Creating a truly unique home is one of the joys of home ownership. Many seeking to personalize their residences in an unmistakable way do so by settling on an unusual paint color, a trip to the antique fair or an estate sale for a stand-out find, or decorate with mementos from travels.

But what if you had a budget that allowed you to think big? Not just concerning yourself with what goes on the walls, but what the walls are made of? Global materials consultancy Material Connexion has scoured the world to confer their annual Material of the Year awards, and this year's finalists offer up some intriguing possibilities.

Pierre Lemieux got into the business of repurposing cast-iron radiators to save what he considers a lost art form.

"I kept seeing these old, architecturally beautiful radiators going to scrap," says the owner and brains behind, EcoRad, a Canadian company he started nearly 30 years ago to save and re-use the historical artifacts.

Cast iron radiators date back to the mid 1800s and designed with a steam system that connected to a boiler. As the water boiled, steam filled the radiator, conferring heat. But as homes modernized, the radiators were often sent to the trash heap.

Today, Lemieux is breathing new life into these antique gems.

Forget about toasters and other energy-sucking devices. French designer Philippe Starck, who has made a name for himself in stylized household goods for a plethora of retailers including Target and Microsoft, has now set his sights on small, wind turbines for residential use.

Starck is teaming up with Italian energy parts maker Pramac to create "Revolutionair" vertical axis turbines that can be used in yards, gardens or on rooftops to generate power.

It's a shed. It's a work studio. It's a bedroom for your mother-in-law. Yes!

We're talking about pre-fabricated home additions by the Seattle-based Modern Shed. These structures are unattached to the primary home and can range from uninsulated traditional storage sheds to the more finished 'modern shed' complete with glass doors, windows and maple plywood walls. This company is filling the void for consumers who don't want the headache and, often, higher cost of adding on to their existing home.

Kent Griswold hasn't turned his dream into reality – yet – but he's making a living blogging about it. His passion? Tiny houses. And he may have hit on something.

Griswold, 51, started his blog, Tiny House Blog, a few years ago just to have a place to put his assorted photos and links collected during years of fantasizing about owning a cabin home in the mountains.

Now, in just the past year, his blog is receiving triple the number views, from five to 6,000 unique visitors each day. Griswold tries to keep up a steady nearly-daily posting of interesting tiny home solutions, from build-it-yourself options that range from a 102 sq. foot number with a building plan that starts at $859, to a 16' x 20' Vermont cottages to micro lofts.

And there's an ever-increasing amount of readers who are more than happy to share their own stories. Griswold thinks the economic downturn is responsible for the building-small craze.

No visitor or local in New York City can avoid the city's ubiquitous "sidewalk sheds," those unsightly wood-and-scaffolding structures put up to protect pedestrians during building renovations around Gotham. Whether at the entrance of your apartment building or wrapped around your favorite retail outlet these eyesores are ever-present.

But now sidewalk sheds are getting a much-needed makeover.