A walnut divider separates the bedroom from the dining room.

Credits: Photograph by Poul Ober, styling by Laurent Laborie

Building a walnut divider in an open studio created a dining room and a bedroom. The new wall, which includes a banquette alongside the dining table and a floor-level bookshelf in the bedroom, saves space.

A custom-cut kitchen
Revamped tiny kitchen

Credits: Photograph by Poul Ober, styling by Laurent Laborie

Cut to Fit: The revamped kitchen isn’t wide enough for standard-depth counters, so the Viras used narrow, custom-cut Corian tops; the Premier Professional Series range and the Sharp bright orange Half Pint microwave are scaled to fit the space. A George Nelson Ball clock pops against the brown wall.

The little living room
Soft touches in a little living room.

Credits: Photograph by Poul Ober, styling by Laurent Laborie

Soft Touch: The living room furniture's formal lines are tempered by casual pillows from Crate & Barrel and a throw from Calypso Home. James designed the Julieta lounge chair. A sheer curtain of Knoll Silver Screen fabric softens the room's grand, concrete-framed picture windows. The vases are from West Elm.

And baby makes three
Baby bassinet under a big painting

Credits: Photograph by Poul Ober, styling by Laurent Laborie

Think Bigger: The new parents aren't afraid to make bold statements, as they do with this massive five-by-five-foot painting by Robert Szot. Baby Santiago sleeps underneath, in a bent-plywood bassinet from Ooba.

Eat, drink, man, woman
James and Margaret Vargas

Credits: Photograph by Poul Ober, styling by Laurent Laborie

Split Decision: To separate different areas for four activities—living, dining, cooking, and sleeping—the Viras inserted a simple wall that created an L shape in the center of their open studio and never looked back.

"No matter how well you get along, it's best to have separate, private zones," James says, pictured above with Margaret in their dining room two weeks before their son Santiago was born.