Concrete has long been celebrated by modernists for its raw, industrial aesthetic. But Yifat Arbely sees something different in the material. She sees it as a design medium with untapped potential for vibrant, handcrafted luxury. Through her Las Vegas-based company, Concretti Designs, Arbely began reimagining concrete through colorful, handcrafted sinks, casting the industrial material in a new light as a luxury surface. 

As demand grew, so did the offerings: tubs, planters, fountains, and even benches and chairs were added in response to client feedback and design needs. Read more about the concrete maker.

MORE: Why Tradition and Innovation Aren't Opposites in Luxury Design

For decades, stained glass has been "boxed in" by preconceptions of old church windows and Victorian relics. But at America's oldest family-owned stained-glass studio, fifth-generation owner David Judson is shattering those assumptions by literally fusing different colored glasses in kilns to create contemporary compositions that are redefining the ancient craft for luxury homes.

While Judson Studios still takes on the institutional commissions that have sustained it for over a century, its portfolio has long included landmark residential work, like the geometric stained-glass windows it created for Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Ennis House.

Today, residential projects are gaining momentum again. “We're seeing that high-end residential market is growing more for us,” Judson says. Read more about the studio's work.

Thirty years ago, a single question from a discerning client in Sun Valley, Idaho, reshaped an industry. The client loved the custom doors Mark and Patsy Nickum had built for her home, but when she asked if they could source hardware with the same level of craftsmanship, the couple hit a wall. Nothing in their showroom matched the quality she had in mind.

So, they decided to make it themselves, turning to a local art foundry experimenting with bronze casting. And what started as a one-off solution quickly grew into a new venture, setting the direction for what would become Rocky Mountain Hardware, a company defined by hand-cast bronze and a commitment to custom.

Today, that business is led by their son, Christian Nickum, who pours roughly 750,000 pounds of bronze alloy and produces up to 1 million individual pieces each year—from a tiny cabinet knob to a 300-pound sink—for projects from Jackson Hole to Manhattan. See how the company scaled without outsourcing.

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Bret Englander, Nick Sheridan, and Daniel Wacholder grew up together in Laguna Beach, Calif., but went their separate ways after high school. When they came back together in 2009, ready for a new direction, they had something most business partners spend years developing: a deep understanding of each other’s strengths. 

Tooling out of a small shop in Laguna Canyon, the three developed LED prototypes under the Cerno banner, assembling units until 2:30 a.m. the night before their first trade show and arrived to discover they were the only exhibitors with decorative LED fixtures in the building.  

Today, Cerno Group operates under three distinct brands. The flagship Cerno line reflects co-founder Nick Sheridan's architectural training—clean, modern, rooted in natural materials. Revelite is the performance art lighting brand. And Siemon & Salazar, acquired in 2022, produces hand-blown glass pieces; its founders, Caleb and Carmen, remain active as creative directors.

Each brand has its own character, but they all share a coastal ethos. Hear how they all operate under a vertically integrated manufacturing model.

Running their own interior design, Darlene and James Justice knew firsthand the difficulty of finding unique, quality metal pieces that are also easy to order and specify. That frustration, they say, is what led them to create Fittings Metal Collection, a brand specializing in custom metal design solutions for the kitchen and bath.

The Justices began their foray into the custom home industry in 1986 with the founding of Architectural Justice, their Medina, Ohio-based interior design firm. Over the years, they came across the same problem: there were not a lot of options for metal design solutions that were easy to order, suitable for luxury, and customizable for just about any project.

They founded Fittings Metal Collection in 2018 to fill that gap. What began as an effort to make quality metalwork more accessible has grown into a full product line the founders describe as "jewelry for the kitchen or bathroom." Read more about the metal fittings firm.

When Karen Larson started Soake Pools with her husband Brian in 2014, she remembers spending a lot of time explaining exactly what a plunge pool was. 

We had to prove the concept,” she says. “People kind of made fun of us. ‘Oh, we heard the Larsons are swimming around in a little pool.’” Then, the skeptics experienced it for themselves. They came over and they saw it and they were like, ‘Whoa, that is beautiful,’” she says.

The couple spent roughly a year and a half working through engineering, materials, and construction details before installing a prototype in their own backyard. One of the biggest challenges, Larson says, was determining whether a tiled concrete vessel could survive shipping.

“If I had a dollar for everyone that said, ‘Isn’t all the tile going to fall off when you ship it?,’” she says.

Their solution was simple enough: load that prototype on a truck, drive it over rough roads, and inspect it afterward.

“We opened it up and the tile hadn’t fallen off,” she says. The prototype remains in their backyard today. See where they took things next.