Dianne McKenzie and John Halley of Comet Studios in Sea Ranch, California describe themselves as "artists who create rooms and houses." Refreshingly unconventional, their work often glorifies the visual and tactile qualities of industrial-strength materials.

For example, even while working within the confines of the existing 10 x14-foot room and leaving the plumbing in place, the innovative husband-and-wife design team turned Sandi and Brooke Leatherman's former master bath inside out, in a way, upside down. Copper drain pipe and cast concrete-inexpensive materials usually concealed behind walls or under floors-were used to fabricate the antique-looking vanity. The sink-typically just depressions in a countertop-is elevated to the status of decorative object. Like the mirror frame/light fixture- with deliberately exposed electrical cable above-the basin is made of stainless steel. In contrast to these man made and utilitarian materials, a pitched ceiling looks like a tent of solid marble, a gravity-defying illusion created with paint.