The most inspiring homes we visited this year

December 22, 2025

A bed is surrounded by stacks of books, and a library built into the walls.

Annie Schlechter

Home and Work

A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books

Surrounded by his expansive library and exquisite objects, a collector whose aesthetic helped shape America’s idea of minimalism has built a maximalist nirvana.

By Alexa Brazilian and Annie Schlechter

Mikael Olsson

The Hand-Embellished Countryside Homes That Helped Define Scandinavian Style

The houses of two of Sweden’s most influential artists and designers, Carl and Karin Larsson, came to shape the country’s national identity — and now represent an aesthetic ideal.

By Nancy Hass and Mikael Olsson

A portico, with beige walls, a stone bench, and an oval painting embedded in the wall.

Simon Upton

A Peeling 17th-Century Palazzo and the Man Who Was ‘Crazy Enough’ to Buy It

The fabric designer Raffaele Fabrizio found a way to mine the past — both his own and his country’s — by moving into a sprawling Italian villa and (for now, at least) refusing to renovate.

By Kurt Soller and Simon Upton

A studio space with desks, built-in shelving and a daybed.

Andrew Moore

Inside the Sky-High New York Apartment That Became an Artist’s Entire World

Lucas Samaras lived and worked on the 62nd floor of a Midtown building, transforming the space into a creative retreat unlike any other.

By M.H. Miller and Andrew Moore

A large living room with purple, peach and white pendant lamps over a modular sofa. Long sheer curtains hang from the ceiling. The walls and the floors are white.

Blaine Davis

by design

Have You Seen a U.F.O. in Brooklyn? It May Have Been the Roof of This House.

Two Greek-born architects transformed an 1899 building into a light-filled home designed for play.

By Gisela Williams and Blaine Davis

Paolo Lobbia

Could You Live in an Acid Green Apartment?

The jewelry designer Bea Bongiasca’s Milan studio is a celebration of color and creativity.

By Laura May Todd

Blaine Davis

By Design

A New York Home Designed for a Real-Life Couple and Their Imaginary Muse

How to revive an 18th-century upstate farmhouse without resorting to cliché? By pretending a made-up person lives there too.

By Alice Newell-Hanson and Blaine Davis

A view of a building, partly obscured by trees, with a pool in the foreground and two deck chairs beside it.

Anu Kumar

Home and Work

In the Rural Philippines, a House Unlike Anything Else on the Islands

An international dealer of objects and jewelry wanted to refurbish his family’s faraway beach home — but only if he could do it his own way.

By Kurt Soller and Anu Kumar

A room with blue and white ceilings and walls, filled with various churches and sofas, a built-in bookcase, animal print rugs. On the mantlepiece, a large collection of candlesticks.

Marcus Quigley

By Design

A 300-Year-Old Manor That Epitomizes British Maximalism

In the gentle hills of the Cotswolds, the accessories designer Lulu Guinness has indulged her magpie tendencies.

By Aimee Farrell and Marcus Quigley

A dining area with walls and ceilings painted a dark blue, and moldings, details and shelving a dark brown. In the foreground, a circular table surrounded by chairs upholstered in a white and red fabric set on an orange carpet. At the far end of the room, large windows and a seating area next to a built-in bookcase.

Daniel Paik

A Moody, Gothic Writer’s Home on Long Island

Uninterested in beachy blue and white, the designers behind Roman and Williams filled a traditional Hamptons house with rich wood and saturated color.

By Alexa Brazilian and Daniel Paik

A wood-walled room, with built-in shelves in the background, and an indoor stone fire pit with a large black vent above. In the foreground, a white sofa with a rolled cushion, a boat-shaped table with a rectangular slab on top, and two low armchairs with black leather seats.

Fabian Martinez

In Brazil, a Family Found a Way to Live Together — and Apart

A furniture designer and her adult children share a modern mountainside compound outside of São Paulo.

By Michael Snyder and Fabian Martinez

A hall with a wooden ceiling, two wooden double doors, paintings on the wall and a sofa upholstered with a lime-green fabric.

Allegra Martin

He Fell in Love With a Venetian Palazzo. But Why Did It Seem So Familiar?

On the eve of leaving the city for good, an English art dealer found himself captivated by a 17th-century apartment.

By Nick Haramis and Allegra Martin

A corner of a bedroom, with a table, built-in shelves, a couch with a cushion saying "Peace" and a wooden cupboard.

Ben Sklar

Home and Work

Jamaican Homes That Showcase the Island’s Creative History

The hotelier Sally Henzell helped bring reggae to the world. More than 50 years later, history continues to echo through her houses.

By Isabel Wilkinson Schor and Ben Sklar

A wood-lined room with a table with three statues on top, a bright green ceramic stove next to a Savonarola chair.

In the Swiss Alps, a 16th-Century House Filled with a Lifetime of Art

The dealer Gian Enzo Sperone now prefers to spend his days at his remote mountain retreat, far from the influential New York gallery he opened in the 1970s.

By Nick Haramis and Ricardo Labougle

And, this year we revisited our favorite rooms for the Great Spaces series.

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