Globe Magazine’s Homes of the Year 2012

Each of our Homes of the Year winners receives a $500 gift certificate from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams — Boston/Natick. Take a look at the winning entries.

Best New Home: Modern

Rose and Ron Dennis had specific goals for their Trenton, Maine, home when they approached William M. Hanley at A4 Architects in Bar Harbor: uninterrupted ocean views, low maintenance, privacy, and energy efficiency.

Best New Home: Modern

Plenty of outdoor space and windows with uninterrupted views were paramount.

Best New Home: Modern

On a high-canopied deck, Rose Dennis relaxes by the wood-burning fireplace.

Best New Home: Modern

The dining room’s glass walls look out to the sea.

Best New Home: Modern

The master bedroom opens to an ocean-side deck.

Best New Home: Traditional

Architect Jan Gleysteen designed Erin and Devin Condron’s Wellesley home in the Shingle Style, with a portico that echoes the curve of a turtle’s back.

Best New Home: Traditional

The home’s front door is classic Arts and Crafts style. “There’s a lot of fun in this house,’’ Gleysteen says. “We added lots of playful curves to create a rhythm of shapes.’’

Best New Home: Traditional

The thick marble counters and a mahogany-topped island (treated with a marine-grade varnish) make the kitchen feel substantial.

Best New Home: Traditional

Erin Condron and her twin sons enjoy some playtime in the sunny family room. At the Condrons’ request, the kitchen is open to the family room so that they can watch their kids play; square columns help visually define the two areas.

Best New Home: Traditional

Though rich traditional architectural details are everywhere in the home — thick, carved moldings and trim, coffered and tray ceilings, and a handsome floor in the entry hall (oak inlaid with walnut to create a diamond pattern) — Gleysteen made sure the interior would never feel overly formal or fussy.

Best New Home: Traditional

An expansive island separates the food preparation area from the main traffic flow. White cabinets are paired with 2-inch-thick Vermont Danby marble counters.

Best Kitchen

Karen Watson and her husband, Stuart, refurbished their whole circa 1860 Venetian Gothic town house in the South End, but the most significant overhaul was in the kitchen. Karen partnered with kitchen designer Barbara Baratz of Venegas and Company to re-imagine the garden-floor space, both functionally and aesthetically.

Best Kitchen

Karen, who owns Acorn Hill Design in Boston, had been admiring the home for two months when a For Sale sign appeared. By the next day, the town house was theirs. “The minute we walked in,’’ Karen says, “it felt like home.’’

Best Kitchen

A glossy charcoal-gray Aga cooker is the kitchen’s centerpiece, set against a glistening backsplash of herringbone-patterned mosaic marble tile.

Best Redesign

Caroline and her young son read together in the living room in their Belmont home, where reupholstered and new pieces blend beautifully.

Best Redesign

The master bedroom is a study in dark color done right.

Best Redesign

A leopard-print ottoman and Tibetan rug brighten the family room.

Best Redesign

A former porch now serves as cheery dining space off the living room of Bill Springer and Caroline McCabe Springer’s Belmont home.

Best Addition

Tim Thurman did not just design and build an addition for the house at Sunset Rock in Gloucester. He celebrated its past, enshrined its defining feature, and almost certainly saved it. The addition includes roof-mounted solar panels.

Best Addition

The Thurmans enjoy morning tea on one of their terraces.

Best Addition

Originally just 1,300 square feet, the 1904 cottage in Annisquam is a picture-postcard example of English Arts and Crafts style. Designed and built by Charles Harvey, who applied his architecture training to this one summer home before becoming a Swedenborgian minister, it features prominent eave brackets, arched transom windows, high dark oak wainscoting, and red cedar shingle cladding.

Best Addition

a handsome new kitchen …

Best Addition

The house’s most salient feature is the enormous granite rock that has always been a part of its foundation — the house was literally bolted to the rock with steel rods in 1904. Tim made Sunset Rock itself a powerful feature of the new front hall, where it bulges out from under the stairs. “Originally we wanted to enclose the rock, but it grew on us,’’ says Tim. “The curve is a lovely form.’’