The living room floor is made of Australian cypress with a tung oil finish. A Solas wall-mounted fireplace by Hearth Innovators and a curious chair, by Putra Salahin in Bali, complement the sun-drenched space.

Croyle reclines on a Soft Dream sofa by Antonio Citterio for Flexform. The coffee table is by One & Co, where Croyle was formerly a partner, for Council, the rug is Kymo, and the side chairs are Cappellini.

In this sleek kitchen renovation in San Francisco, the kitchen backsplash is an easy-to-clean glass backsplash that mimics the glossy finish of the surrounding white cabinets. Painters accomplished the high-gloss finish on the cabinets of a kitchen in San Francisco by applying a coat of paint, polishing it with very high-grit sandpaper, repeating the process for each layer, then topping it with three coats of clear varnish. "It’s like an auto body," says builder Jeff King. "It’s incredibly beautiful." The island provides shelving space and storage as well as a second sink, an is topped with pietra grigio marble.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.

Designer Jeff Sand’s Universal Chairs combine his love for classic French café chairs with an appreciation for “the beautiful metal casings on an old Moto Guzzi.” Sand Studios also designed the dining table and pendant lamp.

Architect Tamira Sawatzky used Ikea components—one-inch Lagan butcher block countertops and inexpensive Ekby Lerberg brackets—when designing the bookshelves along the living room wall in the home/studio he designed for himself and his wife in Toronto.

“We wanted windows and natural light. It’s not quite a fishbowl—we have shades for privacy.” —Eddie Baba, resident.

The Kelleys furnished the cottage with help from Suzanne’s daughter Betsy Burbank of Betsy Burbank Interiors. Classic modernist icons, such as a Saarinen Womb chair for Knoll, a Herman Miller Eames lounge chair, and an Eileen Grey E1027 side table look at home alongside present-day pieces such as an Encore sofa (which handily folds down into a sleeping surface) from Room & Board and a Doka rug designed and produced by Stephanie Odegard. The Wohlert pendant lights from Louis Poulsen were designed by Vilhelm Wohlert in 1959, but grouped as such, they appear distinctly contemporary.

Rodriguez, a designer and architect who runs the studio Agi Miagi, created the pendant lamp and terrariums in the dining area. The space is open to the living area, where Brown’s son, Hugo, sits on a Living Divani sofa. The countertop-table is by Bercy Chen Studio.

MEDIA10_SC_MT170404

Across from the entrance is the main staircase, which leads to the bedrooms.

“Peter and I’ve got shockingly similar and far-reaching design inspirations. Our conversations would move easily from brutalism to driftwood to kachinas and then flow right back to something applicable to architecture. I can’t tell you how many times I will do that with a less-design-literate client and just get a blank stare!” —Architect Craig Steely

The acclaimed Italian designers Ludovica + Roberto Palomba carved a serene retreat out of a 17th-century oil mill in Salento.

The living-dining room overlooks the neighborhood and the Bay beyond. The Safari chair was designed by Jens Quistgaard. Michael Thonet chairs are paired with a walnut table by Anthony Marschak for Original Timber Co.

In the living room, spare Scandinavian design takes center stage. Hans Wegner’s Wishbone chairs surround an Essay dining table by Cecilie Manz for Fritz Hansen; a mostly wood palette is enhanced by slate-gray brick around the fireplace. The paper lanterns throughout the home are a mixture of classics by Isamu Noguchi alongside those picked up in Japan and France.

In the living area of actor Vincent Kartheiser’s Hollywood cabin, redesigned by Funn Roberts to maximize every last inch of space, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman mix with a couch and coffee table by Cisco Home from HD Buttercup. The table in the main room is from West Elm.

The once-sloping space now has climbing vines, a slatted fence, and foxtail agaves.

The most dramatic view in the apartment, the First Presbyterian Church looms large in the Kovel living room.

King installed dimmable fluorescent strips by Bartco in the alcoves above the cabinets for ambient lighting.

“We didn’t go out and buy a living room collection,” Sofie explains. “In our home, we tried to avoid trends. The furniture we have are things we have collected over many, many years.” Vintage Eames for Herman Miller lounge chair; Isamu Nuguchi table; and Rocking elephant by Rocking Zoo.

Curtiss describes the floor plan as “super efficient but with gracious moments.” Instead of maximizing room size, she ensured that shared spaces were adequately sized. In the upstairs hallway, that means two or three people can pass each other with relative ease.

The living room is furnished with a Tolomeo Mega floor lamp by Artemide, a Milo Baughman Recliner 74, a Morsø 7648 wood stove, and a Hampton rug by Capel Rugs.

Two San Francisco art and travel addicts overhauled a loft—and customized a pair of shipping containers—to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions. The shipping containers were stacked, joined with steel tubes, and lashed to reinforced floor joints to make them earthquake-safe.

The public staircase is directly adjacent to the house, though the louvers mitigate the view of passersby in favor of views of San Francisco.

The living and dining room look out to the central courtyard, promoting indoor/outdoor living. Here, five doors slide into a pocket in the wall to create a nearly 23-foot-wide opening on one side looking into the garden. Another set on the opposite side enhances cross ventilation.

Blanc took the term "living room" to a different level with this striking 20-by-23-foot interior wall for the Dimanche family's home in Paris.

A fireplace anchors the couple's living room, which is adorned with modern artwork as well as beloved curios.

Halfway through a pregnancy isn’t exactly the ideal time to buy a house. So after spending months scouting San Francisco’s Victorians and turnkey cookie-cutters—and almost defecting to the East Bay—Lorena Siminovich and Esteban Kerner decided to put the hunt on hold until after their baby was born. But then one afternoon Kerner, a design director with Old Navy, logged on to Craigslist on a whim. He saw a below-market listing for a single-family home in Noe Valley, their neighborhood of choice. With crumbly brick cladding, peeling rust-brown paint, and rotting garage doors, the house lacked curb appeal. But the Argentine couple was drawn to the interior. "It was amazing and strange at the same time," says Kerner of the 1,485-square-foot, multilevel, midcentury maze. "Mind-boggling," adds Siminovich. "It was just a knot of doors and a series of insane stairs to nowhere."

The catwalk above leads to the master bedroom. The living-dining room’s Stix chandelier is from Nido Living.

Despite their dark color palette, black and white kitchens can still feel bright. This tiny kitchen perfects the art of chiaroscuro with white shiplapped walls, custom-built open shelves and dark concrete floors. The owners selected sleek faucet fixtures by Santec and a sink by Blanco to complement the white laminate countertops. The stainless steel appliances include a Bertazzoni oven, Fisher & Payel refrigerator, and Thermador dishwasher.

Builder Ross Percival helped finesse the finely tuned detailing that separates the internal slope from the rock outside (opposite). The Pedro wire stool is by Craig Bond for Candywhistle.

The concrete wall mimics the slope of the hill outside as a reference to early Maori structures that were dug into the land. The simple kitchen has strandboard cabinetry and an MDF island that conceals a fireplace at one end. The ceramic works on the built-in seat at right are by Raewyn Atkinson and Robyn Lewis.

In the bathroom, a teak live-edge countertop and custom yellow cabinet support a double wash basin by Duravit. A mirror from Restoration Hardware hangs below custom lights, designed by the homeowner for a steampunk look.

The kitchen is marked by its Wolf gas range, white Carrara marble countertop bar, and Cobb Rise & Fall pendants by Original BTC. The architect designed a custom wine glass holder, which hangs nearby.

In the living room, an Eames lounge chair is matched with a Richard Conover–designed fiberglass chair in similar proportions. A custom coffee table by Asher Israelow com-plements the industrial lighting by Workstead, affixed to walls painted in Farrow and Ball’s Manor House Gray. The sliding doors leading into the home office were fabricated by Markus Bartenschlager.