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Collection by Erika Heet

Small Summer Getaways

Summer is all about indoor-outdoor living on a pared-down scale. Check out these surf shacks, vacation homes, and guest pavilions that are small on space and big on style.

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While shopping for containers, Hill was instantly drawn to this one’s existing blue color and chose to buy it and leave it as is. Poteet added floor-to-ceiling sliding doors to allow light in, as well as a cantilevered overhang to shade a window on the left side, which houses a small garden storage area.
While shopping for containers, Hill was instantly drawn to this one’s existing blue color and chose to buy it and leave it as is. Poteet added floor-to-ceiling sliding doors to allow light in, as well as a cantilevered overhang to shade a window on the left side, which houses a small garden storage area.
In a family’s pint-size lake retreat in Austin, Texas, ipe siding and decking meet concrete floors and steeland-glass windows. Stained cyprus was used for the ceiling and soffit. The custom barn-style sliding door conceals the family’s collection of giant inner tubes and other boating equipment. Photo by: Kimberly Davis
In a family’s pint-size lake retreat in Austin, Texas, ipe siding and decking meet concrete floors and steeland-glass windows. Stained cyprus was used for the ceiling and soffit. The custom barn-style sliding door conceals the family’s collection of giant inner tubes and other boating equipment. Photo by: Kimberly Davis
"I think an architect’s job is to celebrate what people really care about and simplify and streamline the rest.” —Page Goolrick
"I think an architect’s job is to celebrate what people really care about and simplify and streamline the rest.” —Page Goolrick
The small, angular guesthouse that architect Todd Saunders designed for Steinar Jørgensen is defined by a patio that appears to sit in a cutaway in the spruce-clad volume. The red PS VÅGÖ chair is from Ikea.
The small, angular guesthouse that architect Todd Saunders designed for Steinar Jørgensen is defined by a patio that appears to sit in a cutaway in the spruce-clad volume. The red PS VÅGÖ chair is from Ikea.
Part surf shack, part modernist dwelling, this 2,500-square-foot house on Sweden’s southwestern shore is no fussy show home. Board storage is integrated into the design, so residents just grab and go—and nobody worries about sand or wet footprints brought in from the beach on the concrete floor.
Part surf shack, part modernist dwelling, this 2,500-square-foot house on Sweden’s southwestern shore is no fussy show home. Board storage is integrated into the design, so residents just grab and go—and nobody worries about sand or wet footprints brought in from the beach on the concrete floor.
It was the surf and the artsy vibe that attracted Eric Grunbaum to Venice Beach, California, 18 years ago. An avid surfer and creative director for an advertising agency, he thrives on lively environs. So it’s no surprise that he turned to the Los Angeles–based architect Barbara Bestor to design a house for him near the Pacific. Bestor, the chair of graduate studies at Woodbury University School of Architecture, has a formidable reputation in Southern California for her bohemian modernism, and for Grunbaum, she created a 2,000–square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath home that harbors a traditional sensibility with a contemporary heart. From the deck off the master bedroom, Grunbaum looks across his front yard. Bestor designed the second story to float over the ground “like a cloud.” Grunbaum guides us on a tour of his modern surf shack.
It was the surf and the artsy vibe that attracted Eric Grunbaum to Venice Beach, California, 18 years ago. An avid surfer and creative director for an advertising agency, he thrives on lively environs. So it’s no surprise that he turned to the Los Angeles–based architect Barbara Bestor to design a house for him near the Pacific. Bestor, the chair of graduate studies at Woodbury University School of Architecture, has a formidable reputation in Southern California for her bohemian modernism, and for Grunbaum, she created a 2,000–square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath home that harbors a traditional sensibility with a contemporary heart. From the deck off the master bedroom, Grunbaum looks across his front yard. Bestor designed the second story to float over the ground “like a cloud.” Grunbaum guides us on a tour of his modern surf shack.