This Portland designer is a meticulous out-of-the-box thinker. A former dentist (“Detail in that profession is measured in tenths of a millimeter,” he says), Jonathan Munson was living in Oak Park, Ill. and restoring one of the 26 original Frank Lloyd Wright houses in that village when he found his true calling. Now he works with clients on their whole-house remodels (or kitchen and bath renovations). He believes that financing his first 40-plus remodeling and design projects on his own dime has honed his senses to what makes for good design and what makes for a good investment.