Before and After for a Mid-Century Modern House

When we first visited this Mid-Century Modern house outside of Boston, we took careful note of what remained of the house’s original modern character, which was camouflaged behind kitschy window boxes, an unsightly eighties garage addition complete with stenciled bird house and full-frontal double-wide garage door, and gallons of suburban taupe paint. Fortunately for those of us who love modern architecture, our new clients were just as eager as we were to erase decades of previous owners’ short-sighted design decisions.

Design goal #1 was to restore dignity to the original floating accordion roof by removing the 80’s garage addition and replacing that with a visually quieter garage and generous entry porch. Splitting the garage doors into two separate doors -- building one of them with the same dark gray stained cedar boards as the siding to make it virtually disappear – helps shift the focus from garage to sculptural roof. We also designed a new high-contrast color palette of charcoal gray and bright white that really highlights the original sculptural roof. Our efforts continued inside with the reconfiguration and refreshing of the outdated bathrooms, adding skylights to bring some much needed sunlight into the kitchen and hallways, new lighting and furnishings in the main living spaces, and a new fireplace and TV cabinet in the family room.

Our clients love their new old house, and we are looking forward to seeing it at night, when the focus shifts to the warm cedar slatted siding within the new entry porch, enhanced by the glowing garage door.