Sophistication and Functionality: Architectural Features in a House that Become the Focus

July 23, 2025 | Katharine Lagasse

Architectural elements in a home can often take center stage in a space. Creatively designed features, such as unique staircases, grand windows, glass walls, and spectacular doors, can enhance a home's overall personality and become its focal point. Showcasing these unique parts of a home pushes the traditional template of design and homebuilding, revising the boundaries of imagination and creativity.

Acorn Deck House

Architect: Michael Hawkes of Acorn Deck House Company, Builder: Michael Siino, Siino Building Company

This family vacation home has evolved into the perfect primary residence, combining elevated design with everyday functionality. It is a single-family home built with aging in place in mind, featuring a modest and private primary suite, all with western views of the Sakonnet River. This modern style is clean, featuring simple forms and details throughout, and is decorated with a muted yet cohesive material palette: cedar shingles, black windows, and white interiors. The open common area invites you to view the house from front to back. What is most visually appealing about this space is the glasswork visible from the backyard. A stunning, precise wrap-around glass detail turns this outside porch area into an eye-catching feature that provides separation and sophistication.

Catalano Architects

Architect: Catalano Architects, Builder: Halliday Builders, Interiors: Liz Caan & Co., Landscape Architect: Dan Gordon Landscape Architect, Photographer: Tim Williams

This home is all about the details, and Catalano Architects nails every one in this creative, fun, and engaging design. This compact cottage is well-integrated into a walkable Falmouth neighborhood, providing a serene summer getaway for a growing family. The interiors embody a relaxed elegance, featuring warm rift-sawn white oak paired with matchboard siding and soft hues of color throughout. However, what elevates this design as a whole comes down to the features that transcend the everyday, whether it be a dynamic dancing fixture that not only complements the palette of the dining area but also provides movement and direction, or the suspended mirrors that transform an everyday space into an installation of suspended light and reflection. The stylish and inviting living areas are imbued with natural light, emphasizing traditional fenestration and high ceilings.

Cummings Architecture + Interiors

Architect: Cummings Architecture + Interiors, Cabinetry: Windhill Woodworkers, Drapery Workroom: Reliable Fabrics, Interior Designer: Cummings Architecture + Interiors, Stone Fabrication: Athena Marble and Granite, Tile Installation, Photographer: Greg Premru

To Cummings Architecture + Interiors, art is hidden in plain sight, yet appreciated in the moments of everyday life. This team ensured that daily tasks were transformed into engaging and varied activities around the house, leaving one ready to start their morning every day. These classic materials, updated with applications and calming neutrals, keep this house feeling clean, full of light, and full of wonder, while also being functional. This transitional and timeless design features comfortable furniture suitable for family, guests, and everyday living, with a touch of extra style. Just open the sliding door to the walk-in pantry or reveal what lies underneath the rising cabinetry.

David Sharff Architect, P.C.

This is an interior shot of the project from David Sharff featuring their abstract staircase.

This is an interior shot of the project from David Sharff featuring their living room and a hidden door.

Architecture & Interiors: David Sharff Architect, Builder: C-Concept Corp, Interior Design: Leslie Fine, Liaigre NY Showroom, Kitchen Design: Venegas and Company, Landscape Design and Builder: ZEN Associates, Stylist: Sean William Styling, Photography: Michael J. Lee

This design vision seamlessly blends modern architecture and interiors into a historic townhouse in Boston’s Back Bay. Much of the traditional interior was stripped away to accommodate pared-down, minimalist detailing. Original plaster and wood moldings were preserved in the kitchen, as well as in the living and dining rooms, serving as a contrast to the modern fixtures and furnishings. In the living room, a DeGourney silk wallpaper depicting a hand-painted willow tree covers a “secret” doorway leading to a back hall. Two sets of steel and glass doors open the space, expanding the views. Unexpected curving elements, such as the sculptural staircase that winds its way through the main floors, contrast with the orthogonal exterior. This home takes creativity to new heights with its abstract and “secret” features, creating a sense of mystery as you explore this build.

Foley Fiore Architecture

This is an interior shot of the project from Foley Fiore featuring their high ceilings and beam work.

This is an interior shot of the project from Foley Fiore featuring their unique light fixtures and staircase.

Courtesy of Foley Fiore Architecture

This residence not only inspires satisfaction in its clear, stunning view of the New Hampshire lake outside, but also in its striking and organized architecture. From room to room, this project from Foley Fiore has the same sense as a puzzle that fits together perfectly, and holds all the possibilities to support the lifestyle of its homeowners. Top to bottom, this home has striking warm woodwork, set against a muted, soft-paneled staircase and highlighted by dark-contrast, low-hanging lighting. Darker wooden beams cover the living room ceiling, drawing the eye out towards the sparkling lake beyond.

Hutker Architects

This is an exterior shot of the project from Hutker featuring the windows and glass work from the outside of the house.

This is an interior shot of the project from Hutker featuring the windows and glass work from the inside of the house.

Architect: Hutker Architects, Gregory Ehrman, AIA, Partner; Scott McCullou, AI Project Manager; Stacey Sarbe; Weston Halkyard, Builder: The Banks Development Co. Custom: David Burroughs(exteriors); Helen Norman (Interiors), Interior Design: Lauren Liess Interiors; Landscape Architects: Campoin Hruby Landscape Architects.

This house was intended to serve as a weekend getaway and seasonal retreat from the city. And without a doubt, Hutker Architects delivers a sense of peaceful balance and restorative nature in every possible way. The contemporary exterior of the home offers more than one personality. From the street, the house is familiar and reserved, with traditional primary forms. However, the rear facade is a sight to behold, with floor-to-ceiling windows that bathe the home with light and wonder day in and day out.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

This is an interior shot of the project from LDa featuring the staircase and glass work from the inside of the house.

This is an exterior shot of the project from LDa featuring the glass walkthrough.

Architect: LDa Architecture & Interiors, Builder: Denali Construction, Landscape Architect: SiteCreative, Landscape Contractor: Catoia Construction, Photographer: Greg Premru

This project from LDa Architecture & Interiors was intended to acknowledge the home’s New England surroundings while embracing a “prairie modern” sensibility. The residence flows with horizontal lines and uninterrupted space connecting to the landscape. Shades of black create depth on the exterior, where broad panes of glass and the use of water in the landscape highlight the natural surroundings. On the main level, each room opens to expansive views and natural light, creating a serene and sunny backdrop for every space. The primary suite is designed as a pavilion separated from the main house by a glass vestibule. With floor-to-ceiling windows and ceramic tile flooring that matches the bluestone terraces, the vestibule appears to bridge a reflecting pool in the landscape before leading to the owners’ sanctuary.

Paul Weber Architects

An interior of a Paul Weber design featuring a swing door in two parts

An exterior of a Paul Weber design featuring garage barn doors.

Architect: Paul Weber Architecture, Builder: C.H. Newton Builders, Inc., Landscape Architect: Horiuchi & Solien Landscape Architects, Stylist: Karin Lidbeck, Photography: Michael J. Lee

Renovating this seaside residence presented a host of challenges, including raising the home and relocating it thirty feet to comply with flood zone requirements. This task, although not easy, yielded beautiful results that made all the effort worthwhile in building this dream home. Thoughtful details and planning ensured that this house not only protected its occupants from hazardous weather but also provided the homeowners with stunning and functional pieces to admire on their way in or out every day. This split-front door allows the summer breeze in, creating the sense that you are opening a gate. The dual-handed garage doors inspire the same adventurous spirit and invite you to pull them open to grab a bicycle for a summer day’s ride. Overlooking the passage between the Elizabeth Islands and Woods Hole, the house reaps harbor views to the north and Buzzards Bay to the southeast. These views inspired a semi-open plan with bright, airy interiors and generous window treatments. A new kitchen was designed to reflect and indulge the family’s casual summer lifestyle.

Peter Sachs

Architect: Peter Sachs

This home has the unique strength of enveloping you in nature before you even step outside. How? This project by Peter Sachs features gorgeous paneled windows that hug the living room, surrounding it with natural views and inviting light into the already subtle palette of the interiors. From the exterior, these large wrap-around windows again steal the spotlight, catching light and color to add dynamic patterns to the rest of the exterior’s stoic build.

Schneeberger Collective

Architect: Schneeberger Collective, AV/Home Automation: System 7, Builder: KVC Builders, Cabinetry/Millwork: Chillmark Design, Cupola: Cape Cod Cupola, Interiors: Acampora Interiors, Landscape Contractor: Francisco Tavares Inc., Landscape Designer: Horiuchi Solien, Photography: Jessica Delaney Photography

This summer home, situated in Osterville’s Oyster Harbors on Cape Cod, MA, is nautically inspired and features the clients’ love for Palladian windows. This home features a fusion of the two, with a porthole adorning the top of the window bay in the primary bedroom and an oversized Palladian-esque window over the front door, creating a unique yet timeless look and drawing your eye to the home. “It is a very intimate and personal thing, but you have to understand your clients closely or you aren’t designing a home specifically for them. You need to project yourself into their being to be able to understand how they will experience the space,” says Leslie Schneeberger, Principal Owner. “Our clients enjoy viewing the ducks in the various estuaries surrounding their property, so we designed a two-story, curved window assembly that provides 180-degree views of the ducks”. These windows draw attention to the backyard, as the curved assembly is both visually appealing and designed for everyday use.