It’s not just traditional chapels that make for lofty conversions. In Upstate New York’s bucolic Hillsdale, a 1928 Masonic Temple has been reimagined as an artist’s live/work space.

The handsome brick building is located at the heart of the village, a two-hour drive from Manhattan, and has been restored by its owners, still bearing the inscription Masons’ insignia and name on its facade.

Living spaces span 7,656 sq ft internally, and rooms have soaring 14 ft-high tin ceilings and steel casement windows. Hardwood floors run underfoot, and an all-white colour scheme amplifies light across its floorplan, giving the converted temple a gallery-like feel (no coincidence as its current owner is an artist who uses part of the property as a studio space.)

Two bedrooms are tucked within the upper level of the New York property, and three bathrooms have been installed, with bold marble flooring, subway tiles and black steel elements.

‘In addition to plenty of parking, the property also has room for a pool,’ says listing agent Annabel Taylor of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty,  who is marketing the New York property for $2.25m.

Explore its rooms in the gallery above.

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Freshly built in the foothills of Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, this A-frame cabin by Gnarly Home Crafters combines modern finishes with rustic sensibilities.

The four-bedroom cabin is located on 1.82 acres in Morganton. It is the latest project from the North Georgia renovation and construction specialists and is for sale via Mountain Sotheby’s International for $1.15m.

Floor-to-ceiling geodesic windows frame woodland views in the living room, while its ceilings are wrapped in timber slats in true rustic cabin style. There’s a gourmet kitchen with a granite-topped island, an integrated coffee and liquor bar and seating for eight people in the dining area. There’s also a covered outdoor porch, which is staged as an outdoor living room.

Three bedrooms nestle within the main level, but the showstopper is a king-sized sleeping loft that crowns the Georgia property and peers out over the great room to the tree canopy beyond the facade.

The forest home adjoins USFS land, with access to trails, creeks, waterfalls, and Lake Blue Ridge. The Toccoa Rover is nearby for fishing or canoeing, and the nearest launch is at Sandy Bottoms, three miles away.

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This one puts its scale front and centre, with soaring 5-metre-high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, and an all-white minimalist colour scheme amplifying its sense of volume. Original 100-year-old hardwood floors run throughout, and the old warehouse beams are on show, though they, too, have been given a lick of paint.

According to the listing, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann held his nuptials to costume designer Catherine Martin at the apartment in 1997. More recently, fashion photographer Geoff Lung used it as his studio.

Since then, the light-filled Surry Hills dwelling has been redesigned by Iain Halliday of Australian firm BKH as a serene residential space.

Among his interventions are a stainless-steel chef’s kitchen, a 7.4-metre-long Carrara marble dining table for 20 people and a media room, transformed from the warehouse’s old safe room for storing paper money.

The four-bedroom Sydney property is listed with Luke Hagan and Mark Foy of McGrath, with an estimate on the application. It goes under the hammer at 3 pm on Saturday, 2 September 2023.

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The two-bedroom live/work apartment spans two floors of a converted Victorian warehouse on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. Magma has transformed its interiors with the addition of a sleek stainless steel kitchen, curving island and custom shelving wall.

The living room boasts original patinaed floorboards, timber ceilings, and exposed brickwork. A wall of sash windows peeks north and south, and from here, an iron spiral staircase connects the double-height space to a mezzanine level tucked beneath the pitch of the building’s roof. This lofty nook is currently used as a home office but could also serve as a guest space and offers additional storage.

Explains the practice: ‘This spacious loft in East London uses compact pods to encapsulate the private areas and consolidate the building services while partitioning the volume into elegant rooms.’

Two large bedrooms are on the main level, with soaring ceilings, full-height built-in storage by B&B Italia, and a family bathroom.

The Modern House is listing the Shoreditch property for £1.8m. Take a look around in the gallery above.

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The interiors and owners have changed several times since the High Society and Rear Window actress vacationed at the Gilette villa with her daughter, Princess Caroline. However, there are still a few statues gifted by Kelly to its previous owners inside the French Riviera dwelling, which dates back to the 17th century.

Once a working mill, the 6,500-acre estate was bought by Count Jean Fernand Joseph Gouin de Roumilly in the 1970s and quickly became a mecca for celebrities and royals. The Count sold it in the 1990s, and its present owners purchased the property in 2006, renovating and reconstructing the main house in 2010, according to Sotheby’s and Town & Country magazine. Its gardens have also been extensively landscaped and cultivated.

Les Moulins du Villars has seven bedrooms, a separate guesthouse, an infinity pool, an extensive wine cellar, a gym, tennis courts and a helicopter landing pad. Signs of its former life are proudly celebrated in the house’s main reception room, where the mill wheel is housed in a glass box at the centre of the floor plan.

Gilette is a small town about an hour’s drive from Nice in the French Riviera. Les Moulins du Villars is for sale via Côte d’Azur Sotheby’s International Realty – The Private Desk for $12.92m.

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Docked at 7 Brimley Road, in Boats Park Marina, the Toronto houseboat is asking $149,000 and has been fully renovated inside in a Scandi minimalist style. At 10-ft-wide, it’s larger than some of the skinny laneway houses that have hit the market in recent years, and its bedroom fits a queen size bed.

Storage has been built-in throughout the ‘floating cottage’ to maximise its floor plan, and the open kitchen and living room continue sight-lines through the boat, making it feel bigger.

Winter on the water in Toronto isn’t for everyone. Still, realtor Denise Doucet of Royal Lepage says it could be inhabited year-round or used as a summer house and is fitted with an electric heat pump and air conditioning.

Its biggest draw is, of course, the houseboat’s proximity to the water, with a large deck for morning coffees and entertaining and marina views from all the windows.

The price tag doesn’t include fees such as renting a dock space (which covers hydro, water and marina amenities) and a maintenance fee of approximately $600 per month. But a huge plus is its nomadic nature: it can be moved around the Greater Toronto marinas, which include Bluffer’s Park in Scarborough, Toronto Island Marina, Harbourfront or Port Credit in Mississauga.

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Hart House dates back to 1950 and was conceived for four musicians returning from WWII, who envisioned a community of modernist homes for the Mutual Housing Association homes of Crestwood Hills. While few houses were fully realized, the MHACH has the accolade of being the only successful housing cooperative in the state of California, according to LA Forum. 2444 Rochedale Lane has undergone a meticulous renovation.

Hart House has a distinctive sloping roofline, and its carport has been reinstated as per the original vision. Inside, the post-and-beam design features soaring volumes crossed by a network of painted beams, with polished cement flooring and floor-to-ceiling glass that opens up to the terrace and freshly landscaped gardens.

HabHouse has also reinstated midcentury modern Douglas fir plywood built-ins, redwood tongue-and-groove siding, and exposed aggregate concrete block throughout the three-bedroom abode – all hallmarks of Jones and Smith’s modernist designs.

The new kitchen features custom blonde cabinetry, with a large cement block fireplace and hearth acting as a zonal divider between the dining room and a cosy seating nook.

Hart House is listed for sale via Nate Cole of Modern California House and Joseph Kiralla of Sotheby’s International Realty.

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Australia’s landscape is incredibly diverse, ranging from vast deserts to tropical rainforests, rugged mountain ranges, and pristine coastlines. The Gold Coast Hinterland in Queensland offers them in proximity, and this converted barn is well-positioned for exploring the beautiful region and engaging in slow rural living.

For auction via Shane Harry of Ray White Sanctuary Cove, the Wongawallan barn at 28 Colin Meagher Road originally dates from 1958. It’s been skillfully restored as a modern home that blends soaring rustic beams and agricultural-scale proportions with contemporary finishes.

The converted barn sits on a 4,000 sqm block, with the house itself set across 845 sqm. Largely open-concept, the interior revolves around a ‘showstopping’ suspended fireplace with poured concrete floors underfoot and beams above. A mezzanine loft overlooks the free-flowing kitchen, living room and diner, and the Queensland property has three bedrooms outfitted with bespoke walk-in closets and rustic finishes.

The converted barn heads to auction on 19 August 2023, and it also has a self-contained guest apartment that could generate potential rental income, according to the listing – plus parking for six vehicles.

Back to the barn’s setting: Wongawallan is known for its rural, slower living compared to the bustling coastal areas and is well positioned for exploring nearby Lamington National Park and Tamborine National Park, where there are walking trails, wildlife and staggering waterfalls. Tamborine – which has boutique stores, restaurants, schools and essential services – is 10km away, while Gold Coast is approximately half an hour’s drive.

Take a look at the gallery above.

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Nestled on the picturesque Malibu coastline, Harry Gesner’s architectural marvel, the ‘Sandcastle,’ pays homage to its dramatic oceanfront setting and the organic forms of undulating waves.

The Malibu property is named for its sand bucket-like tower and undulating roofline, inspired by the ripples of an ocean wave. It was designed by Gesner – who passed away last year at the age of 97 – for his actress wife, Nan Martin and their family in 1974, using all his hallmarks: reinforced concrete, hand-carved wood, plus salvaged materials such as old telephone poles, reclaimed maple gym floors, marble from a demolished public bathhouse, as well as windows and doors from an old Hollywood movie theatre and church.

Sandcastle’s shell-like form has unrivalled panoramic views over Watkins Cove and the rugged Malibu coastline from its 0.73-acre plot, which boasts 122 feet of beachfront. The iconic beach house is now for sale through the architect’s son, actor and realtor Zen Gesner of Compass, for $22.5m (after a $5m price reduction from its original May 2023 listing price of $27.5m).

The breezy California property has a free-flowing ground floor with floor-to-ceiling glass that opens up to the wraparound wooden deck. A massive fireplace, designed to resemble the Hollywood Bowl, with a polished concrete ‘stage’ in front, serves as the focal point of the interior, with seating areas, a dining room, and a kitchen branching off from it.

Gesner’s former studio was located in the tower, accessed via a spiral staircase with treads made from driftwood, and there are three bedrooms in the main house. The waterfront property also includes an ocean-view ‘treehouse’, a ‘boat house’ apartment, a ‘nest’ apartment above the outdoor cabana, a three-car garage, an outdoor shower, and surfboard storage.

Another Gesner jewel is located next door to the Sandcastle – his most famous residential project, the Wave House. Gesner designed the undulating home in the 1950s for his surfer friends, Gerry and Glenn Cooper, to resemble breaking waves, and the Malibu property is said to have inspired the Sydney Opera House. It was too recently listed for sale, asking for a staggering $49.5m.

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The post Harry Gesner’s Malibu ‘Sandcastle’ gets a $5m price drop appeared first on The Spaces.

The 19th-century building was renovated in 2020 as a boutique guesthouse by the owners of Casas Caiadas in Sabugueiro in collaboration with Pereira Miguel Arquitectos. It quickly became an insider’s secret, favoured by architects and design lovers visiting Alentejo.

Now, the building is exclusively for sale via Fantastic Frank Lisbon, with the price available upon application.

Alentejo is famous for its sleepy, slower pace of living and startling natural beauty, with sweeping golden plains dotted with cork oak trees, vineyards, and historic white-washed towns like Arraiolos.

Open House, as the 450 sqm guesthouse is known, sits on the main pedestrian street of the town and derives its name from the five entranceways that access the building. Inside are five bedroom suites – three of which have their own terrace – and a large open-plan dining room and kitchen, which act as the communal heart of the stay. This shared space has a cosy fireplace, and the pastelarias’s original brick-vaulted bakery has been restored to house one of the property’s two kitchens.

Each room is dressed in natural, minimalist hues rich in volume and texture, exuding a sense of ‘slow living’. And what you see is what you get with the sale, including furniture and works by artists João Bruno Videira, Malga Ceramic Design, and Graça Paz.

Crowning the Alentejo property is a roof terrace and swimming pool crown with views of the nearby medieval castle and surrounding countryside.

A cache of restaurants and stores are on the doorstep, Lisbon is a 1.5 hour drive away, and the ever-popular Comporta coastline is within an hour’s reach. The UNESCO World-Heritage town Évora is just 20 minutes away.

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