GRAPHĒ

Why Buy One House When $1.4M Gets You Three Whidbey Island Cottages?

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:56:11 -0700

Just a few blocks from downtown Langley, Washington, the color-coded homes are designed to meet net-zero energy standards.

Location: 624 A, B, & C 2nd Street, Langley, Washington

Price: $1,430,000

Year built: 2024

Architect: Charlie Wenzlau, Wenzlau Architects

Footprint: 1,660 Square Feet (3 Beds, 3 Baths)

Unit A: 550 Square Feet (1 Bed, 1 Bath w/Shower Only)
Unit B: 550 Square Feet (1 Bed, 1 Bath w/Shower Only)
Unit C: 560 Square Feet (1 Bed, 1 Bath w/Shower Only)

Lot Size: 0.179 Acres

From the Agent: "Just two blocks from downtown in the waterfront village of Langley on Whidbey Island, this award-winning residential project is composed of three detached one-bedroom homes. Each has its own covered porch, private outdoor space, and dedicated parking, creating a flexible arrangement that allows for both independence and connection.

The three residences can be used as a personal retreat, multigenerational compound, creative studio, business space, artist residency, or rental property. The site is located within a neighborhood business zone, allowing it to accommodate a range of residential and commercial uses.

Each home was constructed to meet net-zero energy standards, with rooftop solar panels, structural insulated panels, triple-pane windows, and locally and regionally sourced wood. Inside, clean lines are balanced by natural materials and abundant daylight.

The property is a short walk from Langley’s shops, restaurants, galleries, waterfront, and walking trails. Together the three smaller homes offer a flexible approach to living and working on Whidbey Island."

Designed by Wenzlau Architects, the Whidbey Island property consists of three detached residences with shared paths and gardens.

Photo by Michael Stadler of Stadler Studio Photography

Together, the three single-story homes total 1,660 square feet, with one bedroom and one bathroom each.

Photo by Michael Stadler of Stadler Studio Photography

See the full story on Dwell.com: Why Buy One House When $1.4M Gets You Three Whidbey Island Cottages?
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A 10-Person Sauna Somehow Fits in This Tiny Summer House in Denmark—and Converts Into a Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:56:39 -0700

The 337-square-foot prefab is still surprisingly roomy thanks to slanted walls, a high ceiling, and a mezzanine level.

Relaxing in a summer house is a beloved Danish tradition—ironically, not only in the summer. Many head to the forest or coast for a week or two during hotter months to rest and reset, but others escape the city on weekends throughout the year, too. While Danish summer houses are not the rustic cabins you might find in Sweden or Finland, they are still usually simple: inviting without being lavish, and equipped with just enough for a getaway now and again.

Marius Bendsen built a prefabricated summer house for his family in the Danish countryside. It emphasizes compact living and a small carbon footprint.

Courtesy of Saga Space Architects

But Marius Bendsen had a different idea for a summer house. Building on the idea of an effortless retreat, the Saga Space Architects partner and senior developer created a shingled residence built from 100 digitally fabricated modules for his family in northwestern Zealand that emphasizes compact, energy-efficient living designed for year-round use. At around 377 square feet, EcoNeo is about a third the size of a typical Danish summer house, nestling into its forested setting like a pine cone. Yet living there doesn’t feel limiting, says Marius. "Even though my apartment in Copenhagen is over double the size, I feel like I have more space here."

Saga Space Architects, where Marius is a partner and senior developer, built the home using 100 modules and covered it in shingles. The entrance has a deck that continues around the side of the home.

Courtesy of Saga Space Architects

Through the entrance is a dining area and kitchen. A slanted wall of windows with built-in seating give the space a roomy feel.

Courtesy of Saga Space Architects

See the full story on Dwell.com: A 10-Person Sauna Somehow Fits in This Tiny Summer House in Denmark—and Converts Into a Bedroom
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In London, a Compact Home With a Tiny Carbon Footprint Seeks £1M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:56:32 -0700

Paper House Project stacked this high-performance house across three levels on a 430-square-foot site, using light wells and large windows to bring in sunshine and park views.

Location: Greenview House, Newington Green, London N16

Price: £1,000,000

Year Built: 2024

Architect: Paper House Project

Footprint: 830 Square Feet (2 Beds, 2 Baths)

Lot Size: 0.01 Acres

From the Agent: "Greenview House is a new-build, two-bedroom, thermally efficient family home on a highly constrained 40-square-meter backland site overlooking Butterfield Green in north London. Designed using a fabric-first approach, the house combines a CLT superstructure with a highly insulated building envelope, triple glazing, an air-source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and solar photovoltaics to minimize operational energy demand while ensuring the building services remain discreet, allowing the architecture to take center stage.

The house is organized around the way we live, with each floor supporting a different part of the day. The lower ground floor is for sleep and work, providing a naturally quieter and calmer environment. The ground floor is used for cooking, dining and socializing, while the upper floor is dedicated to relaxing, benefiting from the best natural light and elevated views across the park.

Although the footprint is only 40 square meters, the house was conceived as a series of interconnected spaces linked by front and rear light wells. These bring daylight deep into the plan, create long sight lines, and strengthen visual connections between floors, making the house feel significantly more spacious than its compact footprint suggests."

Paper House Project used prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) components to assemble the structural shell in under five days, reducing site disruption while improving thermal and acoustic performance.

Photo by French & Tye

The three-story home is organized as a series of interconnected double-height spaces, with front and rear light wells linking the floors visually. The lower level is reserved for sleeping and working, the ground floor for cooking and dining, and the top floor for relaxing with views across the park.

Photo by French & Tye

See the full story on Dwell.com: In London, a Compact Home With a Tiny Carbon Footprint Seeks £1M
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The Sunken Living Room in This Concrete Buenos Aires Home Looks Surprisingly Cozy

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:56:16 -0700

Deep cushions, a massive tapestry, and floor-to-ceiling windows soften its otherwise hard edges.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Architect: Rastro Estudio / @rastro.estudio

Footprint: 1,830 square feet

Structural Engineer: Martin Suffern

Photographer: Albano García / @albano.foto

From the Architect: "The commission for D House began with the personal story of its owner: a childhood spent in the countryside, a move to the city, and a return to those rural origins. That narrative became the guiding thread behind every design decision. Located in the quiet landscape of San Antonio de Areco, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the house unfolds entirely on a single level through two elongated volumes that echo the horizontal character of the Pampas. Rather than competing with the landscape, the architecture embraces it. Crisp white planes contrast with exposed concrete slabs and walls that frame the north-facing gallery—a generous covered outdoor living space from which the house opens onto the surrounding fields. Far from being a secondary area, this sheltered terrace is arguably the home’s most intensely lived-in space.

"The strategic carving of the two volumes creates a sequence of courtyards that seamlessly connect interior and exterior. Entry is made through one of these patios: a restrained transitional space enclosed by white walls, where a pivoting timber door frames the arrival and offers a glimpse of the courtyard beyond. Inside, a long entrance hall is illuminated by a large circular skylight cut into the concrete slab, flooding the space with natural overhead light and reinforcing the idea that this house understands architecture as both a material and a sensory experience.

"The interiors are defined by the dialogue between two contrasting material languages: exposed concrete ceilings and columns set against white walls and polished concrete floors. This carefully calibrated restraint transforms every room into a potential gallery. Large-scale artworks inhabit the walls with complete ease, revealing a house conceived from the outset as a place where art and everyday life naturally coexist. The living room pushes this idea even further. Sunken below the main floor level, it accentuates the generosity of the ceiling height, while built-in masonry seating dissolves the boundary between architecture and furniture. In contrast, the primary bathroom becomes the house’s darkest and most introspective space. Finished entirely in black microcement, it features a hand-carved natural stone basin resting on a floating vanity—the only handcrafted object within a room that celebrates the raw expression of its materials.

"The construction system—a combination of autoclaved aerated concrete and reinforced concrete—reflects one of the studio’s core principles: building better with less. The system minimizes waste, shortens construction time, and delivers superior thermal and acoustic performance. Together with the home’s orientation, generous roof overhangs, and high performance glazing, it forms a bioclimatic strategy that significantly reduces energy consumption. Finally, the arrangement of the volumes and courtyards anticipates future expansion with minimal intervention, allowing the house to grow, adapt, and evolve alongside the life of its inhabitants."

Photo by Albano García

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Sunken Living Room in This Concrete Buenos Aires Home Looks Surprisingly Cozy
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Social Media Has Siloed Our Houses

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:56:28 -0700

How the places we live became compartmentalized staging grounds for our "personal brands" in the name of online content.

Paige Rien is an interior design consultant and former HGTV presenter whose life’s work has become encouraging people to repair the rupture—caused by the warped marketplace of home content on social media—between the way people want their houses to look and how they want to actually live. She’s made a name for herself pushing back against the taste regimes that have emerged from social media.

These taste regimes might vary in their specifics. A minimalist, "Scandinavian-chic" aesthetic has come to be associated with millennial decor from the 2010s through the early 2020s, but maximalism has its devotees too, as do "granny chic" and "cabincore" and myriad other niche aesthetics. The specifics, Rien told me, don’t really matter. Social media’s influence on home design is not about how it all looks but how it compels people to behave. It’s about an ability to replicate what you’ve seen, to conjure a legible and total "vibe" that’s easily identifiable in the midst of a hasty scroll.

Rien recalled the disillusionment she experienced when working with clients in the mid-2010s: "I’d meet a family, and I would ask, ‘What do you need for your home?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, we want Pottery Barn.’ But that’s not a need, or a desire, or even a function. That’s just a look. I found that the content of design media was becoming people’s desires, even though they have wide, varied, and interesting lives."

Rien told me that in her house’s current "season," as she put it, her four teenage sons have the run of the living room. She wanted them to feel like they could hang out with their friends and play video games and watch sports in the middle of the house. They’ve put up a football flag and LED lights, and although she doesn’t love any of it, she knows it’s not permanent.

To Rien, coexistence is one of the purposes of a home. The main influence of social media on interiors has been the siloing of spaces into discrete boxes—the nursery, where all the toys are allowed to live; the highly feminized living room (a trend that Rien is troubled to see on the rise, leading to the ongoing exile of heterosexual men and boys into "man caves"); the basement, where the teenagers can disappear into their devices. It was partly in response to the primary affordance of smartphones—the ability to disappear—that Rien became so keen on opening up her living room to her sons and their friends.

The decor might not be her first choice, but if they’re gathering in the center of the home, at least there’s less of a likelihood that anyone will fall down a rabbit hole of antisocial internet ideology or succumb to social isolation—conditions that are being flagged as epidemics among teenage boys especially. "A lot of the problems that young people are having—teens right now, in particular—might be rooted in part in the size of the American home getting bigger and bigger, because it allows people to have a totally separate life," Rien told me.

—

In Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia’s 2021 book, Filosofia della casa, he argues for a radical blending—a rethinking of what Rien refers to as "siloing" of space—as a means of survival at the end of modernity. Social media has the effect of dividing a house’s purposes into compartments so that a space is more easily identifiable and can be used more readily as a staging ground. A clean visual field is essential for influencers, whose incomes rely on selling products inside their homes, with the interiors used as backdrops. To Coccia, this is anathema to happiness at home. Like Rien, he envisions the future home as a place that is porous and constantly changing, that is open to the world.

This starkly contrasts with the direction in which social media’s visual language is pushing home design. Beyond transforming private spaces into marketing showrooms, Instagram and Pinterest have encouraged people to think of their homes as display cases for their family brand. Consider the "back kitchen," which the New York Times identified as an emerging trend among wealthy homeowners in 2022—it is a space apart from the main kitchen, where actual cooking and mess and process happen. The back kitchen became a coveted feature of newly constructed homes on the market in the post-Covid years; influencers showed theirs off, along with their huge laundry rooms, as part of their remodels.

At this point, according to Rien, the pressures of the attention economy have forced most home influencers to renovate their homes every five years for as long as they plan to work. But this hasn’t always been the case.

In his book Building a Market, the geographer Richard Harris locates the origins of do-it-yourself home improvement in the 1950s; before this, people repaired their homes as needed, but such restoration was seen as a chore necessary for keeping a roof over one’s head, not a process by which one could broadcast taste and status.

"I can remember a time when not everyone was living in that space of constantly yearning and stretching for bigger and better in terms of houses," Rien told me. "Home Depot used to literally just be a hardware store. Now it’s become our hobby. It’s our life—it represents really deep desire."

To create a picture-perfect home that conveys skillful obedience to a given aesthetic—this is what Rien sees as the driving desire of many people who have the means to renovate and redecorate their home interiors. Social media is both the primary determinant of this desire and the rubric for the aesthetic itself. As Rien sees it, this desire has replaced other, more practical desires that people might harbor for their homes.

But those older, more emotional desires have not disappeared; they’ve just been pushed aside.

Excerpted from The Story of Your Life by Kathryn Jezer-Morton, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2026 by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.

Buy the book

The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything

An eye-opening look at how social media shapes the stories we tell and the lives we lead Over the past two decades, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have revolutionized how we document and share our lives. We once archived our experiences in photo albums, and now we capture our most significant moments in reels and photo dumps. Whether we prefer to admit it or not, social media is where our history lives now. In The Story of Your Life, journalist and New York magazine columnist Kathryn Jezer-Morton examines how these algorithm-driven platforms not only change the way we share information but also shape the content itself. What stories do we choose to tell, and how do these choices reflect and shape our evolving identities? Through rigorous research and intimate interviews with everyday people, Jezer-Morton explores how the platforms on which we have told our life stories for the past twenty years have determined what those stories have come to look and sound like. Today our attention spans are short, and our stories reflect that, with spectacle and exaggeration playing ever-larger roles in our accounts of everyday life. By examining how we share, talk, and post about our milestones, vacations, homes, relationships, hardships, politics, and more, Jezer-Morton shows just how pervasive and influential our social media platforms have become in how we view ourselves and what we consider to be a life well lived. Smart, funny, and sharply observant, The Story of Your Life delivers an original and revealing look at our lives online and off and offers us a fresh perspective on the ways social media shapes the very arcs of our lives.

Top photo by Kilito Chan via Getty Images

Your House Is Not the Corner Bar...but Does It Need Custom Matchbooks?

Artwork Has Long Had a Home at This Former Farmhouse In Ireland. Now It Has Its Own Wing

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:56:32 -0700

A lofty, light-filled extension creates a dedicated studio and gallery space on the country property.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Glenties, Ireland

Architect: Pasparakis Friel / @pasparakisfrielarchitects

Footprint: 1,400 square feet

Builder: Patsy Harkin

Structural Engineer: DSM Consulting Engineers

Photographer: Peter Molloy / @_peter_molloy_

From the Architect: "At the end of a narrow bog road in County Donegal, life and work have long been inseparable. This cluster of buildings was once the operational heart of a farm: the house flanked by a byre on one side and outhouses on the other. Humans and livestock lived in close proximity, sharing space and routine, with the south-facing yard serving as the central outdoor room. Over time, these structures adapted. The byre was absorbed into the domestic realm, while the outhouses became the hub of a small-batch jam and chutney enterprise. For more than 35 years, art has occupied every available corner—made, stored, and curated throughout the farmstead. These blurred boundaries between living, making, and working have fostered a distinctive richness in both the food and artistic output.

"The latest evolution of the site builds on this legacy. The house now operates as much as a gallery and studio as a home, and the new extension reflects these overlapping roles. Its volumes are shaped by the demands of display and making: north light for painting, borrowed light to soften transitions, restrained detailing, and generous, quiet walls for the curation of work. A sense of continuity is carefully maintained. The original farmhouse remains discreetly positioned at the end of the lane, while the extension is set back at the far edge of the house. This measured approach preserves the character of the existing yard and reinforces the building’s sense of belonging within the wider rural setting. In form and material, the extension draws from the language of the surrounding agricultural buildings, achieving a quiet harmony.

"The project unfolds as a sequence of spaces closely connected to the surrounding garden, offering places to pause, sit, and look outward. Within the existing farmhouse, intimate warren-like rooms and their telltale draughts remain part of the building’s character, while the extension introduces volumes that are light-filled, warm, and open, creating a gentle dialogue between old and new.

"The interior palette is grounded in clay-toned micro-cement, raw timber ceilings, and oiled plywood furniture, set against soft neutral walls that allow the gallery spaces to feel calm, tactile, and atmospheric. Functional antiques and decorative collectibles are layered throughout, bringing a sense of history and lived character to the contemporary spaces. The calmness of the interior allows the art to define the experience, inviting the visitor to move through the sequence with a sense of discovery and to seek out further work as it reveals itself gradually throughout the house."

Photo by Peter Molloy

See the full story on Dwell.com: Artwork Has Long Had a Home at This Former Farmhouse In Ireland. Now It Has Its Own Wing
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How They Pulled It Off: Updating—and Fireproofing—an ’80s Home in a "Very High-Risk" Zone

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:56:38 -0700

Architects Zoltan Pali and Judit Fekete-Pali transformed an "eyesore" house in the Santa Monica Mountains into a live/work space built to withstand its surroundings.

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

When Zoltan Pali saw his house for the first time, he had two words: no way. In 2016, Pali and his wife, Judit Fekete-Pali—cofounders of L.A.-based architecture firm SPF:architects— were looking to relocate from their convenient live/work space in Culver City to a house in the Santa Monica Mountains. They had spent around a decade looking for the perfect property, when Fekete-Pali stumbled upon a 17-acre plot on the ridgeline, with views of the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. The scenery was beautiful, but the house itself was an eyesore, and it was in a "very high" fire-risk zone, surrounded by dry, flammable brush. Tearing the house down wouldn’t be possible, because it was in a protected area. They would have to work with what was there.

"It was so ugly," says Pali. "It looked like the house from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, with fake Corinthian columns." Built in the 1980s by its former owners, the white stucco house was shaped like an elongated octagon which was, says Pali, "their interpretation of the Parthenon."

Before: The house had an awkward octagonal footprint, outdated fixtures, and wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room.

Courtesy of SPF:architects

"The building was atrocious," Fekete-Pali agrees, conscious that walkers and horseback riders could see it from the trails. More than just looks, safety was a concern too. "The neighbors are pretty far away, so it’s a goner if a fire starts," she continues. "Those were our main concerns: How do we make the house kind of disappear? And at the same time, how can we make the building fire-resistant?"

The couple were better equipped to deal with the challenge than most. Resilient, fireproof design, says Pali, has always been "part and parcel" of SPF:a’s practice, before the 2017 wildfires, or the Palisades and Eaton fires last year. "Whether you’re by the beach, in Malibu, or in the Bird Streets up in Los Angeles, it’s always a concern."

So how, then, do you create a home which is both tough against fire and beautiful?

"It’s minimalist in nature," says Pali. "To us, there’s beauty in the rational."

Photo: Renzo Pali

How they pulled it off: Turning a 1980s "eyesore" in a fire-risk zone into a serene, fireproof home

Get rid of those eaves: Not long after moving in, L.A.’s 2017 wildfires had come within half a mile of the property. The priority, says Pali, was to stop fire getting into the house: "We figured if it’s in, it’s over." The fire department had advised that fires usually start under a building’s dry eaves so the eaves were dutifully removed, and the roof was covered with a naturally fire-resistant asphalt shingle.
Add asphalt cladding: The plan had just been to apply that charcoal-colored shingle—"ubiquitous" in tract homes across the country—to the roof. But, says Fekete-Pali, "we started the roof, and we just didn’t stop." They opted for a thicker, more robust hexagonal shape, giving the house a distinctive, streamlined look and ensuring that it will not catch fire. "Among the trees, it’s like a shadow. The people walking in the mountains and on the horse trails don’t see the building anymore," she says. "No more eyesore, just the beautiful nature."

Pali and Fekete-Pali chose to clad the whole building in fire-resistant asphalt shingle, cut into robust hexagons.

Photo: Renzo Pali

See the full story on Dwell.com: How They Pulled It Off: Updating—and Fireproofing—an ’80s Home in a "Very High-Risk" Zone
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Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s Beachside Kravis Residence Is for Sale in Southern California

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:56:41 -0700

The La Jolla home was built in the 1940s and later revamped by the famed architect with striking wood details and concrete forms.

Location: La Jolla, California

First Renovation Architect: Kendrick Bangs Kellogg

Second Renovation Architect: Yum Kee Fu

Price: Upon Request

Footprint: 2,172 Square Feet (3 Beds / 3 Baths)

Lot Size: 0.12 Acres

From the Agent: "Located on Neptune Place in La Jolla, the Kravis Residence is comprised of 2,172 square feet of living space set upon a 5,403-square foot parcel just across the street from Windansea Beach. The residence enjoys panoramic ocean and sunset views throughout its three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The primary suite, which could be a one-bed/one-bath apartment, is reached via an exterior stairway and enjoys its own rooftop deck. The nature-inspired details throughout the home were harmoniously crafted in 1998 following a two-year renovation by architect Yum Kee Fu and his wife, Susan, the parents of the current owner. The artistry of their design is beautifully showcased in the upstairs suite, where the artisan-crafted interior doors feature unique wood inlays inspired by Asian art."

Thomas C. Kravis, MD, tapped noted architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg to lead a significant renovation that lasted from 1976 to 1987.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

Thomas C. Kravis tapped noted architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg to lead a significant renovation between 1976 and 1987.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

One of the home’s most striking features is the stacked wood fascia that traces its roofline.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

See the full story on Dwell.com: Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s Beachside Kravis Residence Is for Sale in Southern California
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How "Frasier" Brought ’90s Minimalism to the Masses

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:56:23 -0700

The beloved sitcom’s set introduced audiences to a vision of wealth that was quietly sophisticated instead of gaudy—its showpiece Chihuly notwithstanding.

In 1996, when I turned 16, my uncle mailed me a copy of the script for the Frasier Season 4 opening episode with every cast member’s signature on it, including the dog’s (Moose, as you likely already know). This is because my uncle, Joe Keenan, was a writer (and later, also an executive producer) of the show and had snuck my name into the script under two different characters: Daphne’s friend Megan [sic!] who was having a birthday, and Daphne’s ex-fiancé Clive Roddy, who suddenly resurfaced. This episode, "The Two Mrs. Cranes," is one of the most highly lauded of the show’s entire 11-season run, earning special nods from Variety, IMDb, and IndieWire. I have been riding that Must See TV! high for three decades.

Photo courtesy Meaghan Roddy

Frasier had an incredible run with an unprecedented 37 Emmy wins, a record broken only by Game of Thrones. If I may brag for a moment on Joe’s behalf: he has five Emmy awards, two Writers Guild of America awards, and a GLAAD Media Award, just for his work on Frasier, not including any of his other accolades, and this is all before he even turned 45. So basically very, very similar to my own career as I write this article at age 45.

At left, Joe humoring me in his office. At right, he has so many awards they barely fit in his awards bookshelf.

Photo courtesy Meaghan Roddy

Joe’s office is a treasure trove of artifacts, from photographs to set props, documenting this period in his career. These days, he is working on a new series of books, but in the absence of Frasier’s famed production designer, the late Roy Christopher, he took a break to let me ask him questions about the show’s set production, occasionally reminding me that he is not a set designer, but a writer.

Joe on set with Kelsey Grammer and Sir Patrick Stewart, a literal Knight.

Photo courtesy Meaghan Roddy

See the full story on Dwell.com: How "Frasier" Brought ’90s Minimalism to the Masses
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They Turned a 1930s Cinque Terre Villa Into a Sunny, Streamlined Surf Shack

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:56:34 -0700

Carpentry experts and architecture firm Llab wrapped every room of the beachfront property with built-ins to create storage, seating, and sleeping arrangements.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Ligurian Riviera, Italy

Architect: Llabb / @llabb_architects

Builder: Edilizia Arjan Fejza

Footprint: 1,120 square feet

Photographer: Anna Positano | Studio Campo

From the Architect: "Located in Levanto, a seaside town on the Ligurian coast near Cinque Terre in Italy, Surf House is a compact renovation by Llabb that transforms a 1930s villa apartment into a permanent family home. Purchased by a U.S. family, the roughly 1,100-square-foot residence occupies the raised ground floor of the historic Blondet House, part of the urban frontage facing the beach and the sea.

"The existing structure, including load-bearing partitions and the original room layout, shaped Llabb’s approach: rather than radically altering the apartment, the studio recovered its spatial logic while improving its functionality. The new layout accommodates three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a study, a generous kitchen, and a living area oriented toward the sea. The main intervention is a continuous custom millwork system in oak and deep blue, which runs through the apartment as both an organizing element and a piece of furniture.

"Developed by Llabb from its background in carpentry, the system integrates kitchen, storage, seating, bookshelves, beds, desks, and wardrobes into a single architectural device. Wood plays a central role throughout the home: in the shared spaces it defines essential volumes, while in the children’s rooms it takes on softer, curved forms inspired by nautical design and surf culture. Carefully positioned openings and visual connections enhance the sense of space while respecting the character of the original villa. Surf House reflects Llabb’s ability to translate craftsmanship into architecture, creating a highly functional and expressive home within a compact footprint and maintaining a strong connection with the surrounding maritime landscape."

Photo: Anna Positano

See the full story on Dwell.com: They Turned a 1930s Cinque Terre Villa Into a Sunny, Streamlined Surf Shack
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How Layered Lighting Takes a Home From Flat to Dynamic

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:56:20 -0700

A simple guide to the three-layer approach to thoughtful illumination—and how to execute it in every room.

A single overhead light leaves rooms feeling flat and one-dimensional. The so-called "big light," as it is known among its most vocal critics, has become synonymous with sterile-feeling spaces. Somehow, this remains the default setup in most homes—despite the fact that a singular ceiling fixture does little to enhance architecture, create visual interest, or adapt to how we actually use our spaces. There’s more to life, after all, than sufficient brightness.

The solution to unwelcoming spaces like these is layered lighting: a design approach that treats illumination as a multi-dimensional tool, not a binary, on-off function. By combining three distinct layers—ambient, task, and accent—you create depth, flexibility, and visual sophistication. Each layer serves a specific purpose, and together they transform how a space feels and functions.

Layered lighting—ambient, task, and accent—creates depth and visual interest that a single overhead fixture cannot achieve. Govee’s smart ecosystem makes implementing all three layers intuitive and adjustable.

Courtesy of Govee

A beginner’s guide to lighting layers

Ambient lighting provides general illumination. This is the foundational light layer (typically the ceiling fixture) that makes a room usable. Think of it as the baseline brightness that allows you to move through a space safely.

Task lighting, meanwhile, focuses light where you actually need it, whether that’s over a desk for work, above a kitchen counter for cooking, or beside a bed for reading. Task lighting eliminates shadows and allows activities to happen comfortably.

And then there’s accent lighting, which highlights architectural details, artwork, or specific focal points. This is where you add drama, depth, and personality. Accent lighting is the secret-weapon layer that transforms a functional room into a designed one.

Govee’s smart lighting ecosystem lets you adjust everything with a single tap.

Courtesy of Govee

How to execute layered lighting, room by room

Since 2017, Govee has been transforming everyday spaces with its smart lighting solutions. Guided by its mantra, "Life is Colorful," Govee’s innovative lights are designed to transform everyday moments into personalized lighting experiences. Let’s look at how this three-layer lighting approach can come to life in various spaces using their intuitive technology:

Living room

The living room absorbs a wide range of activity over the course of a day—reading, working, hosting, watching television, doing nothing in particular—and most overhead lighting isn’t built to flex with all of it. Layering solves this by giving each function its own source.

The Govee 21-Inch Smart Ceiling Light Ultra sets a soft, adjustable base that becomes the room's ambient foundation. A Govee TV Backlight 3 extends color beyond the screen’s edges, softening the contrast between a bright display and a dark room and reducing eye strain during longer viewing. A Govee Lantern Floor Lamp, ideally placed near the seating area, offers a lower, warmer glow for reading.

Together, the three layers let the room shift registers—bright and functional, dim and cinematic, or somewhere in between—without anyone touching a dimmer switch mid-movie.

Bedroom

Bedrooms are asked to do two contradictory things: energize in the morning, and quiet down at night. A single overhead fixture usually fails at both.

Govee BR30 Smart Bulbs installed in existing fixtures cover the ambient layer, creating illumination that’s bright enough for daily use but adjustable enough to dial back at night. A Govee Lantern Floor Lamp placed in the corner acts as a warm, decorative accent piece, creating a cozy atmosphere for unwinding before bed. A Govee Table Lamp 2 on the nightstand provides focused task lighting for reading in bed (and is contained enough that it won't disturb a partner already asleep). Behind the headboard, a Govee Strip Light 2 Pro adds a subtle accent, tracing the wall’s architecture and giving the room definition even when the primary lights are off.

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Kitchen

Kitchens are functional by necessity, but that doesn’t mean they need to feel clinical. A single overhead light tends to cast shadows exactly where precision matters most (over the cutting board, or along the counter) while offering little to soften the room once the cooking is done and the gathering begins.

A Govee 15-Inch Smart Ceiling Light Pro can be the key to the room’s general brightness. A Govee COB Strip Light Pro, installed under the cabinets, delivers direct task lighting over the countertop, eliminating shadows. Above the island, Govee ST19 Smart Edison Bulbs in pendant fixtures can add a warmer, more atmospheric layer. A kitchen, after all, should be just as functional for prepping as it is lingering.

A mix of floor lamps, ceiling lights, and uplighting is the secret to warm, welcoming spaces.

Courtesy of Govee

See the full story on Dwell.com: How Layered Lighting Takes a Home From Flat to Dynamic
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Topped With a Thatched Roof, a Revamped Dutch Villa Seeks €2M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:56:20 -0700

The 1978 home has a traditional brick facade and refreshed interiors with terra-cotta tile floors.

Location: van Beeverlaan 6-A1251 ES, Laren, the Netherlands

Price: €1,995,000 (approximately $2,298,379 USD)

Year: 1978

Renovation Year: 2008

Renovation Designer: Ineke Hilhorst

Renovation Architect: Paco Bunnik

Footprint: 2,820 Square Feet (5 Beds, 3 Baths)

Lot Size: 0.3 Acres

From the Listing: "This remarkable detached villa designed by interior decorator Ineke Hilhorst lies on quiet, dead-end lane that opens directly onto the moors in Laren, the Netherlands. Behind the antique French doors, a generous residence unfolds where light, space, and atmosphere come together in harmonious balance. During an extensive renovation carried out in collaboration with architect Paco Bunnik, the 1970s semi-bungalow received a contemporary update with large window walls, French doors wrapping around the home, and an atelier-style window at the front. The eat-in kitchen features antique schoolroom doors to the hall, which can be fully opened to garden views from all sides.The floor plan allows for single-story living. On the ground floor are the owners’ study rooms, both with views onto the lane. On the upper level is the primary bedroom with en-suite bathroom, equipped with a soaking tub, shower, vanity, and toilet. In all rooms, bespoke wardrobes are built in. Outside, multiple terraces, mature plantings, full privacy fencing, and an automatic irrigation system with its own well ensure comfort and privacy. The grounds also include a double garage with a large attic space."

The thatched roof is one of the home’s most distinctive qualities.

Photo by Eddy Wenting

See the full story on Dwell.com: Topped With a Thatched Roof, a Revamped Dutch Villa Seeks €2M
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Bestselling Cookbook Author Caroline Chambers Did Her Best to Speed-Reno Her Kitchen—With No Regrets

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:56:37 -0700

Beloved for her approachable recipes, the most popular cooking writer on Substack worked with friend and designer Lily Wick to make a space that would simplify work and family time in her California home.

The Carmel Valley, California-based Caroline Chambers—food content creator, newsletter writer, and bestselling author of What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking (2024)—had just finished renovating a house in early 2025 with her husband George when a pregnancy with a fourth child hurled them into a whirlwind plan B. They decided to find a bigger place (they closed on a 100-year-old farmhouse last May), renovate it all summer, welcome the baby in July, and move in by September.

That plan, with its aggressive timeline, didn’t come to fruition. Instead, the home chef, who’s best known for making fast and adaptable meals, had to somewhat take a step back and let the planning and building of her new kitchen take the appropriate time it required. In September 2025, the family temporarily moved into the new property’s two small cottages—each parent took a cottage with two kids. Although Chambers describes the experience as "complete chaos for two and a half months," she says it was kismet that their new farmhouse came with two liveable cottages with kitchens, which is uncommon for the area. Many of their family meals during that time were simplified and involved a lot of grilling. Chambers also slowed down her work pace with her pregnancy.

The family of six officially moved into the main farmhouse in late November. The house wasn’t fully renovated at that point (construction was ongoing through December), but the kitchen was complete, and Chambers could finally make use of the most important room for her line of work. Even though her self-imposed September deadline wasn’t met, Chambers still acknowledges that, all things considered, the kitchen wrapped in a flash.

The property includes two small cottages and overlooks the Santa Lucia Mountains.

Photo by Soraya Matos

"My best friend Lily Wick is my designer, and if it wasn’t my best friend working with me, we never could have renovated the kitchen that fast," says Chambers. She remembers "pleading with my contractor to at least have the kitchen finished by late October," so that photos could be included in her second cookbook, What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast, a new recipe collection out August 11, comprising of 15- and 30-minute meals and one chapter devoted to meals you can fully walk-away from. The book was written with busy parents in mind, who need to "make a lot of food fast for hungry children," says Chambers.

Speed was also the name of the game when it came to the kitchen renovation. Since it was the first major project, Chambers and Wick made important design decisions that invariably set the tone for the rest of the house. Inspiration emerged from Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated, Chambers’ Southern upbringing, the color green, and an appreciation for antiques and handcrafted items. There were parts of the new kitchen design that felt like an intentional departure from her previous kitchen. "I went against how I think a great kitchen should be designed for creating content," Chambers says. "My old kitchen was perfect for content—the stove was on the island so I could set up a camera on the other side of the island and shoot across it and demo really well whatever I was cooking."

Now, her stove sits against a wall, which is more typical. Early on, Chambers considered an island stove for shooting purposes, but ultimately opted for a huge island instead, seeing the potential for it to become a central gathering area: someplace for the kids to not only eat at but sit on top of, that they could throw their backpacks onto, or where friends and guests could spread out for dinner parties and cocktails. "A stove in the middle of the island would interrupt all that, so I’ve adjusted to shooting the stove from the side and it’s working out just fine," she says. For how much of a time-crunch they were in, Chambers is thrilled with how her kitchen turned out, which blends old farmhouse charms with industrial modernity.

Install a secret bar

Behind a set of cabinet doors is a full bar, which is on display for dinner parties.

Photo by Soraya Matos

The original kitchen had three small closets next to each other. They kept one closet to stash cleaning supplies, but knocked down the other two closets to rebuild them as a pantry-bar hybrid. The bar, which tucks away behind a set of doors, has its own ice maker and beverage fridge. "I don’t like when bars are on display, but when we have company, we can open this up and have a full bar moment, which has come in handy because we have people over a lot," says Chambers.

Lean into island life

Photo by Soraya Matos

See the full story on Dwell.com: Bestselling Cookbook Author Caroline Chambers Did Her Best to Speed-Reno Her Kitchen—With No Regrets
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Every Story in This $1.9M Lake Pontchartrain Home Comes Framed in Glass

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 7 Aug 2026 07:56:32 -0700

Panoramic lake views meet waterfront wellness.

4809 Neyrey Drive in Metairie, Louisiana, is currently listed at $1,979,000 by Douglas Adams and David Smith at Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty.

There are very few addresses in the entire Metro New Orleans market where you can wake each morning to unobstructed, panoramic views of Lake Pontchartrain. Positioned directly on the water in Metairie’s most coveted lakefront corridor, this three-level contemporary estate offers interiors swathed in floor-to-ceiling glass, where every principal room frames a different chapter of the lake's ever-changing light.

A saltwater pool and heated spa anchor the outdoor living level, while a primary suite balcony and terraces extend the entertaining footprint from the water’s edge skyward across three stories of dramatic architecture. An in-residence heated sauna adds a layer of wellness amenity rarely found outside of true luxury compounds.

Inside, the interiors are appointed with designer-grade counters, stainless appliances, a wine cooler, gas fireplace, and the kind of generous natural light that only direct southern water exposure can deliver. Energy-efficient windows, water heater, and multi-zone climate control speak to the thoughtfulness of the home's systems.

The home sits just minutes from Lakeside Mall, New Orleans’ premier dining corridors, Louis Armstrong International Airport, and I-10 access, placing downtown New Orleans, the Northshore, Ochsner and Tulane medical centers, and the French Quarter all within a short drive. Perhaps most enticing is the offer for bond for deed financing for qualified buyers with negotiable down payment, competitive rate structure, and customized payment terms. Even the furniture is included.

Listing Details

Bedrooms: 4

Baths: 3 full, 1 partial

Year Built: 1986

Square feet: 4,431

Plot Size: 0.2 acres

Courtesy of Crescent Sotheby's International Realty

See the full story on Dwell.com: Every Story in This $1.9M Lake Pontchartrain Home Comes Framed in Glass
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This L.A. Housing Design Contest Is Exactly How This Is Supposed to Work

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 6 Aug 2026 14:56:26 -0700

A recent competition engineered to take advantage of new pro-density legislation has already helped fund the development of 20 units.

Debates around housing development are often chicken-or-the-egg. To build more housing quickly we must have legislative changes that allow for more housing to be built; but in order to build public consensus around such legislation—to defeat the NIMBY class—we must demonstrate that density is not the enemy, and that new housing can be built without neglecting good design. In recent years, Los Angeles has had a perfect confluence of chickens and eggs: the state and city have begun to loosen restrictions that slow down new developments, while groups like CityLab-UCLA, an interdisciplinary urban development research hub, have been capitalizing on the changes by soliciting proposals from the design and development community to get new homes built across the city’s thousands of vacant lots.

Last year, as Dwell previously reported, CityLab-UCLA launched their Small Lots/Big Impact design competition, which sought plans for a variety of multifamily housing typologies using city-owned land. Winners were selected and announced last spring. But as many design competitions go, their award-winning ideas were just that—ideas. To actually bring new homes to life, CityLab-UCLA partnered with local community development financial institution Genesis LA to introduce a subsequent competition, a request for information from developers and architects looking to build new owner-occupied housing, between three and ten units, on privately-owned land smaller than half an acre.

King 1101 Apartments, a previous project by one of the winning firms, Holos Communities, in Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy Holos Communities

This week, they’ve announced three winners of their RFI that, with Genesis funding, will cover 95 percent of the development costs, according to CityLab-UCLA. On the smallest side, Stayner Architects will construct between five and seven units on a single lot in Echo Park; Holos Communities and Assemblage Works, which proposed a modular multifamily development, will target East Hollywood; and the team of co-developers Six Peak Capital and Frolic Community, with architects West of West and Aero Collective, plan to build eight units on a single lot on the city’s west side.

Los Angeles, and California at large, have been leading the nation in overhauling their housing restrictions: Over the last five years, state and local governments have legalized ADUs statewide, streamlined multifamily permitting, and helped developers mitigate costly development fees. Very recently, California made it legal to subdivide individual lots to construct multiple homes on one parcel through SB 1123, which passed last year and went into effect last summer. Now, developers don’t need variances to add up to ten homes on a lot, which saves time (and dollars) on development and construction. The CityLab RFI capitalizes on SB 1123, says Emmanuel Proussaloglou, CityLab co-director. "There wasn’t a particularly economically viable development path on a lot of these lots up until recently, and now there’s a sort of push to see what we can do with it," he says.

Importantly, all of the lots that will be developed are privately owned—a departure from their original design competition that solicited ideas for the nearly 4,000 city-owned vacant lots. They decided to pivot their RFI to use privately-owned land as a way to avoid the lags of getting approvals from city officials. "We made sure that the winners of the design competition would be the most eligible and promising partners for any development deal—private or public," says Dana Cuff, CityLab’s director. In addition to the 4,000 city-owned parcels, there are around 24,000 privately-owned vacant parcels, she continues, many of which are ripe for housing development.

Though renderings are provided for each of the winning designs (two of the projects by Stayner and Six Peak/Frolic were included in the Small Lots ideas competition), they are not finalized, Proussaloglou says. Rather than the usual glossy imagery of many design competitions, he continues, the RFI jury looked for submitting teams that had completed previous work that aligned with their vision.

Winners are responsible for selecting their lots and securing entitlements; only one, Stayner Architects, already owns the lot on which they’ll build. The others are now "targeting" specific areas: The co-development team of Six Peak Capital and Frolic Community is looking at sites in neighborhoods like Venice where land will be more expensive, but Proussaloglou says that they have experience in developing alternative home ownership models to separate expensive land costs from unit costs. Holos Communities and Assemblage Works are targeting East Hollywood, he continues, where they hope to show a proof of concept around modular construction technology’s efficiency. Finding an eligible parcel isn’t easy and securing entitlements can be a long process; CityLab has a set timeline, and in the case that the winning teams cannot secure land there are 11 "bench" winners who can step in.

"We will be able to work alongside the teams to make sure that the laws that are in place are ones that the planning department and all the different review agencies know how to deploy. Since they are kind of new laws, that will be a job for us to work with alongside the development and design team to make sure that it all goes smoothly and according to law," adds Cuff.

The Steps on St. Andrews, another project by Holos Communities in Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy Holos Communities

They hope that these new homes will be completed by 2029. It seems far off, considering that there will only be around 20 new units added to Los Angeles’s housing landscape, but CityLab organizers believe that their transparent, open-source process will influence how other developers take advantage of the new pro-density laws. "We are going to share as much as we can about the winning submissions—the designs, the pro formas, the summary documents from all 30 submissions," says Proussaloglou. Considering the climate in the Los Angeles real estate market, those developers who own lots and are ready to hit the ground running might have a leg up once the 20 forthcoming units are completed, and landing a chance to whittle down that list of 24,000 empty lots and turn them into a group of new homes as soon as possible.

Top image courtesy of Six Peak Capital

Can We Blame the Banks for the Dearth of American Starter Homes?

If You Love Midcenturies and Houseboats, This $1.2M Floating Home Has the Best of Both Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 6 Aug 2026 10:56:32 -0700

Moored in Seattle’s Portage Bay, the 1958 residence by architect Gerald van Slyck conjures up cabin vibes with cozy wood-wrapped interiors.

Location: 3130 Portage Bay Place E #C, Seattle, Washington

Price: $1,175,000

Year Built: 1958

Original Architect: Gerald Van Slyck

Footprint: 833 square feet (1 bed, 1 bath)

From the Agent: "Come live in your custom floating home with 43-foot moorage, parking, and a well-managed HOA. Enjoy the perfect balance of lakeside tranquility and city convenience in this floating home by architect Gerald Van Slyck. Vaulted ceilings and expansive windows flood the home with natural light, while two outdoor spaces offer seamless indoor/outdoor living on the water. A rare and atypical 43-foot moorage offers exceptional flexibility to accommodate a wide range of vessels, including sailboats. A well-managed HOA covers utilities and supports long-term upkeep for easy ownership. Live on the lake with quick access to Seattle’s metropolitan neighborhoods, dining, cafes, and entertainment."

The houseboat has been staged by furniture maker Keeps, rug design practice Studio Tenjung, and local vintage design shop In The Comfort Of.

Photo by Emily Un

A 1950s modular sofa by Martin Borenstein anchors the living, accented by Studio Tenjung’s Liwu yak wool rug.

Photo by Emily Un

See the full story on Dwell.com: If You Love Midcenturies and Houseboats, This $1.2M Floating Home Has the Best of Both Worlds
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That’s One Way to Use Pandemic Office Pods

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 6 Aug 2026 09:56:07 -0700

Portable glass enclosures built by an auto shop during Covid are the newest accommodations at one of America’s oddest camps.

Camp Wandawega looks every bit like your classic American summer camp. The forested Wisconsin property has a dusty lodge with antlers on the walls, a lake complete with canoes, hand-painted signs, old cars—Smokey Bear would live here. Peeking at the camp’s Instagram, the vibe is undeniably Wet Hot American Summer.

Only it’s never been a place to send your kids for capture the flag, archery class, or first crushes. Established in 1925 as a lakeside resort for Chicagoans, it was a Prohibition-era haunt and a Latvian Catholic camp before becoming a retreat again in the ’60s. In 2004 it was turned into a rentable resort and event space, and since, its owners have been laying the Americana on thick. They brought in cabins from an old Girl Scout camp, added an infirmary that looks plucked from the set of Moonrise Kingdom, and more recently, released a range of cottagecore home goods. Its latest accommodations, though, are a bucket of cold water on the campfire fantasy: a pair of aluminum-framed glass boxes originally built as custom office pods.

"Honestly, they found us," says Tereasa Surratt, who owns the camp with her partner, David Hernandez. "I spotted them on Facebook Marketplace and couldn’t quite figure out what I was looking at. They were these all-glass structures sitting outside a huge auto body shop in Lake County, Illinois. I drove down to take a look, and that’s when the story got interesting."

She discovered that the structures had been custom built by the owner of the auto-repair shop during the pandemic so that insurance adjusters stopping by would have a safe place to fill out paperwork and take calls. The proprietor also happened to own a commercial glazing company and so instead of ordering prefab pods he decided to build his own. As social distancing restrictions were lifted, they were no longer needed and moved outside.

They’d withstood at least two notoriously harsh Midwestern winters, which helped convince Surratt and Hernandez that they might be a good fit as lodgings at Wandawega. "One of my favorite details of the pods is that they were designed to move," Surratt adds. "Each one has integrated forklift pockets built into their base, so they could be picked up and relocated whenever the shop needed to be reconfigured." Of course, this was also ideal for getting them up to the camp.

See the full story on Dwell.com: That’s One Way to Use Pandemic Office Pods
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For $6.5M, a Spanish-Style 1923 Home in Los Angeles Comes With a Healthy Dose of Whimsy

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 6 Aug 2026 07:56:28 -0700

Traditional bones meet an abundance of color and texture.

2230 Nottingham Avenue in Los Angeles, California, is currently listed at $6,500,000 by Sonya Coke at Sotheby’s International Realty - Los Feliz Brokerage.

Tucked in a private, lushly landscaped setting beyond a verdant front garden, this grand Spanish-style home unfolds in a series of formal spaces layered in light, color, and texture.

The living room, anchored by a wood-burning fireplace, holds space for either cozying up with a good book on the sofa in front of built-in shelves flanked by windows framing the greenery of the front garden or gathering under the dangling starburst chandelier with friends. A hand-painted abstract mural by Fromental of California's mountains sets a dramatic tone for the dining room.

The kitchen is dressed in dusty lilac cabinets with a large island and stainless steel appliances, and flows into the breakfast area and the lounge-y den. The lower level features a family and screening room with a laundry room and bathroom. Upstairs holds the bedrooms, with the primary offering a walk-in closet, an ensuite bathroom, and distant views of downtown LA.

Outside, lush rear gardens hold a swimmer's pool and a guest house currently used as a studio for a luxury collection of handmade vintage Moroccan rugs. Topping it off is a detached three-car garage.

Listing Details

Bedrooms: 5

Baths: 5 full, 1 partial

Year Built: 1923

Square feet: 5,618

Plot Size: 0.35 acres

Courtesy of Sotheby's International Realty - Los Feliz Brokerage

See the full story on Dwell.com: For $6.5M, a Spanish-Style 1923 Home in Los Angeles Comes With a Healthy Dose of Whimsy
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How They Pulled It Off: Building a Home Into a Steep Utah Mountainside

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 5 Aug 2026 08:56:26 -0700

Park City firm Klima Architecture explains how a radical roof was the first step in tapping the slope’s potential.

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

After 30 years in Phoenix, Trisha and Brian Coffman were ready to relocate. They would soon be empty nesters and wanted a mountain home that captured the grandeur of its setting. So they bought a piece of hillside land in Summit Park, an old mountain community between Park City and Salt Lake City, that was surrounded by 100-foot Douglas firs and old-growth spruce. But what made it so stunning also made it exceptionally challenging to build a home on. Located at 7,100 feet, it falls off at a roughly 45-degree angle, only has one access road, and endures winters where nine feet of snow is the norm.

Chris Price, founder of Klima Architecture, designed an alpine home that follows the grade of a steep site. A band of windows runs down one side, enhancing the stretching effect.

Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

So how do you build a house on the side of a mountain? That was the question Trisha and Brian posed to Chris Price, founder of Klima Architecture, a Park City architecture, interiors, and landscape practice. Price has designed nine homes in Summit Park, including his own, and has lived there since 2009. "It’s kind of like the redheaded stepchild neighborhood," says Price, for its limited access and difficult terrain. But there also weren’t any covenants, conditions, or restrictions, and no HOA, unlike other nearby areas where, Price says, the rules can be particularly restrictive of style and materials. "Having less restraints really gives more freedom to the client’s voice and the land’s voice. Then I try to interpolate the two into a functional statement."

A deck extends from the main living space.

Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

Despite the stylistic freedom afforded by the area, the site’s steep drop off created limitations. But Price viewed them as an opportunity to create a home that responds to the natural contours of the site. He designed a four-level house that, on approach, greets visitors with a subtle sloping metal roof and two cedar setbacks that create the illusion of multiple volumes. In section, the design turns dramatic, with a monolithic roof that appears to stretch down the hillside, tracing the angle of the slope as if being pulled toward the valley below. Here’s how Price worked with the land to build a home for Trisha and Brian that immerses them in their new setting.

The roof in the living area shows the series of folds in the roof that Price designed in part to follow height limits.

Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

See the full story on Dwell.com: How They Pulled It Off: Building a Home Into a Steep Utah Mountainside

Exasperated by Your Landlord? Try Making a Diss Music Video

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 4 Aug 2026 14:56:28 -0700

Two frustrated Clevelanders who wrote a song to call out their building owner are among the many American tenants becoming more vocal about their rights.

"I’m going to war with my landlord," proclaims comedian Caleb Hearon on the podcast The Downside. "These fucking evil freaks continue to ask for more, and we just accept it." The 2025 clip has since gone viral on social media, speaking to the growing boldface ire renters have for their landlords. Finding stability as a tenant comes at a cost that goes up year after year, and renters are increasingly becoming a vocal force for recourse, coming together to fight against rent increases and bad maintenance practices. Hearon calls for town halls between landlords and their tenants, which in today’s political climate have served as a means for the public to come together and yell at powerful folks like elected representatives. (They’ve been so effective that news about congressional reps dodging or the GOP outright barring the public meetings have made the news). His inclination to "go to war" is a shared one, like a biblical blood feud between ancestral land owners and their serfs; locate the enemy, put them in the stocks, and shame them.

In Cleveland, renter-roommates Julia Kim and Cameron Celebuski found themselves in an unusual conflict with their landlord and took their fight to a whole new level: They made a music video. As seen on the Instagram account "I’m From Cleveland," the duo wrote a yacht-rock-esque ballad called "Don’t Rent From Cindy" and produced a five-and-a-half minute video to accompany it under the duo’s name, Kimbuski. The video features some incredible outfits—matching tracksuits, clown costumes, wigs—as well as flute solos, choreography, and screenshots and voicemail messages from their landlord, Cindy. It’s symbolic of what it might mean for tenants to go to war, and the lengths some will go to to hold bad landlords accountable.

Roommates Cameron Celebuski and Julia Kim took a creative approach to their landlord dispute.

Courtesy Kimbuski

This latest dispute between Kim, Celebuski, and their landlord hinges on their four-bedroom house. In the ballad they detail how their two other roommates had moved out, and that Kim was contemplating also moving depending on a job change. Per their singsong narrative, their landlord assured them that they could stay in the house and would bring in two new tenants to live in the vacant rooms; however, she went ahead and rented out Celebuski’s room, too. "You gave [Kim] ’til the end of the month to decide but then you rented out my room to a stranger without even telling me," he sings. "That’s when you texted us out of the blue that one of us would have to leave."

As they recount these events, screenshots of the text messages from their landlord scroll onto the screen; she threatens them with fines—$100 for every day they stayed past their previous lease, plus a $100/month increase in rent "due to the economy." She also texts that "most landlords would have taken more extreme action," maybe a reference to Ohio’s loose tenant protections, which allow landlords to pursue nonpayment evictions on three-day notice. (Some states have laws that require notice upward of 60 days; others, like Indiana, require 10 days, while Texas also requires three.) As a voicemail plays over the instrumental bridge, we hear the landlord say, "I have the right to rent this house to anywhere [sic]."

Elaborate costumes and editing mirror the ridiculousness of the situation Kimbuski was put in by their landlord.

Courtesy Kimbuski 

Her messages display how bad landlords often get away with neglecting maintenance or charging junk fees—by relying on tenants not knowing or being able to navigate the complex state and local laws that enforce rights and responsibilities. But Kimbuski did legal research to understand what they’re entitled to. Last year, Cleveland launched a three-year pilot program that is designed to help educate renters about their rights and "organize to fight neglectful landlords and tap into services to pay rent and avoid evictions." Kimbuski consulted with an attorney (also a right under local law) who said that her text messages giving them time to decide whether to stay or move are legally binding; they also found that the homes owned by the landlord’s company are unregistered, which violates Cleveland’s 2024 Residents First law that requires all landlords to register each of their rental units with the city. "It would be a shame if everyone reported you / ’cause you didn’t keep your promises it turned out the whole time / by renting out your house to us you committed a crime allegedly," they sing.

One hopes that Kimbuski’s music video might serve as a warning to other tenants of this particular landlord, who hasn’t issued any type of public rebuttal as of this writing. The internet is built upon the voyeuristic parts of us, reveling as we watch someone publicly put someone else on blast in such an artful way. But it also points to the ways that the tenant/landlord dynamic appears to be worsening, at least publicly, and as tenants become more vocal, some politicians have responded by attending to their specific woes: In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made news over recent months with his Rental Ripoff hearings that led to proposing an array of pro-tenant policies; in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced the Protect Renters Ordinance, which would, like Cleveland, require landlords to register their units with the city.

Kim and Celebuski’s landlord has yet to respond publicly to the music video.

Courtesy Kimbuski

See the full story on Dwell.com: Exasperated by Your Landlord? Try Making a Diss Music Video

The Spaceship Home From "Portlandia" Just Landed on the Market for $975K

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 4 Aug 2026 08:56:35 -0700

Also know as the Eyebrow House, the radically renovated 1941 bungalow had a star turn on the hit show.

Location: 6221 SE Ash Street, Portland, Oregon

Price: $975,000

Year Built: 1941

Year Renovated: 2010

Renovation Architect: Edgar Papazian

Footprint: 2,431 square feet (4 bed, 3 bath)

Lot Size: 0.13 acres

From the Listing: "Tucked into Portland’s Mount Tabor neighborhood, the Eyebrow House began as a modest 1941 Cape Cod home before Yale-trained architect Edgar Papazian transformed it into one of the city’s most distinctive residences. He installed the sweeping arched steel dormers that are its namesake, traded hard angles for sloped ceilings and curved walls, and reoriented the home toward its deep, tree-lined backyard. Its unmistakable silhouette has made it a local icon and recurring filming location for IFC's Portlandia. The heart of the home is an expansive kitchen and dining space, flipped on its axis to transform the private backyard into a living backdrop. Ascending the staircase reveals a remarkably private, sculptural sanctuary on the second level. What was once a narrow tube of space beneath the eaves now soars, thanks to dramatic arched steel dormers that fill it with reflected light. Exposed bolts and fasteners along the ribbed metal ceiling lend an industrial edge, set against rich oak floors, radiant heated for quiet comfort. Triple-glazed arched windows frame the treetop canopy of the backyard below, creating the distinct feeling of living in an elegant, elevated tree house."

Also know as the Eyebrow House, this radically renovated 1941 bungalow had a star turn on "Portlandia."

Photo by Caleb Vandermeer

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Spaceship Home From "Portlandia" Just Landed on the Market for $975K
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A Pink Stair Punctuates a Family’s Renovated 720-Square-Foot Madrid Apartment

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 3 Aug 2026 11:56:35 -0700

The flat is reorganized with a sprawling MDF built-in and splashed with more bold color, including yellow shelving and blue tile.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Madrid, Spain

Architect: Burr / @burr.studio

Footprint: 720 square feet

Photographer: Maru Serrano

From the Architect: "AZ06 is the renovation of an existing apartment in Madrid to accommodate a family of five. The project begins with a condition defined by the original layout itself: the presence of the building core—a main staircase, elevators, and an internal courtyard—as the inevitable center of the plan. The intervention takes advantage of this centrality to organize a home that rotates around this void, encouraging a form of circulation that crosses through the apartment and allows it to be experienced cyclically in different ways. The dwelling is no longer understood as a sequence of enclosed rooms, but begins to operate as a system of passage: each room has both an entry route and an exit route, and all of them acquire, to a greater or lesser extent, the condition of a room of passage.

"In plan, the intervention is configured as an infrastructural enclosure. A large piece of furniture divides the more public areas from the more private ones and, at the same time, becomes the main servicing element of the home: it houses installations, concentrates storage capacity, and organizes access to bathrooms and toilets. This is not a matter of ‘furnishing’ the plan, but of introducing an operative thickness that reorganizes the whole, absorbs the technical elements and frees the rest of the apartment for changing uses.

"Materially, this large perimeter enclosure is made of varnished MDF. Upon this continuous base, all singular interventions are understood as inlays or additions: kitchens, large sliding doors, shelving and even access points to hidden rooms appear lacquered in yellow. Color does not operate as a superficial accent, but as a code of interpretation: it marks what is operative, what opens, what contains, what transforms the furniture plane into inhabitable architecture.

"The project is therefore built from two complementary strategies. On the one hand, a large infrastructural gesture that concentrates services and organizes the plan. On the other, a concatenation of spaces designed to be traversed in different ways, allowing alternative itineraries and producing unprogrammed encounters. As a result, the spaces adopt very different forms and sizes depending on the uses they are intended to accommodate: from rooms that seek maximum extension in order to host family life as a whole, to small, almost secret areas. One of the modules of the central shelving unit, which houses the family library, opens to give access to a small study: an enclosed chamber intended for isolated, concentrated work, which is in turn connected to the main bedroom. The project uses furniture as a threshold, as a thick door, capable of containing programs within the system itself.

"Breaking with this logic, a singular piece appears: a metal spiral staircase suspended from the upper floor slab, giving access to a final isolated room, the only one which, together with the bathrooms and toilets, has only one route in and out. Externally, the staircase is clad in pink lacquered sheet metal, forming a cylinder that hovers above the plywood floor of the rest of the apartment. Inside, the space is lined with a layer of padded textile, almost like elongated cushions, which envelop the inhabitant and create an acoustic barrier from the rest of the home."

Photo by Maru Serrano

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Pink Stair Punctuates a Family’s Renovated 720-Square-Foot Madrid Apartment

Before & After: The Finishing Touch for This Firehouse Loft Was a 300-Person Pride Party

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 3 Aug 2026 10:56:37 -0700

Designer Mariano Testa leaned into the Brooklyn building’s history and imperfections—including a concrete floor scuffed by his friends’ footprints—as he breathed new life into the space.

Mariano Testa lives in a former firehouse, and there’s a heavy metal door that opens to his loft. On the inside of the door, he pins various scraps and mementos from the year—a friend’s wedding invitation, a picture of his dog, Luna, fortune cookie messages. "The door becomes this beautiful record of the year and what’s happening in my life, good and bad," says Mariano. "Maybe like a real-life Instagram wall or something, you know?"

As the founder of Studio Testa and a longtime creative director working for heritage brands like Ralph Lauren and Kiehl’s, it’s no wonder that Mariano landed in a building that has just as many stories to tell. It was 2024, and Mariano had just sold a house in Hudson, New York, when he ran into his real estate agent at a party. He mentioned wanting a bigger apartment in the city, and the agent sent a listing for this Brooklyn loft two days later. "I was not looking for a place, but my agent showed me this firehouse, and when I got into the apartment, it was my dream," says Mariano.

Before: Entry

Before: The loft had a mezzanine level accessed by a small spiral staircase, and a lot of drywall covering the original brick walls.

Courtesy of Studio Testa

After: Entry

The back of Mariano’s front door is covered with ephemera from the past year.

Photo: Ellen McDermott

Mariano was enamored with the 16-foot-tall, barrel-vaulted ceilings, exposed brick walls, and 1,500-square-foot layout with an outdoor terrace and a mezzanine. The history was good, too, as the building had first housed a local engine company, and then an underground music venue with artist lofts for decades, before it was converted into condos. Less appealing were some of the design decisions that had been made in that latter transformation: the loft had a small, cramped kitchen, no bathroom upstairs, and a tight spiral staircase up to the mezzanine.

After he bought the apartment, Mariano prioritized removing the finishes that concealed its bones, starting with all of the drywall covering the brick. "I love Americana. I love workwear. I love when a pair of jeans is ripped and then you have to stitch it and fix it," says Mariano, who grew up in Buenos Aires, studied design in Barcelona, and has lived in New York for two decades. "When it comes to spaces, I like authenticity."

Before: Living Area

Before: Mariano removed the dividing wall to create a bigger living room at the rear of the apartment.

Courtesy of Studio Testa

See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: The Finishing Touch for This Firehouse Loft Was a 300-Person Pride Party
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Lush Foliage Surrounds This Serene Pasadena Midcentury Listed for $3.9M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 3 Aug 2026 09:56:42 -0700

Designed by David Stringer, the well-preserved home has original parquet floors, walls of glass, and a wine cave tucked into the hillside.

Location: 832 Canon Drive, Pasadena, California

Price: 3,930,000

Architect: David Stringer

Year Built: 1963

Footprint: 3,492 Square Feet (4 Bed, 5 Bath)

Lot Size: 0.52 Acres

From the Agent: "832 Canon Drive in Pasadena’s Oak Knoll neighborhood is an architectural treasure that stands among the finest examples of iconic Southern California midcentury-modern design. Designed by noted architect David Stringer, AIA, and built by Pasadena's esteemed E.C. Moller Construction Company in 1963, the property’s design features clean lines and an effortless connection to the lush surrounding landscape. From the circular driveway, enter the home through the grand foyer and find yourself in an airy living and dining space. The room features original oak parquet floors, a raised-hearth fireplace with original brick accents, built-in cabinetry, a wet bar, and picturesque views in every direction. Two separate entrances lead to a sizable kitchen with a large picture window, abundant cabinet and countertop space, and access to the laundry room and attached two-car garage. Set on the opposite side of the house and separated from the living space by the entry foyer, each of the home’s three main bedrooms features floor-to-ceiling windows with direct access to the outdoors as well as an en suite bathroom—or in the case of the primary suite, two en suite bathrooms, both with built-in cabinetry and spacious countertops that serve as individual dressing areas. A large office, potentially usable as a fourth bedroom, looks through walls of glass onto a resort-style backyard. Outside you’ll also find one of the property’s most unique features: a spacious wine cave built directly into the hillside, where extensive custom racking and a naturally cool environment evoke old-world Europe."

Designed in 1963 by architect David Stringer, the home is on the market for the first time in over 30 years.

Photo by Brandon Valiente

See the full story on Dwell.com: Lush Foliage Surrounds This Serene Pasadena Midcentury Listed for $3.9M
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One of Louis Kahn’s Protégés Designed This $1M Pennsylvania Midcentury With a Koi Pond

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:56:21 -0700

In the Philadelphia suburbs, the 1957 home by Carlos Joseph Alvaré has 10-foot walls of glass, exposed Douglas fir beams, fieldstone facades, and a lush, Japanese-inspired garden.

Location: 1220 Susquehanna Road, Rydal, Pennsylvania

Price: $1,056,000

Year Built: 1957

Architect: Carlos Joseph Alvaré

Footprint: 2,244 Square Feet (3 Beds, 2 Baths)

Lot Size: .72 Acres

From the Agent: "The Rhode Residence is a remarkably preserved single-story midcentury-modern gem in Rydal, Pennsylvania, being offered for sale for only the second time since it was designed and built in 1957. Located in Abington Township, outside Philadelphia, the home was designed by Cuban-born architect Carlos Joseph Alvaré (1924–2017), who worked under Louis Kahn from 1947 to 1951. Alvaré studied architecture at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, with connections to Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier during his education.

Influenced by Kahn and other contemporary modernists, Alvaré designed award-winning homes characterized by facades of Pennsylvania fieldstone, open-flowing layouts, exposed structural elements, custom millwork, expansive windows, and dramatic ten-foot walls of glass that connect the interiors to the natural landscape. His work also emphasized thoughtful siting, natural light, and Japanese-inspired landscape design.

Commissioned by Meyer and Rhea Rhode, longtime patrons of Philadelphia’s arts community, the Rhode Residence is one of the finest surviving examples of Alvaré’s residential work. The home sits on a private, professionally landscaped 0.72-acre lot and retains many of its original architectural details, alongside updates to the roof, mechanical systems, kitchen, bathrooms, electrical system, flooring, lighting, and landscaping. Currently owned by a professional artist, it has been meticulously preserved.

Largely intact midcentury-modern homes by a Kahn protégé that are connected to Philadelphia’s modernist tradition are increasingly rare. The Rhode Residence offers an opportunity to experience a significant and well-preserved example of the region’s postwar residential architecture."

Architect Carlos Joseph Alvaré designed the home in 1957 after working under Louis Kahn from 1947 to 1951. Alvaré earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Yale and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania. At Yale, Oscar Niemeyer advised his senior thesis, and Le Corbusier judged his final project.

Photo by Kirsti Streahle / Donkin Media Group

Ten-foot walls of glass bring the surrounding gardens into the dining area, while original exposed Douglas fir beams and tongue-and-groove ceilings run throughout the main living spaces.

Photo by Kirsti Streahle / Donkin Media Group

See the full story on Dwell.com: One of Louis Kahn’s Protégés Designed This $1M Pennsylvania Midcentury With a Koi Pond
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