12 Homes With Clearly Brilliant Window Features

With impressive floor-to-ceiling windows, these homes exemplify divine design. Scroll through the properties for inspiration on how to create your own light-filled spaces.

COZY AND COLLECTED

In the hearth room, a painting by Lisa Moore hangs above a limestone fireplace surround designed by Katy Allen Interior Design and fabricated by Avignon Stone & Outdoor Living. A coffee table from Indus Design in Tempe, Arizona, pairs with a Lee Industries sofa from Columbine Showroom. The stools are from Bungalow Furniture & Accessories. (Tour the home.)

RUSTIC WOOD

Architect Hans Berglund created a modern home in Vail for Tom and Sunny Corrigan marked by vertical reclaimed-wood planks, horizontal cedar siding and Colorado sandstone veneer. Aluminum-clad wood windows by Sierra Pacific Windows play off the rustic materials. (Tour the home.)

NATURAL LIGHTS

“Our thought was to protect and enhance the natural characteristics of the site, incorporate the house within it and capture the views,” architect Michael Suman says of a house he designed for a family in Vail Valley. Random-square sandstone, split brownstone, copper cladding and clear cedar siding mark the dynamic facade and integrate the structure with its surroundings. (Tour the home.)

POOL SIDE

The architects behind this abode created two rooflines, one convex and one concave. The former, toward the front of the house, helps conceal the structure’s size. The latter (shown here) curves upward, creating ample window space. (Tour the home.)

INTO THE WOODS

A gray leather chair, paired with its matching ottoman–both by Minotti from Arkitektura–swivels to take advantage of conversation in the living area or views through the sliding doors toward the terrace. The floor lamp is by Circa Lighting. (Tour the home.)

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

California bike and surf culture meets London sophistication, creating a thoroughly original hillside house in La Jolla. (Tour the home.)

MINIMALISM

Project manager Joshua Rosensweig says the custom aluminum-frame windows and doors by Fleetwood are “painted gray to withstand the elements and so they don’t ‘pop’ or stand out too much.” Landscape architect Brad Spaulding had similar intentions. “The minimal lawn panels were meant to be a neutral foreground to views of the ocean,” he says. He used native plantings whenever possible, including Eastern Red Cedar, shadblow and pitch pine. (Tour the home.)

OPEN SETTING

A remodel-turned-rebuild on Lake Washington connects to its site and becomes part of the landscape. Sitting nearly at water’s edge on the east side of Lake Washington, it embraces views of Mercer Island and downtown Seattle, something the project’s designer, Susan Marinello, describes as “180 degrees of wonderful.” With more than 7,000 square feet spread over three levels, the home moves easily from small to large gatherings, indoors and outdoors. “It’s the kind of house where you can sit back and put your feet up,” Marinello says. “The windows and doors are open all the time; dogs are running back and forth. It’s relaxed and unpretentious.” (Tour the home.)

DESERT PATH

A steel trellis provides shade along the south facade, protecting the dining room from harsh desert sunlight. For a sculptural effect, landscape architect Stephen Bardorf created a linear composition of cardon cacti just outside the dining area, which looks out to the front entryway path. (Tour the home.)

MOD TOUCH

After purchasing a new wooded lot in Rehoboth Beach, the Google executive returned to his childhood visions, hiring architect Tom Kamm as a collaborator to design a modernist tree house by the shore. (Tour the home.)

CLASSIC ARCH

You could say Ron and Kathy Iverson know houses. In addition to having 30 years of experience in the Vail real estate business, the couple have built or remodeled nine homes for themselves. So when they were ready for their 10th go-around, this time in Edwards, not surprisingly they came to the table with a clear vision of what they did and did not like. (Tour the home.)

INSIDE OUT

Massive glass walls offer a view of this modern home’s open floor plan. (Tour the home.)