Simplify, simplify, simplify. Those were architect Alison Spear's three words of advice to Claudine Claus Wheeler. Claudine and her family had just moved into a house in Coral Gables, Florida—but not the kind that people usually picture when they hear the name of this leafy community five miles from downtown Miami.
 
Instead of a creamy stucco Mediterranean Revival bungalow with a burnt-orange barrel-tile roof, this two-story house had teak louvers beneath deep overhangs. And the "house" was actually two separate structures, the larger one containing the kitchen, dining room, and bedrooms, and the smaller one holding just the living room. The exterior looked vaguely Japanese by way of modernist pioneer Frank Lloyd Wright, while the interior came complete with its original 1970s-style built-ins.

Take a look inside the Wheelers' home.