House tour Ideas, Tips & Guides

The front yard of this home designed by E. Cobb Architects in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood already had plenty of curb appeal, but the home’s new owner wanted to add a pool to splash around with his grandkids on a warm day. So he tapped Ian Butcher, AIA, founding partner of Best Practice Architecture to create the space.

If you’re a fan of the quintessential indoor-outdoor Western lifestyle that comes along with expansive floor-to-ceiling glass, a warm wash of natural light, breezeways that maximize airflow, and surrounding serene landscape, you can thank famed architect Cliff May. Regarded as the founding father of the iconic California ranch house, May’s work has been repeatedly published in Sunset since the 1930s. What made his work stand out at the time was how he designed homes not so much based on architecture but on the way people wanted to live in them. Making the most of the Western climate, his goal was to provide a closer relationship with nature through garden courtyards and blur the line between how we use interior and exterior spaces. May in turn created private sanctuaries where families could relax and enjoy a lifestyle of informal outdoor living. He invented the way most people want to live in the West, and his influence is felt throughout the region some 90 years later.

As ADUs (accessory dwelling units) become more and more popular, their designs become more sophisticated. Take for example, this Santa Monica ADU and garage with its angled façades and laser-cut aluminum screens that create a lantern-like effect at night.

Jewelry designer Maya Brenner wanted a room in her Los Angeles home that was a retreat just for her. After raising kids for 21 years and running a business for 25 years, she wanted a space of her own that could be used for “dreaming, designing, reading, and being with myself or people I love.” So she decided to take over a room that was originally built as a nursery for her youngest child and then used as a home office. Joanna Williams of Kneeland Co. was tapped to help transform the space.

A couple of the Sunset editors were talking about the Barbie Dreamhouse the other day. And we had a hot take: Although it’s an iconic home (with a slide, pool, and a color palette that childhood dreams were made of), it’s not the most attractive-looking space from an interior design or architecture standpoint. Sure, it has some touches of mid-century modern style and an extremely cohesive color palette, but we think not very many people would want to live there IRL. On top of that, it doesn’t really look homey or comfy. And all of that’s okay, because the house is for a doll and make-believe moments. What’s a human who wants to live out their Barbie fantasies to do?

Movies and TV shows have inspired interior design choices for a long time. Who doesn’t want their home to look like a Nancy Meyers film come to life? Wes Anderson’s playful and colorful film sets have inspired people to bring that iconic, quirky look home. And I’m sure purple living rooms have become more commonplace thanks to Friends.

This Sears-Roebuck-era bungalow in Huntington Beach had been well-loved for over 15 years by its owners. The high-school sweetheart owners had frequented the beach for many years, even calling it “their place.” And after earning success later in life, they achieved their dream of buying a home in their special spot. Many memories were made there with family and friends over weekends and summer months.

When Blythe Friedmann made the decision to move out of her stately Edwardian home in San Francisco’s eclectic Mission neighborhood, she had only one serious criterion: It had to be the opposite of the house she’d lived in for 15 years. That meant no tall, walnut wainscoting, dimly lit rooms, or closets full of memories. The interior designer and art therapist was preparing for her life as a new mother. And she wanted the proximity of suburban living without any of its inherent blandness.

Layout and flow is so important in kitchens, often the hub of the home where everything happens—cooking, eating, gathering, etc. If a space doesn’t have the best layout, it can feel cramped and inefficient. That was the case in this San Diego kitchen in a 1922 Craftsman-style house.

Sure, renovations that seem to happen overnight can be awe-inspiring, but there’s something to be said about renovations that happen gradually. What you need in your home probably changes throughout the years—another kid, a WFH job, a grandparent that moves in… all of these things could shift your design priorities.

Everyone has their own design aesthetic, and that’s welcomed. If everyone liked the same things, the world would definitely be a lot more boring. But sometimes a design aesthetic doesn’t quite match its surroundings, like what the previous owners did to this 1958 Eichler E-111 home in the San Mateo Highlands.

Jasmit Singh Rangr, a Berkeley-based architect, founder of Rangr Studio, and a lecturer in architecture at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, is technically responsible for building his family’s stylish, minimal, cost-conscious home near the Grizzly Peak summit in the Berkeley Hills. But the behind-the-scenes mastermind who made it possible is his wife, Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, a nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm. Anyone familiar with the area’s cutthroat real estate market won’t be surprised to hear that the search for a vacant, buildable lot in one of the most coveted neighborhoods in the West required Dillen to use all of the skills that make her a great lawyer: creativity, a knack for analysis and research, perseverance, and the art of persuasion.

Sometimes you have to treat yourself and that was the case for two homeowners in San Mateo, California. “Our clients are a retired couple with two Labrador retrievers and grown adult children,” explains Melinda Mandell. “They are lovely down-to-earth people, that really show up for their family, and are excellent neighbors, watching out for others. They recently decided it was time to invest in themselves by remodeling their primary suite.”

Vacation homes are meant to be places to relax and recharge, which means the design and architecture should set the tone. And that’s exactly what Celeste Robbins of Robbins Architecture did in this four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Driggs, Idaho, which is featured in her new book, The Meaningful Modern Home: Soulful Architecture and Interiors.

When it came to the kitchen in their three-bedroom, two-bathroom 1930s San Francisco home, the owners wanted keep the current square footage and layout, but adjust the space to make it work harder for their family’s needs (they have two daughters). So they brought in Allie Allen and Sasha White of Shiny Shed Collective to oversee the renovation of the 144-square-foot L-shaped room.

All house flips aren’t created equally, that’s for sure. Luckily even though this 1920s Spanish bungalow in Los Angeles went through a quick flip by its previous owner, it still had many materials that were of great quality, says Candace Shure of Shure Design Studio, who reimagined the home for her client, a young lawyer and first-time home buyer.

It takes a certain kind of person to buy a vintage house sight-unseen, to dive headfirst into the rough waters of reviving a property’s faded glory without even opening the front door.

There’s nothing like a tall,green hedge to create a little real estate intrigue, and the best neighborhoods in Santa Barbara are lined with them. The coastal California community is known as one of the country’s favorite beachside retreats, and for its many homes that look as though they were plucked straight from a storybook—if you’re lucky enough to catch a glimpse through thick green foliage.

Every kitchen needs good storage, but not every kitchen has good storage. Some are small and need a lot of hacks to find a spot for everything. Some can be the right size but with not enough cabinet or drawer space. And others are just not using their storage potential fully, like this kitchen in San Rafael, California.

While a family of five (a couple and three daughters) had made some renovations throughout the years to their 1949 mid-century, post-war house in Seattle since they moved in in 2013, there was one room that still desperately needed a facelift: their galley-style kitchen. “It was hardly big enough for two people to move about, let alone a family of five!” says Meghan Price of Maple & Plum, who oversaw the project. “There were areas of wasted space, major lack of storage, and it felt dark and uninviting. The back door and laundry were situated just off the galley kitchen, with tight, limited access to the backyard.”

Tucked away in a historic section of Palm Springs is the Pop Pad, a three-bedroom, three-bath home. The owners were initially drawn to the area and the history behind the mid-century modern house. Designed and built by the iconic Palm Springs builder/architect duo of Alexander and Krisel in the late 1950s, the unique real estate opportunity had lots of potential but needed a major update.

Interior designer Stephanie Hunt’s seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom Park City, Utah, home is a grown-up, glammed-up, sophisticated version of a funhouse—it’s got so many surprises and delights at every turn. And believe it or not, she got the inspiration for the home on a freezing winter trip to Reykjavík, Iceland. “We were there for a quick weekend trip and I was struck by how the simple barn structures—very close together—looked like one unit. Because we’re art collectors I wondered what it would feel like to have each pod or pavilion, if you will, developed in a simple, honest architectural style, connected by halls and glass elements, with the halls serving sort of in-home art galleries,” she explains.

The ‘80s film Back to the Future (and its subsequent sequels) are total classics, and while fans will most definitely remember the comedic one-liners, storylines, and iconic characters, there are also some noteworthy architecture and design moments. Doc Brown’s home in the film is the Gamble House in Pasadena, California, a stunning, historic example of the Arts and Crafts movement designed by influential 20th century architects Charles and Henry Greene. Movie fans still flock to the location to take photos and go on tours.