These Are Dwell’s Most Popular Homes of 2023
In 2023, our readers favored homes in all corners of the globe: In Sweden, a cozy cabin is designed to display a couple’s enviable book collection; an architect couple in Chile built an A-frame in just six months by using off-the-shelf materials; and a petite courtyard home in a seaside town in Northern France blocks the wind while taking in the best views. Here’s what else made the list this year.
This 1960s Home’s Painstaking Renovation Is a Love Letter to Midcentury Design
Architect Cristina Ioana Graff worked with homeowners Dale and Lois Schreiber to renovate a 1960s house designed by Herbert Beckhard, a business partner of Marcel Breuer. They kept the building’s aesthetic intact while restoring the original hot tar and gravel roof and adding copper drip edges for a contemporary touch.
Inside, Graff restored cedar planking and added new walls and floor panels. The kitchen features fresh Fisher & Paykel appliances, while an original slanted wood wall with a built-in credenza defines the dining room. "We brought in Corian and used wood planking and terrazzo, since that was a big thing in the 1960s," the architect says.
"Sometimes you go with emotions rather than logic," says Woodhull founder Caleb Johnson. "I just wanted to renovate the little Pizza Hut look-alike my son told me looked like a blowfish."
In the primary bedroom, built-in storage is ship-like and not particularly plentiful. "I’d rather live in 850-square-feet by the ocean and see the sunrise every morning than in 3,000-square-feet in the suburbs," Caleb says.
Purchased from its original owner, the 1957 dwelling was reinvigorated and turned into a space the family can call home for many years to come. "It’s been amazing to see new families buy homes in our neighborhood and restore them back to their midcentury glory," says landscape designer and homeowner Leah Bradley.
When neighbors were getting rid of an old half pipe, Leah and her husband, Jakeh, scooped it up, creating a skate ramp for their kids in the front yard. "We used plants to border it to make it feel like it was always there," says Leah.
Architect Fria Folket explains the plan of this Swedish cabin: "Four gable-roof buildings complement the centrally located library, each one solving its own specific part of the program in accordance with the adjoining section: The east building is for cooking and gardening; the south building is for arts and crafts; the west building houses law, science, and music; and the north building, accommodating the areas for rest and recovery, contains meditation and self development. Linking the volumes together—thematically as well as systematically—the library functions as the core and the bloodstream of the project."
Oza Sabbeth Architects and the Brooklyn Home Company teamed up to create this 2,800-square-foot home in the Ditch Plains hamlet of Montauk, in Long Island, New York.
The kitchen is a balance of woods and stone, with marble on the large island and Naica quartzite in a leathered finish on the perimeter counters and backsplash. The stove hood is a custom plaster finish: "I was constantly looking for ways to add softness," says interior designer Holly Waterfield.
A wrap-around patio at the rear of the beachfront Nova Scotia home provides additional outdoor space.
Sunlight spills into the primary bedroom, illuminating a wall of custom birch cabinetry. Hanging pendant lights complement the neutral palette, and free up side table space.
Fuse Architects took a 1960s-built home in Pajaro Dunes, California, and renovated it as a retreat for their clients, a family of five. "The idea was to take the existing house and give it new life—one that met the needs and aesthetics of our designer clients," says the firm. "Although the shape and form of the remodeled home remains relatively unchanged from its original design, we wanted to take advantage of the ocean’s proximity by opening up the walls and providing framed views of the coast line."
The interior contrasts the dark exterior with white plaster, allowing natural light to disperse throughout the home.
The concrete-and-steel home by Faulkner Architects gives one family a refined escape in the mountains of Northern California.
The dark cedar wood countertops and a rose gold faucet in this kitchen meld together to craft a cozy and industrial feel.
The family home that residents Tyler Lepore, Lisa Giroday, builders Hanson Land & Sea, and September Architecture devised in the Sunshine Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, is wrapped with cedar and brick, tying to its wooded surround, which is only a four-minute walk to the ocean. "The house feels like it's part of the setting,
The team created an open floor plan for the interior, where the kitchen opens to the dining and the living areas. Concrete flooring lends a soothing quality to the rooms, where there's a built-in concrete bench that also acts as a plinth for the fireplace.
Scalar Architecture included a covered deck with tall ceilings and large apertures that enhance the floating sensation.
This 1,200-square-foot cabin was designed as a forest retreat for a family of writers and producers.
John Brooks and Erik Eaker called on architecture firm Rock Paper Hammer to restore a 1953 ranch home in Louisville, Kentucky, to its modernist roots.
In the living area, existing built-in seating is complemented by Mies van der Rohe lounge chairs and custom coffee tables by Michael James Moran.
Marambio and Noguera divided up the plot of land to share with friends, but were conscious to place structures to accommodate the animals who move constantly through the space. "We wanted to respect that there were other paths previous to ours," says architect Alejandra Marambio, who notes that there are 100 types of birds that live in the area.
Because the site had 360 degrees of beautiful natural views, the duo had some flexibility in where they would orient the building. "When you’re not trying to look at a lake or a volcano, you can play with what is more efficient in receiving sunlight," says Marambio.
Solomon Troupe Architects designed this 430-square-foot backyard bedroom suite for the owners to retreat to when their family comes to visit.
Beyond the new addition, the undertaking also improved the existing 1980s brown brick home—reconfiguring the living, kitchen, and dining areas.
Greenway Studio designed this home addition In Victoria, British Columbia, to blend in with an existing natural rock formation.
Overhangs and one-foot-thick insulation keep the interiors naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
A first-floor seating area gets some drama thanks to a mesh net fastened overhead, which creates a spot for playful lounging without compromising the overhead daylighting.
The emphasis on wood finishes continues inside, where the skylit atrium bifurcates the house. On the second floor, the primary bedroom and a pair of smaller bedrooms straddle the stairwell.
Copper cladding will patina over time. Horizontally articulated windows and standing seams give the facade a sleek, streamlined presence.
The flooring is terrazzo. Architect and owner Bruno Vanbesien designed custom ash-wood cabinetry for storage throughout the home.
This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve.
Project architects Studio Marshall Blecher and Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter opened up the center of the house, previously comprising a maze of fourteen small rooms, creating one large and airy kitchen and dining space with a high, chapel like ceiling.
The summer home of Jette Egelund, the owner of kitchen brand Vipp, is located on the west coast of Zeeland in Denmark. His son had also recently built a summer house nearby, and Egelund and Dahl appreciated the work of the architect, Mads Lund. "We felt we could have a good collaboration with him, rather than being a small client with a big company," Egelund explains. "We started to talk with him about what we liked about my son’s house, as well as our own ideas for our summer home."
Glass doors enclose the dining area so that it can be opened up to the terrace in warmer months, and the seascape is still a part of the interior in the cooler weather when the doors are closed.
Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.
A walled patio with a sunken garden takes up fully half the ground floor. Open to the sky, it allows sun and rain to enter, while the walls offer protection from the area’s constant winds. "The home takes a piece of the site into its enclosure," says Barache.
Homeowners Alaina and Geraldine love to hang by the pool, host dinners, and throw dance parties. Now that their ’50s family home has been refreshed by Studio Prineas, the fun can really begin.
The new kitchenette in the downstairs guest suite makes for easy outdoor dining and entertaining.
dSPACE Studio designed 2,200-square-foot weekend house in Beverly Shores, just steps from Lake Michigan. Located within the Indiana Dunes State Park, the house is perched atop a large dune on site.
In the living area on the top floor, the architects selected an adjustable shelving system from Rimadesio to hold books, records, and music equipment for the clients, who are self-proclaimed audio- and bibliophiles. The furniture was acquired and refurbished by the owners from a neighbor, who was downsizing. A retractable window wall from Marvin expands the space to the outdoors via a connecting Cedar-clad deck.
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