Exterior

The color of the Fishers’ front door was inspired by an old Land Rover Defender’s hue, which Charlie had Benjamin Moore custom-match.

Exterior view with designer and builder ... before the house was 100% completed

The mezzanine has rooftop access through large, south-oriented glazed doors. A steel awning offers shade to the mezzanine level during summer months, and the inside face is clad with plywood to visually extend the interior space outward.

The home's roof height meets that of its neighbors’ second stories, and its big, black-framed Marvin Ultimate tilt/turn windows put a contemporary twist on a centuries-old ventilation strategy. Its Artisan V-Groove siding by James Hardie, with mitered corners and painted Narraganset Green—a deep peacock-emerald with tones of charcoal and slate—strikes a happy medium between subtropical color and chic contemporary minimalism.

Designers Caroline and Sabri Farouki’s home in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans is only 12.6 feet wide in the front and even narrower in the back. The skinny, modern box contrasts with the neighborhood’s reigning mix of styles, but it aims to fit in even as it sticks out.

This Eichler is wrapped with vertical western red cedar. One of the reasons Klopf Architecture selected this material is because of its low-VOC stain. It matches the color of the original siding, which had sadly seen better days.

"Having the additional office with a standalone entrance on the ADU is such a nice feature,

Raised walkway between house and studio

"The exterior is Deep Caviar by Benjamin Moore, but with a slight twist,” says Wei. “In order to create subtle variations throughout this sprawling exterior, I played with the darkness level of Deep Caviar and also changed up the sheen of the paint.”

The home's bright blue front entrance and white trim pops against its sleek dark facade.

Adi and Chris chose an L-shaped, pre-permitted plan by Cast Architecture with extensive glass, and resisted two-story options to fit in better with their neighborhood.

In the gravel-lined entry court shaded by a Japanese maple tree, furniture from Beall and Bell—an antique shop in Greenport, New York—mixes with Pendant Globes by Primelite Manufacturing. Bobo pillows by Adler outfit the banquette, and cedar clads the interior of the seating area.

Landscape Design by Land Morphology

"The client’s goals were to create an open and light-filled home that maximized views of the Coachella Valley below and the Santa Rosa mountains to the south and west," says designer Stuart Silk Architects. Thunderbird Heights Residence enjoys a fluid connection between the primary indoor rooms and the outdoor terraces both for entertaining and casual outdoor living.

Although the two-story atrium is smaller than the courtyard, it is no less important to the design. The glazed pocket doors are opened daily, connecting the family room to the rear yard, and framing the sculptural form of the 30-year-old Japanese black pine garden bonsai.

When arriving at the property, a sign directs guests down one path for the workspaces (The Loft) and another for the guesthouse (The House). "We knew that having separate entrances and not connecting the spaces internally would be the trick to keeping each space separate and private," says Tarah. "We spent a lot of time thinking through the walking paths that led to each space and considering how to make them cohesive while serving different functions."

Outdoor cedar soffits carried through entry into central staircase

Two new structures were also built in the backyard, and connected to the main house via the landscape plan by Lilyvilla Gardens. One is a 485-square-foot guest house, and the other is a 375-square-foot workshop for the owner, who’s a bike builder. They have the same exterior siding as the main house: rough-sawn tongue and groove cedar.