House Beautiful

The House Beautiful reader is someone whose home is her bedrock. She is always improving it because the process – and result – delights her. Happiness in her home comes from easy luxury and highly personal style. Her home is a gift to share with family and friends.

House Beautiful

What’s the Smallest Space You’ve Ever Transformed? • Every awkward space has potential—all you need is a vision. Editorial Director Joanna Saltz asked industry experts about their most compact and trickiest projects to date, and how they solved the riddles.

Tiny Treasures • PREFABRICATED, FLAT-PACK, OR MODULAR, READY-MADE MICRO HOUSES SURGED IN POPULARITY at the onset of the pandemic, as homeowners sought more space at home and quick getaways in far-flung locations. Now, as the possibility of a recession looms, these easy-to-add structures are, surprisingly, more practical than ever. “Due to the current housing market, we are seeing clients using them as a way to stay in their homes instead of moving to get more space,” says Katy VanderDoes, senior marketing manager at Modal Living, a maker of prefab ADUs. From a guesthouse designed for multigenerational living to a double-decker beauty, our favorites will radically change your lifestyle—making them well worth the investment.

Let’s Just Shop • Maximum style with a minimal footprint: These design accents are actually functional pieces.

Hidden in Plain Sight • HB’s man-about-town, Robert Rufino, rounds up his favorite secret storage for tidying up in a flash.

Reimagine Your Attic • With a little work, you can turn those awkward angles under the eaves into enchanted living quarters.

The Definitive Guide to Murphy Beds • These clever contraptions disappear into the wall when not in use, turning any room into a sleepover suite.

A Ready-Made Bed • Add a bedroom instantly with one of these off-the-shelf Murphy beds.

Time to Add a Guesthouse • In response to housing shortages in big cities, states are making it easier for you to build an accessory dwelling unit (or ADU—a stand-alone living structure on the same property as your main house). Here’s how to plan for one.

Perfect Little Powder Rooms • A designer favorite, these small but mighty spaces always steal the show.

The Cottage Next Door • How do you redesign a fixture of your childhood? For one architect, the answer came easy: You don’t.

Welcome to the Clubhouse • How one firm turned a boxy, cramped 100-year-old house into a gentleman’s lake retreat.

Wild Thing • Perched on a snowy New York mountain-top, this quirky 1970s A-frame is the sort of retreat you’d never want to leave.

Shades of GRAY • A cheerful designer gives a white-box new build a surge of life.

The GALLERY on the 17th FLOOR • An art-stocked pied-à-terre overlooks Houston’s Museum District.

DEALER’S CHOICE • An unexpected upsizing leads a pair of furniture-thrifting obsessives into a curated new home (and career path).

“It Moves with the Trees as They Sway” • A treehouse overlooking Puget Sound offers a winsome escape for multiple generations.

Above & Beyond • A creative family moves upstate to Leeds, New York, and upstairs from their coffeehouse/print shop.

Screen Time • One room becomes two with a decorative room divider.