Built-in kitchen cabinets and a monolithic island help keep the space uncluttered. The wall ovens are from Gaggenau.

A high-gloss finish can be achieved by having a local automotive shop repaint the cabinet fronts. The finish will be long-lasting, strong, and shiny.

The minimalist bathroom boasts Cararra marble surfaces, Hansgrohe faucets and shower fixtures, and a skylight by Velux.

A double-height space encompasses the kitchen, dining and living area, and features 36-feet-wide glass doors that pocket into southern and northern walls.

Intended for a much bigger room in the family’s previous home, the bed was designed by Hill and is covered in Maharam fabric in a doily print called Intricate 001 Charcoal. The side tables are from West Elm, and the AJ table lamp is by Arne Jacobsen for Louis Poulsen.

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.

The snug attic in this former fisherman’s cottage in Copenhagen contains the homeowner’s platform bed, custom-designed by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen to maximize storage and fit the unusual space.

Milestones' cement plaster covers the walls of the minimalist bathroom. The Scola sink from Duravit is accompanied by a chrome Grohe Essence faucet and Hansgrohe's Croma Green Showerpipe.

Short StackA tiny cabin in the Wisconsin Woods makes a big impact with Johnsen & Schmaling's innovative stacked design. The resulting cozy abode is stylish and durable, with stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

Choosing a kitchen or bathroom countertop can be nerve-wracking, and we understand why—they can be one of the most expensive aspects of a renovation, with the added responsibility of impacting the aesthetics of a space. Read on as we work our way through the pros and cons of seven of the most common countertop materials.

The bed, also by Hynam, is on casters, allowing ten Hompel to move it to gaze at the stars.

Though loads of natural light comes in from the courtyard, these large skylights also afford a view of the sky. The coffee table is from Modernica and the Eames Lounge is from Herman Miller.

A couple takes a minimalist approach to their Brooklyn apartment, focusing on supple materials, subtle gradations of color, and custom finishes by local craftsmen. The Mandayam–Vohra family gathers under one of Workstead’s signature three-arm chandeliers, shown here in its horizontal configuration. Bartenschlager designed the white cabinets and is responsible for the walnut counters both on the kitchen island and near the stove.

A massive white island range is anchored by locally sourced Italian slate floors in black. In this black and white kitchen, cabinets, countertops, and walls are finished in white so as to prevent the space from feeling too dark. To shed even more light, a glass ceiling at the far end of the kitchen presents an open-air feeling.

French doors in the living room let light into the kitchen and open onto a lovely garden.

Grade A Maple “For us, the dinner table is huge,” says Katie. The pair met furniture designer Seth Eshelman—whose Rochester-based company Staach produces what she called “environmentally conscientious furniture”—at a teatasting event, and they felt he shared their “vision and values.” Eshelman’s Cain dining set is made from maple. Now Yukimi “The meditation room is where we get our Japanese ya-yas out,” says Scott. “I wanted yukimi, which means ‘snow-viewing,’ shoji screens because they open from the bottom as well as side to side. Glen Collins, a guy in Oakland, California, is the one American I could find whose company makes them.”

Stone Roses “We wanted to make the interior seamless with the outdoors, and this is the first place we blur the line,” Katie says of the “stone garden” that flows from within the entry to the deck beyond it. “My 85-year-old father picked up the rocks at the beach, a bag or two at a time, over weeks and weeks,” says Scott.

McMinn and Janzen's kitchen opens onto a double-height living and dining area.

A polished concrete floor was selected for its durability. Using a design move inspired by Japanese architecture, Bruzkus introduced a change in height to help separate the sleeping area from the living area.

In the dining area a vintage table from a shop in Barcelona is surrounded by Giandomenico Belotti Spaghetti chairs. The space, which also includes the kitchen, occupies a 1970s addition.

Floor Bored Abbe and Davor worried that plywood floors in the mezzanine bedroom would feel monotonous, given that the walls and ceilings were ply too. So they sourced second-grade French oak floorboards and filled in the holes in the timber’s knots themselves. Then they used leftover boards to make a door to cover a small opening between their room and August’s and for the sliding pantry door in the kitchen. qualitywoodfloors.co.nz Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

“Concrete floors, drywall, and minimal use of trim allowed for the feel of the space to remain utilitarian, while exposed Douglas fir structural members created a connection to regional Pacific Northwest design,” Schaer says. The clients wanted a place for painting and occasional freelance work, which fits opposite the room's fireplace and seating area. A Kevi Chair by Jørgen Rasmussen accompanies the desk.

The Marmol Radziner–designed James Perse showroom in Malibu provided aesthetic inspiration for Jacobson, who outfitted his place with furnishings from the brand.

A couple takes a minimalist approach to their Brooklyn apartment, focusing on supple materials, subtle gradations of color, and custom finishes by local craftsmen. Photo by Matthew Williams.

Two green accent walls—one seen here in the dining room—are the only departures from the strategically white backdrop. Wierciński and team designed the dining table and its orange steel frame, along with the seating benches and wall-mounted seat backs. A Sticks pendant light from Nowodvorski illuminates the space.

The living room features a sofa by Dellarobbia.

“There’s a soulfulness in this small house that’s impossible to replicate in something completely new. The sweetness truly lingers," says architect Michael Lee.

The architect designed the kitchen cabinetry, and used wood left over from the demo of the house’s exterior wall for the dining table. A piece by Nicolas Grenier hangs above a cabinet the residents found at a garage sale.

Here you can really see the tilt-up concrete panels that Kurath designed for the space. Each was made to be small enough to go up with a forklift. Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

Light gray stone and stainless steel fixtures make up the palette of this clean bathroom.

Shoes Off The McDonalds wanted a comfortable place for people to remove their shoes, so the architects built a niche for a bench. The McDonalds hired local case-goods maker James Dean to craft a floating flitch-cut slab of black walnut—what Bardt calls “the affordable Nakashima moment.”

Located in Aarhus, Denmark, Villa R is a minimalist, serene structure clad in zinc panels. "The objective was to create a house that brings the forest inside through large glass panels—and create an ever-changing seasonal backdrop for the interior living spaces," stated the architecture firm, C.F. Møller, of the 3,200-square-foot abode.

The interior finishes mirror the exterior.

In the apartment’s new incarnation, the main living area is a family room that morphs—after the boys go to sleep in the back bedroom—into the parents’ lair. As Krastev puts it, “During the day it’s a one-bedroom apartment, at night, a studio.”

Bright orange and cobalt-blue surfaces dominate the minimalist kitchen.