Stunning penthouse loft in the heart of SOMA

This spectacular loft spotted on Sotheby’s is situated in the heart of SOMA, San Francisco, California, combining warm brick and timber structure and contemporary finishes all on one expansive level. Conceived from raw loft space in 2007, this 3,550 square foot penthouse level unit has been renovated to include a spacious chef’s kitchen, multiple living spaces, two large bedrooms with ensuite baths, a sizeable enclosed office, and one half bath. The dramatic deeded roof deck has a sheltered outdoor kitchen, a free-standing fireplace and views to Twin Peaks and Potrero Hill.

This stunning loft is listed for sale at $3,550,000, from here.

Extraordinary city retreat with eccentric details

Nestled in the quaint, tree-lined South Park enclave, 41 South Park is hidden behind a traditional San Francisco, California facade, which is technically a two-unit building that has just recently been rebuilt and remodeled in a non-traditional and quirky fashion with all the bells and whistles. The Edwardian appeal of the building’s original 1911 facade is beautifully contrasted by its modern and innovative interior amenities, including multiple exposures, textures and outdoor spaces, distinctive finishes and custom fixtures, and stunning floor-to-ceiling windows.

This exclusive 3,600 square foot city retreat features five bedrooms, four and a half baths, a grand entrance that opens to an extraordinary living room — both well designed to showcase a private art collection, and an ultra-gourmet kitchen overlooking a spacious dining room with a soaring glass wall that opens to a private backyard. Additional outstanding design features include, a well-equipped media and entertainment room with a wet bar, a two car private garage/workspace, huge rollaway skylights, and a gorgeous rooftop terrace with a custom spa overlooking South Park.

41 South Park has been listed for sale at $7,650,000, from here.

A media room with a wet bar graces the ground floor.

A gourmet kitchen now overlooks the dining room with a double height ceiling, from which swings, not chairs, that surround the dining room table are hung.

Atop the building, a new rooftop terrace with spa discretely overlooks South Park.

Charming attic apartment with cozy arrangements

This stunning attic apartment, spotted on Alvhem Makleri is located in a beautiful stone building from the 1920s on a street in the popular Vasastan, Sweden. The charming 452 square foot home features exposed beams and a sloped ceiling creating a snug and homey environment. With unobstructed, beautiful views from the fourth floor, there is plenty of natural light with an abundance of windows and two skylights. The apartment has a fantastic floor plan with a spacious living/dining space, a bedroom with plenty of storage as well as space for a desk and a cozy kitchen with a built-in banquette. There is plenty of room for both cooking and social interaction at the “bar,” which separates the kitchen from the living room.

Exquisite SoHo TriBeCa loft features must-see details

This luxurious apartment is situated in a 6-year old boutique building that offers a modern European design sensibility in the heart of Hudson Square, just steps away from the vibrancy of Soho and Tribeca, New York.  Residents and guests enter through iron gates into a zen-inspired private courtyard. This loft-like apartment boasts 1,863 square feet of living space on the 8th floor with three bedrooms and two full baths and an over-sized storage/laundry room.

The spacious living/dining room contains floor-to-ceiling glass windows and high ceilings, and features a stunning, hand-applied floor-to-ceiling, edge-to-edge wall of silver leaf and an extraordinary bronze surround for the elevator entrance.  Solid walnut wide-planking flooring has been ebonized for a modern counterpoint to the luxurious finishes. Custom linear diffusers replace standard air conditioning vents with a sleek architectural detail.

The kitchen features high gloss cabinets, state of the art appliances and brushed stainless steel countertops. The intelligent layout affords a whole western wing to the master bedroom, accessible through a hidden door of silver leaf.  The en-suite master bathroom is light-filled with a Duravit soaking tub enclosed in Pietra Sienna stone and a separate walk-in, glass enclosed shower with a river rock floor. There are two bedrooms on the eastern wing. Adjacent to the second bedroom is the oversized laundry/storage room. A second full bath with walk-in shower is located on the eastern corridor.

This incredible apartment is listed for sale at $3,450,000, from here.

Charming Swedish digs boasts unique design details

This charming apartment we spotted on Alvhem boasts high ceilings and unique design features, situated in Vasastaden, Stockholm, Sweden. The 1,087 square foot home has been beautifully preserved with a welcoming entryway and spacious floor plan consisting of a living room/dining room, fully equipped kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom. The flooring throughout the main living spaces consists of orginal plank wood floors. The open living and dining area is perfect for entertaining. The bedroom is spacious and harmonious with a quite courtyard location. The wallpaper gives a romantic atmosphere and the contrast blends nicely against the white painted planks on the floor.

Mountain modern home perched in Emigration Canyon

This incredible modern home is perched on an acre in one of the most desirable mountain communities of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Emigration Canyon residence is comprised of 4,243 square feet of living space, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. With large windows giving away a fantastic panoramic display of the adjacent mountains and bringing in plenty of natural daylight, there is nothing not to love about this dreamy home. With custom built-in furnishings throughout and an open plan design with spaces that are perfect for entertaining. A private, automatic gate opens to a circular driveway and sitting area designed for valet guests. The views from outside are even more incredible, from an unbelievable 1,300 square foot outdoor deck that features a swim spa. A private, wooded backyard area comes complete with a babbling brook.

This home is the epitome of perfection and is listed for sale at $2,700,000, from here.

Pavilion house in Australia open to a lush landscape

Angophora House has been designed by architect Richard Leplastrier, sited on the Eastern tip of the extended grove of Angophoras that makes up the iconic Angophora Reserve in Avalon, New South Wales, Australia. The house is a pavilion-plan, where the design has been informed by the location. Comprising six pavilions, they seemingly waltz in harmony with the existing Angophoras, creating a courtyard feel. The layout of the buildings has a practicality that slowly becomes apparent; the separation of the master bedroom; further bedrooms rising through the tree canopy; adjoining living and dining areas; and a multitude of uses for the guest pavilion.

Sheltered from the harsh southerlies in winter, in summer a cool north-easterly breeze ventilates this little valley with help from a canopy of Angophora leaves and remnant rainforest Lily Pilly. This creates a micro-climate that is about three degrees cooler than the temperature on the street.

This fabulous house is listed for sale from here.

To enter the house one is drawn between the guest and main bedroom pavilion into the internal courtyard, down three steps to the front door, detailed with blue and yellow glass to either side.

The pavilions facing one another create a space that is one of reflection and perhaps even best described as ‘internalized’. There is an order and a hierarchy to the design. The scales of the pavilions are quite different. One is just 1.3 x 3.2m, to the main living pavilion, comprising a three-storey tower that draws one up into the tree canopy.

Even though it is a highly designed space, the house feels relaxed and natural at every turn. The honesty of the material palette creates an easy relationship with the environment.

A series of floating decks with wooden steps join the main pavilions, creating a walkway between the spaces. One engages with the environment. This house is as far away from being an air-conditioned executive box as one can get.

The simplicity of palette in materials and meticulous construction creates a soothing ‘easy on the eye’ calmness. The architect has complimented the owner builder during the final construction phase saying that this quietness is very hard to achieve.

Integral to this is the detailing. And there are numerous details to speak of; the three-storey tower pavilion with external spiral staircase encapsulated in chrysalis-like form within the structure of a remnant rainforest Lilly Pilly.

The guest pavilion’s 6m x 4m floor, comprised of five slabs of Jarrah, the outside wain edge being retained showing the history of scrub fires that harassed the tree in life but now locked into a floor by stainless steel chains and mirroring our majestic Eastern Seaboard coastline.

There are many more details that surprise and delight; from the beautiful handmade copper sinks and light fittings down to the smallest of details such as the handmade whipped leather front door handle covers.

The property is perhaps best summed up by the current owners who say, ‘We have had great pleasure in living here and being a custodian of this iconic treasure. Unfortunately, we are passing the baton to someone else who I am sure will love and cherish this house. Numerous architectural students from all over Australia and from Gifu wood working university in Japan have seen this house and it has given them much pleasure, as I am sure it will for others into the future.’

Scandinavian apartment with tasteful modern design

This 18th century property, spotted on Fantastic Frank,  is situated in a former inn with only three apartments that have been carefully preserved and restored in Ekensberg, Sweden. With its own entrance with original stone floors and wooden doors and unique floor plan, this special apartment has two rooms, open-plan kitchen with small dining area and living room with variable ceiling height and its own private and inviting patio of about 16 square meters. The 45 square meters apartment features tasteful modern design and function in harmony with details that are preserved from the building. There is also an intimate bedroom and bathroom with tiled floors and underfloor heating and bathtub.

Stillwater Villa in the charming village of Stirlingshire

Stillwater is a contemporary villa discovered on Savills, which is set in a remarkable position perched over a small private loch, with just over 6 acres of mature grounds and formal gardens on the edge of Killearn, a charming village in West Stirlingshire, Glasgow. It was designed by McInnes Gardner Architects and was completed in 2006, receiving recent acclaim on the television show ‘Grand Designs’. Formed over two levels and built under a slate roof, this innovative contemporary 3,453 square foot home cleverly marries traditional materials with new modern building technology. It is constructed to a specification rarely seen in this country. It features floor to ceiling glass in the main apartments and a terrace which cleverly wraps itself around the ground floor.

The kitchen is designed and manufactured in Germany by FORMAT. The mood lighting system allows for programmable sequences through the home whilst the integral sound system allows for music in the principal areas. Of particular note is the cantilevered glass staircase. Throughout the house there is polished American walnut flooring. The reception hallway is open plan with the dining area, kitchen and lounge. It has an innovative glass staircase with open risers ascending to the first floor. A change in level defines the dining area which has French doors opening to the terrace. Steps descend into the double height lounge which has a contemporary open fireplace and two sets of French doors opening to the terrace and the front garden.

This stunning property is listed for sale at $1,705,499, from here.

Steps descend from the kitchen into the sitting room which is separated from the kitchen by an impressive aquarium.

The sitting room has a free standing corner wood burning stove.

Upstairs are four bedrooms, three of which have en-suite bathrooms. The upper hallway has a gallery overlooking the reception hallway and drawing room. The master bedroom, with floor to ceiling glass wall overlookings the private loch.

There are two walk in dressing rooms and an en-suite bathroom which is semi open plan to the bedroom. It has a Jacuzzi whirlpool bath, wet room shower, twin glass wash hand basins, sauna and separate water closet.

Outside, Stilwater is equally as impressive, with a wraparound terrace at ground floor level and a substantial terrace off the master suite on the first floor. Electric gates open to the gravel driveway which sweeps towards the house and offers parking space for a number of cars. On either side of the driveway are beautiful manicured lawns.

Architecturally stunning retreat off the Big Sur coast

World-renowned architect Mickey Muennig created a remodel plan for this stunning contemporary home in Big Sur, California. Nestled on 10 acres, the 4,685 square foot property boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms and four fireplaces. This retreat is very private, situated at the end of the road on the ridge-line plateau which affords incredible mountain and ocean views and lots of rare level ground. The property also includes an original guest house with fireplace as well as an inactive well. Water is supplied by a community well.

This architecturally stunning ocean view property is listed for sale at $3,495,000, from here.