11 Stunning Rooms on the World’s Most High-Design House-Swapping Site

By Amy Schellenbaum
April 15, 2015
Courtesy of Behomm
Behomm, a house swapping site launched in 2013, has the allure of a siren’s song: it offers unspeakably beautiful vacation rentals in places like Binyamina, Israel; Bondi, Australia; and Seggiano, Italy. Each place is owned by a creative professional with established bona fides: creative director roles at taste-making brands, principal spots at architecture firms, and publicists for designers, to name a few.

You’ll find more professionally photographed apartments of well-to-do interior designers in Behomm than, say, in a year’s subscription of a shelter magazine.

Behomm monitors or prescribes zero by way of money exchanges. Bartering is encouraged, and sometimes that means no money is exchanged at all.

Of course, getting into this club of Marcel Breuer chairs, antique mantelpieces, and Smeg fridges is not easy. Behomm's community is closely curated, and thus incredibly exclusive. Behomm is invitation-only, and every member must work in the creative disciplines (largely designers and visual artists) outlined in the Behomm application. Each potential candidate must also import high-quality photos of his or her (gorgeous, obviously) apartment, house, or castle upon requesting access to see the listings.

It’s an incredibly compelling concept, one the founders, Barcelona-based graphic designers Eva Calduch and Agust Juste, brought to life after a particularly frustrating period poring over listings on HomeExchange.com. What they needed was a house-exchange commonwealth that was highly edited—preferably according to their own obsessions with well-appointed spaces. As such, Behomm is just 1,600 members total.

Here now, 11 beautiful examples to whet the appetite of any design lover. Want more? Head on over to Behomm’s official site, or check out this list of vacation rentals that belong on any design nerd’s bucket list.
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Marebbe-Enneberg, Italy

Courtesy of Behomm

This architect-owned mountain abode is where minimalism meets chalet style.

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Bali, Indonesia

Courtesy of Behomm

The listing describes this home in Bali, Indonesia, as "whimsical" and "vibrant," and the photos easily back up those claims. Spotted: a chandelier made of pots and pans, neon signage, a light-up rainbow, a lips sofa, and (of course!) a human-sized nest with giant plushy eggs.

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Barcelona, Spain

Tiia Ettala/Courtesy of Behomm

Come to this architect-owned Barcelona apartment, which dates to the 1910s, for the location in the heart of the city's Eixample district, but stay for the mind-boggingly amazing floor tiles, which change from room to room.

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Sevilla, Spain

Fernando Alda/Courtesy of Behomm

Heading to Andalusia? Consider using this airy, 2,960-square-foot house as headquarters. Here minimalist furnishings mesh well with stone walls and exposed rafters, and second-level walkways alongside indoor atriums give the place a decidedly chic indoor-outdoor feel.

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Calgary, Canada

Lori Andrews/Courtesy of Behomm

This 1,830-square-foot, century-old pad in the downtown Calgary is outfitted by its interior designer owner with midcentury staples and regimented swathes of color.

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Barcelona, Spain

Courtesy of Behomm

This Barcelona five-bedroom, owned by an interior designer and architect, is put-together in a refreshingly unassuming way, with giant paper lanterns, beanbag chairs, a coffee table made from a wood pallet, and walls covered in cheerful, unpretentious art.

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Grisons, Switzerland

Courtesy of Behomm

This architect's home in the easternmost canton of Switzerland is willfully undecorated, but that's all to let the elmwood interiors really dazzle.

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Grimeton, Sweden

Marcus Lawett/Courtesy of Behomm

An interior designer owns this glassy "forrest cabin," replete with floor-to-ceiling windows and modern furnishings.

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Berlin, Germany

Courtesy of Behomm

This architect-owned, 1,400-square-foot "city apartment with a view," is furnished sparsely, which makes the discoball glittering from the antique moulding a particular delight.

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Bali, Indonesia

Courtesy of Behomm

A fashion designer has outfitted her 2,690-square-foot villa in birdcage pendant lamps and bold wallpapers.

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Essaouira, Morocco

Courtesy of Behomm

Spotted inside this interior designer's riad: Eames-style chairs, exposed beams overhead, and (because this is Morocco) to-die-for tiles covering the interior courtyard.

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Courtesy of Behomm

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