A small terrace outfitted with an H55 easy chair by Björn Hultén offers a view of the San Francisco Bay.

The landscape design, by Anna Boeschenstein of Grounded, followed a 2,200-square-foot extension by Formwork architects Robert and Cecilia H. Nichols. The front door is painted in Chinese Red by Sherwin-Williams.

To combat the site’s steep, uneven grade, Boeschenstein staggered a series of ipe decks around the two main volumes of the house. Atticus joins his brother, Bodhi, on the zigzag decks.

The landscaping appears to be based on the mullet principle: business in the front, as seen here (manicured grid lawn, with native vegetation sprouting in careful symmetry), party in the back (sunflowers and wild mountain grass growing in harmonious chaos).

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

With input from her clients, Barensfeld used a computer to generate the circular patterns that were carved into a pair of Cor-Ten steel screens with a water-jet cutter. The perforations allow light and the green of the surrounding Koi bamboo to filter into the space while preserving privacy.

The exterior is clad in louro gamela,a tropical hardwood.

In another section of the yard, Cooper added varying-sized circular cement stepping stones, which lead toward an elevated planter filled with California-native plants.

Board-formed concrete retaining walls double as ramps from the deck to the garden’s highest point.

Two landscape design experts, Charlotte Frieze and Judy Kameon will share their favorite outdoor rooms with the Dwell on Design audience, including those featured in their books. Frieze, the former garden editor at House & Garden, is the author of Private Paradise: Contemporary American Gardens. Kameon, the principal at Elysian landscapes, is the author of Gardens Are for Living: Design Inspiration for Outdoor Spaces. Photo courtesy of Elysian Landscapes.

Suzanne and Brooks Kelley at the back of their 1,100-square-foot guest cottage.

In 1962, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Arthur Witthoefft won the AIA's highest honor for a home he built in the lush woods of Westchester County. Having fended off a developer's wrecking ball, Todd Goddard and Andrew Mandolene went above and beyond to make this manse mint again.

In the DoghousePaul and Shoko's dog, Mei, has lucked into a small prefab home of her own. Making use of a water jet cutter at his office, and using Adobe Illustrator as his design tool, Paul fashioned a series of panels that slot together without any nails or screws.

An artist by trade, and gardener by passion, Allison Paschke commissioned Providence-based architecture firm 3SIXØ to build a modest cottage that would allow her to reconnect with nature. She landscaped the home’s lush gardens herself.

Set on five acres, the three pavilions total 2,900 square feet. They gently fan out in a semicircle “like the charms on a necklace,” Suzanne says. The pair recruited landscape designer Bernard Trainor to help integrate the house with the land.

Cox initially conceived the deck as a conventional surface for relaxing and entertaining. With the bench, however, he seized an opportunity to create something both functional and visually arresting. “You go down these paths and, as the design mutates, other ideas attach themselves and make it stronger and more interesting,” he says.

Southwest: Steve Martino Phoenix-based landscape architect Steve Martino has unlocked the secret to successful gardening in dry desert environs: “The backbone of my career has been celebrating the desert rather than making apologies for it,” he says. His drought-tolerant designs relate to the southwestern climate and feature native plants—like the whale’s tongue agave, compass barrel cactus, and ocotillo in front of a Scottsdale midcentury house.

A verdant tundra that the architect dubbed the “courtyard” separates Bullitt’s house from his 900-square-foot studio. The space, which is planted with Bog Myrtle, bearberry, and other native plants, “reinforces...the dominance of the landscape over the building,” the architect says. “The end result was an exceedingly naturalized setting.”

Just because your kitchen is on the smaller side doesn’t mean you can’t make it as efficient and effective as possible.

Their creative confections may ruin our diets, but we’re happy to be their taste testers anytime.

Though diminutive in size, Jerome A. Levin’s backyard structure has lofty ambitions. “I wanted to create a place that feels like it has no connection to the world it stems from,” Levin says. Photo by Dustin Cohen.

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.

A double bowl sink is also quite self-explanatory, created either out of one large sink with a divider or from two distinct bowls framed into a single sink.

“The client wanted an interior space where you could read the materiality of the building elements like understanding the ingredients in a recipe,” principal architect Elizabeth Webster explains. The extension features distinctly textured materials: an exposed timber ceiling, painted brick walls, and polished concrete floors. Warm lighting by Brinklicht unifies the space.

This dreamy, glass bedroom by the lake was created as an early prototype for the prefabricated greenhouse/she kits known as the Kekkilä Green Sheds.

Helsinki architect Ville Hara and designer Linda Bergroth collaborated on a prefab shed-meets-sleeping cabin, which can be assembled with little else than a screwdriver. Bergroth, inspired by nomadic yurt dwellers, wanted an indoor/outdoor experience for her property in Finland.

Van Beek’s extra space is home to her office. She works on a Tense table by Piergiorgio and Michele Cazzaniga and Flow chairs by Jean Marie Massaud, both for MDF Italia.

The ever-changing, lush wooded surroundings of Minnesota, such as those experienced at this 8,000-square-foot Type Variant House outside of Minneapolis designed by Coen and Partners, are right near the small town of New Richland.

The architect placed the windows at Sabrina’s eye level so that she’d be able to see her son, Rocco, playing in the yard outside. "You can feel the seasons changing here," says Chiavelli. "I grew up three miles from here, outside in nature. This is a house for experiencing life."

Menlo Residence Site Plan A Ipe Deck (rear) B Gravel C Concrete Pavers D House E Driveway F Ipe Deck (front) G Ipe Fence and Gate

In the bedroom, an open closet with built-in shelving leads to the master bathroom. Thinking of all the loft's components as part of a whole was critical to the renovation. "The space is clean and simple, but that is only possible because of the attention paid to eliminating visual clutter that often comes from typical detailing," Breitner says. "The HVAC, floor outlets, door detailing, wall reveal base, recessed glazing channel, and radiator covers could look like clutter. We integrated it into the architecture." Photo by Frank Oudeman.

If you're looking for the ultimate minimalist bed frame, a platform bed with edges that extend beyond the mattress allow it to double as a bedside table, eliminating the need for other furniture.

A great way to get started is by doing some research. Have you seen their portfolio of past projects? Do you feel that your aesthetic matches the type of work they do? Can you ask friends for referrals?

Like the pavilion holding the public spaces, the structure containing the bedrooms is clad in glass on the interior sides facing the courtyard, allowing a constant connection to the outside. Rodriguez (with dog Lupe) designed the steel stairs leading from the mezzanine-level home office to the master bedroom below. The stairs were fabricated by Austin-based Steel House MFG.

The clients insisted that none of the trees on the property be disturbed, so Kevin Alter and his team at Alterstudio Architecture built a deck and an overhang around two of them.

Ryan Anderson of RAD Furniture designed the stools as well as the table and benches on the pool deck.