Thinking inside the box needn’t be boring, as demonstrated by a home renovation and expansion in Los Angeles for a semiretired couple and their beloved cat. The house’s redesigned interiors comprise a group of three rooms at its core that accommodate private activities, such as sleeping, stretching, and meditating. This personal zone is wrapped by the more communal spaces, including a pair of home offices and a large living/dining/kitchen area. This comfortable scheme came about through the collaboration of the style-savvy clients with their friend, architect Annie Barrett (of Brooklyn, New York–based aanda); Barrett, in turn, called on her former grad-school classmate Hye-Young Chung (HYCArch) in Los Angeles to ensure a cohesive, well executed design despite her practicing on the opposite coast.

Sharing more than half the public zone with the dining and living areas, the open-plan kitchen benefits from loads of daylight pouring through the room’s expansive windows and a generous skylight in its faceted ceiling. “This quality of flux was immensely important to us and to the clients,” says Barrett. “The skylight engages the shifting qualities of light to bring a sense of the unexpected. It makes the home come to life.” A secondary skylight, tucked out of sight above the kitchen sink, introduces additional task lighting for morning and afternoon washing and prepping.