The site may be small, but the views are stunning. On the southwest coast of Maui, architect Mark de Reus took advantage of a narrow, 102-foot-wide lot by directing the eye, through a 6,000-square-foot home, out to three small islands in the distance.

He kept his design simple. “One of the things I’ve learned to appreciate is that restraint is good,” he says. “There’s a lot of elegance that comes through simplicity—it’s a nice, elegant solution.”

He maximized visibility and the indoor/outdoor living experience by placing a pool and spa at the leading edge overlooking the Pacific. He added an open lanai adjacent to it and a covered lanai next to that. “They merge together in one large, luxurious space,” de Reus says.

Behind the outdoor spaces are a casual living area, dining area, and kitchen. They integrate with the bigger lanai through sliding glass doors that disappear into walls. “The climate on that side of Maui means you can open it up and live in that luxurious air,” he says. “It’s one outdoor living area.”

The architect worked with land planner Don Vita of Vita Planning and Landscape Architecture, someone he’s collaborated with for 24 years, to address the lot. If one challenge was its narrowness, there were also the houses that flank it on either side. 

“The view is directional,” Vita says. “We had to deal with that and make sure it’s interesting and take advantage of it in as many places inside the home as possible.”

He placed plantings and walls strategically to block sound and sight to and from the homes next door. After all, people on Maui want to spend their time outside as much as possible, without a lot of visibility. “The climate is very nurturing: It feels just right for your skin, and there’s just enough salt spray in the air,” he says. “And the breezes are always there to moderate the temperature, so you end up living outside—and there’s a flow, inside to outside.”

The clients, a pair of attorneys from Sacramento, California, wanted a home that could double as an escape. They also wanted spaces that were not only easy to maintain but water-conscious, too, because the new house is on the dry side of the island. “There are northeast trade winds, so there’s a wet side and a dry side,” Vita says. “The dry side might get 10 inches of rain a year, but the other gets 115 inches.”

That led the landscape planner to work with a water budget, and he used most of it at the entry. There, he placed water-intensive gingers and heliconia for their color, scent, and deep green foliage that gives a lush and tropical feel. 

Carefully placed coconut palms frame views from bedrooms and outdoor spaces. Below the lanai, Vita allowed kiawe and grasses to work their way up to the house. “The thing about designers is that they have to design,” he says. “Sometimes, the genius is to leave it be.”

The architect addressed scale and proportion in his arrangement and composition of living and transition spaces. “You come in from the auto court into a cozy foyer,” de Reus says. “Then you transition from compression to expansion into a larger volume that’s the main gathering space.”

That larger area needed to be a comfortable fit for friends and family. The architect defined it by maximizing its opening for the most drama, merging interior spaces into exterior ones.

“Then you add the materiality. The client liked the use of rich woods,” he says. “We used a number of them on the interior because they’re dark and rich in character.”

While the coral stone cladding the home was imported, walls and ceilings are native ohia wood. Most of the interior furnishings were selected by Marion Philpotts-Miller and Anne Tanaka of Philpotts Interiors in Honolulu. Among the woods chosen for furnishings were ohia, koa, mango, and monkeypod. “You support your local craftsmen in the middle of a pandemic by having things made right on the island,” Philpotts-Miller says.

A cabinetmaker created the oversized, live-edge dining room table from the trunk of a local tree. The headboard in the master suite and the vanities in the bath are both koa, one of the most sought-after and overcut woods on the island. “It’s like royalty,” she says. “It has dark and medium colors, mixed.”

A sense of calm is the overwhelming takeaway from the interiors, and that’s no accident. “There are soulful and restful components, like a yoga and meditation area upstairs,” says Philpotts-Miller. “It’s a retreat where the clients can find quiet time—a nice approach to designing a vacation home.”

And if they feel a sudden need for drama, they can always step out into views of the Pacific. 

Learn more about the project team

For more information visit dereusarchitects.com; philpotts.net

For a Corona del Mar couple, the decision to rebuild on a very specific lot came down to two key factors: nostalgia and family history. “It’s a really sweet story,” says interior designer Denise Morrison, principal of Morrison Interiors in Orange County. She worked alongside architect Christopher Brandon, president and principal architect of Brandon Architects in Costa Mesa, enlisted by the couple to bring the approximately 4,200-square-foot residence to life. “One of the homeowners’ parents lived in the home [built in the 1960s], and it was very loved by our clients and our clients’ children, who grew up visiting their grandparents at the home.”

The couple, who envisioned a light and open house with a cohesive indoor-outdoor flow that captured both bay and ocean views, also wanted to create a destination for family gatherings and a space for new memories. “The home held many pleasant memories for us, and we felt this was a way of honoring those memories,” says the wife. “We wanted it to be comfortable for the two of us while still accommodating a larger group of family and friends. It was also important for the spaces to incorporate existing items, especially art, and integrate them with new furniture and decorative pieces.”

For the overall design, an array of elements and materials were carefully implemented, including a standing seam metal roof; exposed steel beams; exposed white oak tongue-and-groove ceilings; and natural tumbled stone, along with a warm, organic contemporary aesthetic with calming shades of white, black, and khaki. Subtle pops of earthy reds and terracotta and artwork from the couple’s collection were placed primarily in the entry.

“There was a feeling that this had to be a perfect family home that honored the past and set the stage for the future,” explains Morrison. “Incorporating the homeowners’ important collectibles was key to making this new home feel familiar and respectful of its history.”

Design elements throughout the house include stone floors; a dirty kitchen separate from the primary kitchen for prep and cooking; a spacious office with plenty of storage and two large working spaces and a shared peninsula; and an outdoor patio with a full-size pool with an infinity edge. Apart from the outdoor space with drool-worthy, unobstructed ocean views, the pièce de résistance is the great room with a powder-coated aluminum coffee table by Alfonso Marina; swivel chairs by Thomas Lavin; a T-Street sofa by HOM (House of Morrison), designed by Morrison and upholstered in a linen-blend fabric; and an oil-on-canvas “Horizon Series #15” painting by artist Jeff Peters that hangs above the fireplace. “It is hard to select a favorite space because we like them all,” admits the wife. “If we had to choose, it would be a tie between the great room and back patio, followed closely by the office. Honorable mention goes to the art wall.”

In the entry, a long corridor creates a sense of arrival and an opportunity to take in the ocean views. “I love their entry and the fact that so much space is devoted to it with so much natural light,” adds Morrison. The serene space is dotted with a sideboard made from a single slab of old Caribbean walnut; wall sconces by Allied Maker; a wood carving sculpture on a pedestal procured by the couple on their travels; and a flat, woven embossed linen wallpaper by Adrienne Laskin & Associates that serves as a perfect backdrop for art. Black-and-white artwork from the couple’s collection is paired with a large, commissioned piece by Victoria MacMillan from Salt Fine Art Gallery in Laguna Beach.

“The commissioned piece was of Crystal Cove Beach, but they wanted it to depict the area of how it used to look when there were trailers in the area before they were removed in the late 1990s,” explains Morrison. “Many of the other art pieces we used throughout were items the couple had purchased on their travels all over the world. Antique rugs and textiles from Morocco were framed in plexiglass, and there are watercolors from Luxembourg.” 

With a fresh beginning anchored on such a significant piece of the past, the couple couldn’t be happier. “Both the exterior and interior designs exceeded our requirements and wishes,” explains the wife. “The longer we have lived there, the more we like it, as does our extended family.”

Brandon agrees: “We’re thrilled with how this home has been completed, taking advantage of the seamless indoor-outdoor aspect of the design with the pocketing doors, and ample space for entertaining and expansive ocean views. We feel like this home is a perfect example of a Southern California transitional design.”

For more information, visit morrisoninteriors.com

“I consider my botanical artworks portraits,” says Jessica Hollander. “They are as individual as people: Every flower, every seed pod is unique.”

Hollander, the creative force of nature behind the New York City–based lifestyle brand India & Purry, gently traces the outline of a poppy petal on a pillow, admiring its “bewitching beauty.” 

“I’m simply obsessed with poppies,” she says. “I love the way the petals are folded like crepe paper. They are otherworldly and delicate.”

For the last decade, Hollander has been creating décor—everything from bedding and wallpaper to table runners, serving trays, and framed giclée prints—that brings the artistry to the everyday home.

“I’m constantly buoyed by the beauty I see all around me in the trees, in the light, in the water,” she says. “And I want to help people create lovely, happy spaces that infuse the mundane with the divine beauty of nature.”

In her portraits, Hollander probes the petals and pods, peeling away the pretense to reveal personality. 

The hellebores are haughty; the poppies are playful; the scabiosa are showy. The dainty dandelions are demure. 

“There’s a quirkiness and sometimes a slight awkwardness to my work that adds edge,” she says.

Growing up in a quiet neighborhood on New York’s Long Island, Hollander was attuned to her suburban surroundings. 

“I’ve always had a deep love of all plants and animals, including insects,” she says, adding that India & Purry is named after her two rescue cats, sisters she welcomed into her home around the time she started the business. “My mother, who is artistic, had an organic garden, and she taught me the Latin names of plants. This love of nature has always been my driving force.”

So has her affinity for art. 

Hollander started drawing in kindergarten, and after graduating from college with a degree in painting and drawing, she began painting portraits of people, not petals.

Although she still does an occasional personal portrait, most of her work focuses on botanical images.

Hollander, a colorist who favors shades of peach and orange and who sees every plant as a sculptural and architectural form, is constantly on the search for beautiful blooms to add to her pictorial garden.

She purchased the poppies, her signature, from a florist in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; she bought the Purple Sheen Sea Hollies from a local bodega; she picked the Queen Anne’s lace by the side of the road in her Greenpoint, Brooklyn, neighborhood; and she plucked the dandelions and roses from her mother’s backyard in Huntington, New York.

Painting is a solitary, soothing pursuit for Hollander, who sets up her easel outdoors. 

“I’ve painted in the woods upstate and deep in Central Park,” she says, adding that the al fresco sessions help her reconnect with her artistic roots and the healing nature of the living landscape. 

Her product designs are derived from her botanical paintings—small watercolors done in a single sitting and large oil-on-canvas works that can take three to four days of concentrated work to complete.

“I curate a collection for each product,” she says, adding that each type of item is individually designed.

She points to the India & Purry Turkish marble coasters, which are available in a variety of patterns and colors. Each coaster in the set of four is a standalone work of art that, when grouped with its mates, forms a different image.

Hollander, who designed a collection of window shades for Hunter Douglas, has plans to expand the India & Purry brand with other licensed work. She recently added resort wear—slacks and caftans—to the line.

“I want to branch out,” she says. “I have a true passion for interior design, and I’d like to create a collection for a boutique hotel. And I envision other types of spaces, commercial as well as residential, fully decorated with India & Purry products.” 

For more information, visit indiaandpurry.com

A 1980s Arts & Crafts–inspired home in Greenwich, Connecticut, has found new life in the classical vernacular.

That’s because New Canaan–based Wadia Associates advised their clients to gut the interior, rethink the flow of its space, and orient its rooms to 270-degree views of Long Island Sound. When they did, the former Shingle Style gave way to a more traditional look and feel.

It was a complete overhaul with an artisanal approach. The designers reimagined the home’s exterior by brightening its shingles with a light gray tone. Inside, they chose natural light over darker detailing, and delivered a soft touch with all-new fabrics and fixtures. 

“We took away some of the Arts & Crafts influence inside and added more of a classical approach to the details,” says Saranda Berisa, Wadia’s director of interior design and decoration. “Now there’s air and breath to the home where before the molding was dark and heavy.”

The clients are a young Indian couple with three middle schoolers. They wanted to show an Eastern influence inside and outside their house, and display their collection of Indian art. “They wanted more of their heritage in the space, and with a classical backdrop it’s more conducive to their desires,” Berisa says. “They wanted to feel like they were home.”

The main architectural challenge was to rethink the “L” shape of the main living spaces, kitchen, dining area, and living room. “Functionally, the task was to open up a plan that was convoluted, so that it flows,” says Wadia architect Robert Butscher. “Now each of its three zones has its own identity.”

Case in point: the breakfast room, where a decorative pattern on the domed ceiling offers an Indian touch. “There are plaster moldings applied to the ceiling, and that gives it a light, delicate, geometric design that echoes more traditional Indian design in a modern way,” he says. “It’s an eight-sided pyramid.”

The kitchen features a center island countertop with colors reminiscent of the sea—blues, greens, and yellows. A surrounding all-white Glassos counter freshens it up. Kitchen cabinets alternate between walnut and dark-teal tones. “There’s a wood grain to the cabinetry, with a high-design veneer,” Berisa says.

In the living area the designers added 24-foot-wide sliding windows that open up to a new porch. The addition not only doubles the indoor/outdoor living area space, but also nearly snugs up to the swimming pool, California-style. “Now it’s a space that’s open on two sides and has a very warm, sheltering feeling. It fits the balance between indoors and out,” project architect Melanie Smith says.

That sheltering feeling is enhanced by a hand-carved teak ceiling designed by a Wadia architect and then fabricated in Italy. Again, it’s a touch that emphasizes the couple’s Indian roots. “It was from an image that the clients saw on a trip while we were in the middle of construction; they came back with a photo,” she says.

The designers added a cupola over the main staircase to bring in natural light at the stairhead above, much like a skylight. Then they opened the ceilings up more. And they reshaped the fireplaces for more classical references. “The assignment was to take a good house and make it a great house,” Butscher says. 

It’s functional because there were three children to consider. But it’s designed for having fun, too, since entertaining was one of the goals of the client. “It lends itself to the objective of vibrant colors, with a little bit of flair and fun,” Berisa says. “It’s a party house: They definitely like to have people come in and enjoy the fruits of their labor.”

A marble entry invites guests in. There’s sparkling Venetian plaster, walls painted by an artist, plus a quartzite countertop and a mosaic floor in the bath. “We used a lot of jewel tones to pay homage to their heritage,” she says. “There’s a rich texture with wallpaper, and a lot of lush treatments in terms of plasters.”

The 9,000-square-foot house took about 18 months to complete, in the middle of the pandemic. But now, almost all of its rooms have views out to Long Island Sound, and they still manage to flow easily from one to another. “It’s breezy and fresh and doesn’t feel big either on the inside or outside,” Butscher says.

As they renovated, the architects made significant technological updates to the house. “We ended up with a fabulous, high-tech, and beautiful home, with the detailing and feeling of an intimate resort,” Smith says. “It’s lit up beautifully at night—it’s almost like a little jewel box on the sound.”

Inside, it’s also a series of high-style spaces, with drama to spare. And while its gables outside may still say Arts & Crafts, the classical makeover of this home is light, airy, and open. 

For more information, visit wadiaassociates.com

For Jeffrey Dungan, architecture starts with art, pure and simple. The features of fine art that pull our eyes and imaginations—an instinctive play of light, the sensuous use of curves, and shapes that feel inborn—are some of the longtime architect’s favorite principles to draw on in his work. 

So it’s only natural that when Dungan, the principal of Jeffrey Dungan Architecture, was asked to design a home in beautiful Alys Beach, Florida, he immediately began to think of natural, pleasing shapes and malleable materials—something, in fact, like a sandcastle. 

“One of my favorite things is to dig into walls, nibble around the edges, and carve, like we did as kids with sandcastles,” Dungan says from his Mountain Brook, Alabama, office. “I also wanted to do something that felt simple.” His materials of choice for the three-story Alys Beach vacation home, concrete and stucco, fit his vision perfectly. “With concrete, unlike wood, you have this great flexibility in formwork, and I’ve always been drawn to curves. I just wanted to play with different opportunities.” 

Rather than a hindrance, Dungan found the Alys Beach design dictum—that homes have a white exterior—to be a lovely opportunity for creativity. “White is powerful; it’s a monochromatic palette,” Dungan says. “You’ve got all this white stucco. Shadow striking a white surface is very pure. I found that to be fascinating. What you’re left with is the detail.”

The home’s exterior details are stunning: deep windows with charcoal-colored frames; a porch with fluted walls; a chimney that becomes an artful creation, complete with teardrop shapes on top, almost like tiny fish. “The voids are also curved,” Dungan says, “so you get these delicious shadows.”

The interior architecture is more complex, with its varying layers, shapes, curves, and occasional vaulted ceilings. On the main level are the primary living spaces, including an elegant little pool set in a courtyard. The second floor holds the bedrooms, a den, and balconies for faraway views. The third floor is reserved for a terrace, bar, and hot tub. White oak cabinetry, designed in-house, and floors are bathed in a warm-hued stain. The creative work of many people—carpenters, builders, masons, metalworkers, artisans, and plasterers—lends the house a one-of-a-kind, easygoing spirit.  

“The house exterior has some muscular moments,” Dungan says. “We wanted the interiors to feel a little soft, a little quieter.” Paint colors in the interior, harmonious with nature, work beautifully on stucco, which takes on a creamier hue indoors. Interior designer Ohara Davies-Gaetano supported the interior’s architectural detailing with a light touch that is both sophisticated and calming. 

Dungan worked with meticulous detail on the play of light and the strong heat of the Florida sunshine. “When I design a home, one of the first things is to have an understanding of how the sun moves across that particular piece of dirt. Then you can understand your light source. I’m always interested in making the most of the natural light. I find natural light and the way it moves into the box can be very powerful, very emotional.” 

Unsurprisingly, Dungan entered architecture through an artist’s portal. Long before he designed homes, he painted watercolors and drew. The author of The Nature of Home: Creating Timeless Houses (Rizzoli), Dungan takes his cues from natural sources. He was very happy when the homeowners told him their simple request: that their vacation home have a relaxed vibe and be welcoming to children. Alys Beach, with stunning vistas and white sand like powdered sugar, was the perfect setting. 

The home’s north side, long and broad, has plentiful glass, allowing natural reflected light to drift in. “I was able to construct a carefully considered structure to allow in morning light but largely avoid direct sun. It’s fabulous,” he says. The garage is tucked on the west side, which in another location could have introduced harsh sun. 

A visitor senses that the house is exactly where it should be, in this stunning beach community. “Every house tells a story,” Dungan says. “The story starts with the roofline. It continues on the interior, but it’s more intimate. There is continuity. You want it to be the same story. Here, it’s the emotional feel, the vibe.” 

For more information, visit  jeffreydungan.com

For years, this San Diego-based telecommunications company founder and his wife escaped to a condominium in a golf community on the southwestern coast of Maui. Their kids, and later their grandkids, joined them; everyone loved it. So, the couple decided to build a contemporary Hawaiian dream home that would comfortably accommodate four generations and last many lifetimes. “They wanted a family legacy that would patina gracefully and celebrate tropical lifestyle by seamlessly blending indoors and outdoors,” Randy Hanna, principal at HGW Architecture, says. 

Hanna worked closely with Ian Morris, principal at GroundLevel Landscape Architecture, to realize the couple’s vision. Diverse local plantings surround the limestone structure, creating a private tropical wonderland that entices at every turn, and not just visually. “The garden initiates multiple senses,” Morris says. “It attracts birds that sing, there are fruit trees the family can harvest, flowers provide incredible smells, and pathways feel good on bare feet.” 

Although much of the home is oriented toward the water—it sits above the shores of the Pacific Ocean abutting a seaside golf course—the backside views are also stellar. “Usually, a house is all about the ocean, but they also face Haleakala Volcano,” Hanna notes. “There are lanais on both sides for views, outdoor access, and tropical breezes.”

Entry is along the volcano side of the pavilion-style home, where a path of Montrachet limestone pavers with sawn surfaces runs from the street to a Hawaiian bluestone and sapele mahogany gate, and then ascends slowly up a series of stairs. The gate highlights the first moment of bespoke local craftsmanship. “On the street side of the gate, there is a relief carving of ocean waves because you are headed to the water,” Hanna says. “On the flip side there are mountains.”

A glass pivot door marks the formal entry, though one might step right into the living room from the eastern lanai. After all, pocketing glass walls open nearly the entire perimeter of the house to the outdoors. That the Montrachet limestone pavers continue underfoot, through the living space, out to the western lanai, and up to the edge of the infinity pool, reinforces the connection. 

Inside, furnishings are spare, but meant for relaxation, and decorative details take cues from traditional Hawaiian arts. There are handmade reproduction antique Hawaiian surfboards leaning against plaster walls and a sapele mahogany–wrapped column with a carved band that tells the family’s story in the manner of traditional Hawaiian tattoo art. And, at the center of the home, bubinga wood panels with a sapele mahogany relief carving of Maui wraps the three-level open stair with lacy aluminum risers and ipe treads.

On the other side of the stair, at the northwest corner, a dining patio with an outdoor kitchen wraps the open-air indoor kitchen. A sleek ipe boardwalk separates the cooking/dining patio from the pool, jutting eight feet into the landscape over the home’s Hawaiian bluestone foundation, about 15 feet above the lower yard. This cantilevered boardwalk looks to Molokini, an uninhabited spit of land known for its snorkeling. “The concept of this lookout point evolved from wanting to celebrate the commanding view,” Hanna says. “We ran the boardwalk all the way into the house, to the foot of the stair, to further connect the house to the site.” 

Three generous guest suites with lanais and a double bunk room with a catamaran netting loft are located on the north and south ends of the home, while the primary suite enjoys elevated views on the second level, as does the family room. Lanais wrap both spaces on two sides, showcasing the owners’ favorite views past the rhythmic bronze rails: the golf course and the island’s only black sand beach. 

Interior spaces with soaring cedar ceilings and exposed structures lean into traditional Hawaiian long room architecture, and walnut screens laser-cut with palm frond patterns mask attic windows and louvers that let in natural light and ocean breezes. Similar to those in the guest suites below, aluminum panels with an abstract scattering of perforations in the shape of plumeria petals ensure privacy for would-be bathers using either of the side-by-side indoor and outdoor showers that look out to the volcano. 

Finally, for those seeking something beyond—or rather, above—the meandering gardens and black sand shores, the stair goes up another level, to the roof. There’s a roof deck and a lawn. “It’s the one place that captures a 360-degree view,” Hanna says. “You see the ocean, the volcano, and the stars.” 

Learn more about the project team

Architect: HGW Architecture
Landscape Architect: GroundLevel Landscape Architecture
Structural Engineer: Scot Listavich Structural Engineering
Civil Engineer: Otomo Engineering, Wailuku, HI
Lighting Designer: Ron Neal Lighting Design
Construction: Haven International, Kihei, HI
Wood Carvings: G&S Woodworks

When a young couple saw this 3,000-square-foot home on a hillside in the Mission Canyon area of Santa Barbara, California, it had almost everything they wanted. It offered year-round sunshine in a peaceful rural setting, spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, abundant space for them and their two wirehaired pointing Griffon dogs, and a perfect indoor-outdoor feel. The only problem? The interiors didn’t match the couple’s style. 

“It was a nice house before the renovation, but it lacked functionality and warmth in many of the spaces,” says the wife. Indeed, the two-level home, built in 2011, had great flow and a spacious, airy feeling. In addition to open-concept space, the property had floor-to-ceiling windows and doors that fully opened. What the couple needed was a designer to overhaul the interiors. 

Enter Corinne Mathern, a California-based interior designer known for creating serene, elegant environments inspired by the natural world. “We feel so lucky to have been introduced to her by our architect, and from the start, we had a very natural rapport,” says the wife. “After discussing the design direction we hoped to go in, Corinne used the term ‘organic modernism’ as the aesthetic. We felt like, ‘Yes, you get us!’ and that’s what drove the project.”

Mathern used various raw materials to soften the architecture’s sleek lines and add a welcoming feel throughout the house. On the ground floor, white oak warms the ceilings of the great room, a free-flowing space composed of the kitchen, bar, and dining and living room areas. The wood also accents many of the furnishings, including the chairs and dining area table topped with obsidian quartzite. White oak stools tuck under the quartzite island in the kitchen area, which has two-toned walnut cabinetry. Walnut also graces the cupboards of the nearby bar, appointed with a sea pearl quartzite countertop and charcoal plaster backsplash.

“I’m not afraid of mixing woods and bringing in a lot of natural elements,” says Mathern, who used creamy, natural plaster to surround the living area fireplace set with a chunky stone hearth chiseled from an 800-pound block of Indian Buff limestone. “The natural plaster and stone hearth give the space a calm, earthy feeling, and we brought those same natural elements into the downstairs guest bath.” The bathroom sink was chiseled from the same Indian Buff limestone as the hearth and has a white oak apron. An oak mirror hangs above the sink area, tying the two elements together.

A huge priority for the couple was remodeling the primary bedroom and bath, a fully detached space above the garage about twenty yards from the main house. “The wife really wanted the space to feel like an elegant hotel, where they could lay their heads and feel calm,” says Mathern. “The couple has traveled extensively, and a big source of inspiration for the home and their bedroom was the Aman Kyoto in Japan.”

White oak flooring and a custom white oak wall behind the couple’s bed give the room an earthy warmth. A wheat-colored area rug softens and grounds the room, while natural linen drapery offers privacy. Other than two oak bedside tables, the room is soothingly minimalist.

White oak millwork also adds an organic glow to the primary bath, separated from the bedroom with pocket doors. Next to a large window that ushers in views of nature and copious light sits a luxurious soaking tub. Large-format floor tiles in a warm gray anchor the space.

An expansive deck off the suite lets the couple savor morning coffee or twilight drinks al fresco. In a nod to the concept of staying in a hotel, Mathern furnished the guest suite next to the couple’s quarters with a full bar, refrigerator, and coffee maker. 

To enhance the home’s natural flow, Mathern used the same floor tiles in the primary bath as the ground floor’s surface. The tiles even extend outside to a covered patio area and around the lap pool, creating a seamless link between the inside and out. Shrubs, flowering plants, and grasses add color and soften the architecture’s clean edges. A chunky stone firepit in a gravel “garden” offers a secluded place to contemplate the views and hang out with friends. 

Given the couple’s love of entertaining, Mathern created a media room on the ground floor to the left of the entry. The husband, who retired from the Dallas Cowboys in 2021 after an eleven-year career, now has a place for movie nights and game days. A ten-foot pocket door gives the space a cave-like feel, further enhanced by forest-green walls and a pine-colored linen sofa. “Green was really the only color we worked with, except for some blues,” says the designer. Most of the home’s colors come from natural materials, like wood, stone, clay, and plaster. 

“It’s so wonderful to finally feel the home’s full realization with comfortable spaces that fully function,” says the wife. “To be able to cook in our kitchen with our doors wide open to the views of the Pacific Ocean is such a privilege that we don’t take for granted. We are particularly pleased with the primary bedroom suite, which feels just as luxurious as a hotel, but homey, cozy, and completely ours, in a way that a hotel never can.”

For more information visit corinnemathern.com

Located 30 miles north and west of the Golden Gate Bridge, Stinson Beach hugs the Pacific Ocean and sits in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, which rises dramatically in the background. Here, the heartbeat of the Seadrift community is outdoor recreation—swimming and sailing in the lagoon, surfing and fishing in the ocean, bicycling and hiking through the hills. Houses, modest in size and eclectic in style, sit on narrow lots with close property lines that impede complete privacy but foster a neighborly bonhomie. Seasonal renters, enchanted by the cadence of the neighborhood, turn into people determined to own a home in the coveted development of Seadrift.

One such family, a couple from Palo Alto with two teenagers, approached architect Cass Calder Smith to design a weekend house on one of the rare empty lots facing the lagoon along its shore. They would use it as a family gathering place for casual living, entertaining, and connecting with nature.

“This area within West Marin is the more bohemian, agricultural, and coastal part of Marin County,” says Smith, who collaborated with project architect Björn Steudte on the 2,100-square-foot house built in a “casual contemporary” style, as the architect puts it. “[Seadrift] is mostly weekenders, and the scene isn’t fancy,” he says. “Most people have dogs, boards, and boats.” Everyone has sand and sea air.

To accommodate this easygoing lifestyle, the shape of the house—two volumes straddling a three-sided courtyard—and the location of spaces maximize indoor-outdoor connections. To the north, the rooms are oriented toward the water and the mountain beyond. To the south of the main living area, the courtyard serves as an outdoor room, with views to the west and back through the house. 

In terms of an entry sequence, Smith explains that the size of the house precludes a formal entryway. “[With houses of this size], there is not enough room for a dedicated foyer or a coat closet, which you don’t need here anyway, because it’s very casual living. But we do like the idea of a transition from the outside world to the domestic one, so there is a breezeway into the courtyard, and from there you go directly into the house.”

The house’s exterior of horizontal Accoya wood siding painted white references traditional white beach houses. Contrasting black anodized aluminum windows evoke a distinctly modern appearance, while a multileveled flat roof establishes a sense of midcentury modernism with calm, clean lines and simple sculpted forms. 

Straight ahead across the courtyard, one in a series of large sliding glass doors leads into an open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living room, all of which face the lagoon through another set of large glass sliders, as does the primary bedroom, also located in this north-facing volume. The second volume of the house, not as tall and more private, comprises a guest bedroom and a bunk room for the kids, which can sleep seven, and a sofa-centric family room for watching TV, playing games, and overflow sleepovers. 

The spare, modern interiors are primarily a combination of painted sheetrock walls, concrete floors with radiant heat, and wood. “With the concrete floors, a lot of glass, light colors, and aluminum-framed doors and windows,” notes Smith, “we’re always on the lookout for where we can put wood to warm up the feeling—cabinets, ceilings, furniture.” This house has instances of all three and a sculptural piece of walnut at the hearth. An attention to detail is very apparent, and hence the overall impression is Scandinavian.

In addition to the windows, long skylights along the living room and kitchen walls bring in light, and, depending on the time of day, render unique geometric shadows as the light filters through the wood ceiling. A contemporary Henrybuilt kitchen system features handcrafted cabinetry consistent with the uninterrupted flow of interior spaces; stools tuck out of the way beneath a Caesarstone island countertop. Smith custom-designed the living room seating to fit the space and make the most of the views. He favors rectilinear forms for the homes he designs, and here the gas fireplace echoes that shape. Modulated ceiling heights are based on the hierarchy of spaces, with the highest for maximum spaciousness in the waterside living areas and primary bedroom.

Everyday life for this household, like for most in Seadrift, revolves around the outdoors, near or on the water. Once you pass through the main living spaces of the essentially see-through house, the upper deck seamlessly connects to the inside and terraces down to the lagoon deck, creating two seating areas to enjoy. The lower deck and floating dock mainly serve the launching of boats and boards and have a fire pit and Jacuzzi to further celebrate being near the water. 

“It’s a bit like an East Coast lake house because the lagoon is warm enough to swim in,” says Smith. But here on the West Coast, he continues, “People open their houses up all the way; the weather is frequently nice enough to do that.” 

For more information, visit casscaldersmith.com

Greg Allen is an attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, who bootstrapped himself up from a law school student at night to a major player in the South’s legal profession.

“I grew up in Georgia and moved to Alabama in 1976—in a 1960 pickup truck with a bed and a chair,” he says. “Now I’m a principal in a law firm with 100 lawyers in Atlanta, Montgomery, and Mobile.”

Along the way, he picked up a serious hobby—in, around, and under the water. “I started scuba diving 35 years ago,” he says. “I’ve been all over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.”

Spearfishing is his sport of choice, and he’s staked out Orange Beach, Alabama, as his headquarters. For years, he viewed the Gulf from his unit in the Porto del Sol condominiums. Then a one-and-a-half-acre lot next door came up for sale. “The economy went south, and I was able to buy it,” he says.

He’d been involved in renovations for downtown Montgomery, so he knew Phillip Pouncey, whom he calls “as good a builder as I’ve ever met.” When asked for a good architect, Pouncey steered Allen toward Birmingham-based Chris Reebals, president of Christopher Architects & Interiors.

Reebals has a rarified pedigree all his own. A 1992 graduate of Auburn University, he was in Samuel Mockbee’s first class, where the Rural Studio was born. It’s now a world-renowned, off-campus design/build program that’s created more than 200 community projects in and around Hale County—and educated 1,200 hands-on architecture students in the process “I was in the thesis class,” Reebals says. 

Dialog with stakeholders is key to the Rural Studio’s success, and getting to know clients personally is a big part of Reebals’s ethos. In Greg Allen’s case, that meant not just his passion for boating, diving, and spearfishing—but for his wife, children, and grandchildren too. “Family was massive,” Reebals says. “We wanted to create a place, a refuge to enjoy with the family, and a legacy to pass on to them one day.”

Allen and his wife are big fans of Bermuda architecture. So Reebals set out to create something with clean lines, open spaces, and natural light. “It resonates with the soul,” he says.

Alas, Allen declined his first design. The attorney wanted to build up, not out, because of the potential for hurricane surge. But the next design Reebals delivered was an out-of-the-park homer—a three-story tower with garage and storage on the lower level, living areas on the second level, and bedrooms, office, and 360-degree views atop it all.

It’s solid as a rock. Reebals’s material of choice was concrete, two feet thick in some places, along with a coat of plaster. Concrete pilings reach down 60 feet below grade, and the roof is clad in sturdy terracotta tile from Ludowici. “They haven’t made a hurricane that can penetrate it yet,” Allen says. “The builder said: ‘I hope it doesn’t go out of style, because you’ll never be able to move it or take it down.’”

Inside, interior designer Joanna Goodman, also an Auburn grad, designed the home for durability, ease of maintenance, and beauty. Kitchen surfaces are quartz, custom cabinets are sophisticated but rustic, and there are touches of perky cypress and pops of wallpaper. “It’s all low maintenance, with performance fabrics for wet bathing suits—it’s all cleanable,” she says.

Her color palette takes its cues from the blues and whites outside on the horizon. And she worked in a nostalgic marine theme as well. “There’s an old diving helmet on a concrete pedestal, and nautical items are displayed as part of the décor,” she says.

Allen asked his architect to design a house for diving—with an electric cart, a covered dock for diving gear, and a tower—and he got it all. Under the dock cover is an outdoor shower, a fish-cleaning station, and a system for cleaning diving gear with solvent.

Now he can get out to the Gulf in no time flat. “It’s designed so I can back a cart up to the boat and load it up,” Allen says.

As for his kids and grandkids, they’ve always got the clay tennis court—and the volleyball court, too. 

For more information, visit christopherai.com

When interior designer Allison Babcock set her sights on her own new waterfront home, she relished the chance to sit at both sides of the worktable, as client and designer. 

“It was exciting and intimidating,” says Babcock, principal of Allison Babcock Design in Sag Harbor, New York. Like so many homeowners, she had a timeline, a budget, and many ideas from her family to sift through. But thanks to her intuitive sense of design and how it relates to architecture, she and her family love the house and its potential to evolve over time.

Overlooking Morris Cove in the Hamptons, Babcock’s home reflects the easy livability of the interiors that she designs for her clients, with a focus on comfort and color palettes that jibe with the tremendous views. The mix of vintage and new furnishings, artworks, enticing colors and fabrics, and abundant ocean views, bathed in soft sunlight and shadows, is perfectly at ease.

Inner reflection has long been a springboard for Babcock. “I started by osmosis,” she says. Growing up in Charlottesville, Virginia, surrounded by the influence of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and other classic architecture, she felt a spark early on. “As a girl I was constantly rearranging my room,” she says. She eventually worked with the Richmond, Virginia, designer Nan McVey, and thoroughly learned her craft with Cullman & Kravis in New York City.

Reflections of her rich background pop up throughout Babcock’s home, which she shares with husband Luke and their two teenage daughters. In the first-floor open living area is a striking vignette of a 1960s teak console, 1970s cork lamp, and a painting by the Vietnamese artist Le Than Son, all topped by a whimsical chandelier from Moooi Lighting. More soft sunlight spills from the adjoining French doors, where lush ferns provide their own deep color. On the other side of the house are views of Morris Cove, part of Upper Sag Harbor Cove.

“I migrate toward more transitional and minimalist; cleaner lines and fewer things,” Babcock says of her philosophy. “We’re bombarded with messages all day long. I like the home to be quiet and restful.” She has long been attracted to barns and small farmhouses: the coziness, simplicity, and lack of pretense. 

Her own home, designed in collaboration with the architect Blaze Makoid of nearby Bridgehampton, along with local builder Greg D’Angelo, is a modern take on a barn, with three rectangular structures topped by a pitched roof and centered with a courtyard. The house is a fit with the Hamptons’ laid-back mood and outdoor lifestyle. “I really appreciate natural light, bringing the outdoors inside,” Babcock says. In fact, she and her family rarely need to turn on lights during the daytime.

One prime gathering spot on the first floor is the kitchen, with an island and countertops of Jet Mist Granite with a honed finish. A divider separates the kitchen from the dining room and cunningly hides any kitchen mess. It also serves as a niche for cookbooks. Curtainless windows shed just the right amount of light. Throughout the house, white oak flooring and cabinetry, and walls painted in Calm by Benjamin Moore, create a tranquil background. 

The adjoining dining room is anchored with a table by Rotsen Design in Miami. The table’s single walnut slab sits on an acrylic base, appearing to float. When the Babcocks have a party, the chairs, from the online marketplace 1stDibs, are easily moved. Upstairs, two bedrooms and Babcock’s office are tucked off a hallway lined with family photos.

The yard is filled with low-maintenance plantings, including evergreens, ferns, boxwood, and Japanese switchgrass. Sweet box shrubs scent the air in springtime. Separating the front of the house from the backyard and the pool is a slatted gate that casts bands of light and shadows.

Indoors and out, Babcock mostly wanted her family’s Sag Harbor home to be welcoming. “We live a very active life,” she says. “I needed the house to be low maintenance, clean looking, and relaxed, without it being a lot of work. I don’t believe in things being absolutely perfect. That would be very hard to live with.”

For more information, visit allisonbabcock.com