique (its concept and that of all stores worldwide developed by Antonio Citterio). The project, a collaboration with architect Giulio Cappellini and curator Bruna Roccasalva, showcased 40 Technogym benches interpreted by 40 international creatives, the U.K.’s Kelly Hoppen, Nigeria’s Myles Igwebuike, and Spain’s Patricia Urquiola among them, 15 of which were auctioned via Sotheby’s in September, and the remainder available for purchase at Technogym.com, all proceeds going to UNICEF. So far, more than $300,000 has been raised.

Cook Like A Michelin-Star Chef With These Kitchen Designs

Having conceived modules for two Michelin-starred chefs, it’s safe to say cabinetmaker Søren Hvalsøe Garde knows his way around a kitchen. The foodie and founder of his namesake firm has spent years in the workshop alongside studio partner Søren Lundh Aagaard perfecting heritage techniques from the Danish masters: Finn Juhl, Mogens Koch, Hans Wegner. At Denmark’s 3daysofdesign last spring, the duo hosted “Crafted to Last,” an exhibition at their showroom curated by interiors stylist Pernille Vest. (Portuguese furniture brand De La Espada was a co-exhibitor.) Visitors encountered a range of hit products including copper/ash and new zinc/beech iterations of Framed, a kitchen design from 2020; Solid, a 2013 island defined by oiled heart-oak planks; and Minimal, a 1999 model made of elmwood with a quartzite worktop, its shadow-gap around the drawers forming an elegant graphic expression.