Table of contents for Renovation Guide 2023 in Atomic Ranch

Aside from the design components of your mid-century home’s façade, there’s no stylistic component quite like hardscaping to boost your home’s curb appeal. Joe Raboine, vice president of design at Oldcastle APG, the largest manufacturer of architectural building products in North America, says the right hardscaping can also make your landscaping pop. “Landscaping makes up roughly 20 percent of your home’s value,” Joe says. “Installing a paver walkway and refreshing plants with flowering shrubs, raised beds and some fresh mulch does wonders for curb appeal. Depending on the size and scale of your landscaping, you may spend around $6,000, but recover at least $5,000 when you go to sell.” So, what are the keys to using hardscaping elements that will enhance your mod home’s design? Joe shares his tips: AR:…

While today it shines as a beacon of quality design reminiscent of the best parts of mid mod aesthetics, this home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, didn’t always look “mid-century” in the traditional sense. “The history of this home is pretty unique,” says interior designer Rebecca Bridges, founder of House of Drennan, the design firm that worked on its recent transformation. When it was first constructed in 1964, the house was built in the typical ranch style. Then, in the early 1970s, it was purchased by a notable couple in the community, Ed and Dolores Lewandowski. “Mr. Lewandowski was an accomplished American Precisionist artist and served as the chairman of the art department here at Winthrop University until the 1980s,” Rebecca explains. “He and his wife had an affinity for…

Photography by BRET GUM MID CENTURY MODERN KITCHENS are notorious for starving you on space. If found in its original state, it’s often small and lacking in storage. When you decide to renovate, there’s a lot to debate: what to keep, what to update. Should you expand? What should you preserve? No matter the route, maximizing the space is essential. Amanda Burns Clark is a professional organizer and owner of Ever So Organized, a full-service organizing business based out of Orange County, California. She is well-acquainted with the nuances of space issues in a mod kitchen and says hers inspired her to be a minimalist. “I saw its limitations as a way to inform our way of living in the space,” she says. “Before moving into our Eichler, we lived…

EVERY GREAT LANDSCAPE DESIGN IS composed of feature areas and well planned borders. While the feature areas comprise your overall impression of the garden—after all, these are spaces designated for lounging, eating or enjoying the backyard—it’s the borders that do the work of integrating the home with the landscaping and helping to define the backyard zones. That’s right, modern hedges and border plants might just be the unsung heroes of your garden designs. Here are a few ways to think about your borders and how you might want to design them. Define Your Hedges with Color Use your hedge to soften the area between your exterior walls and the open landscape. Planting against the home provides a visual transition that helps make the home feel more integrated. While your hedges…

JULIA CHILD ONCE SAID, “The more you know, the more you can create. There’s no end to imagination in the kitchen.” Of course, she may have been talking about her delectable cuisine, but the same can be said about kitchen design—in this case, kitchen cabinetry. Costly Cabinets New kitchen cabinets for an average-size kitchen are expensive, running anywhere from $15,000-$30,000 or more. Cost of materials, size of cabinetry and space may all affect the total price. A recent study showed that the average cost for refacing cabinets runs about $7,158, which is a fraction of the price to update your kitchen cabinets. To save money, the DIY route is a great option, but this approach may be beyond your skill set. Thankfully, aesthetics don’t have to be compromised to save…

THIS MID-CENTURY KITCHEN RENOVATION is a perfect example of blending the best of old and new design. The home where it is based is in Palm Springs, California’s Villa Roma condominium community built in the 1960s. It sports Greco-Roman Hollywood Regency style, with columns on the façade and a fountain with a sculpture of Venus. The community was recently approved by Palm Springs as a historic district, thanks to its unique architecture. The new homeowner, Kyle, enjoys entertaining frequently. He wanted the kitchen to function more efficiently and improve the interaction with guests in the adjoining living and dining areas, so he contacted designer Michael Norpell, of Michael Norpell Wall to Wall, to renovate the room along with the rest of the home. The kitchen had the original architectural and…

If the Met Gala were a neighbor-hood, it would be Hilltop Community in Bellevue, Washington. John Morse, Paul Kirk, Wendell Lovett, Fred Basetti and Roland Terry all designed homes here. The community was founded (by Morse, Basetti and another Seattle architect, Peri Johanson) in 1948 as a collaborative enclave for Washington University professors, engineers and artists, with 40 sites strategically positioned by the architects. “These structures represent a consistent dedication to the principles and spirit of the site and community,” Morse said about the endeavor. “The founders of the neighborhood created design rules suggesting houses were required to have straightforward contemporary character adapted to the site. Contemporary was defined as functional, designed more for comfort, utility and internal beauty than for display! This type of architecture favors the use of…

Going Green Inspired by nature? This Cliff May home in Long Beach, California, masters the monochromatic look. Done in an elegant olive tone, it blends organic and modern style in the best way. Your Perfect Paint Palette 1. Sherwin-Williams June Day (SW 6682) 2. Sherwin-Williams Luau Green (SW 6712) Easy Earth Tones Looking for something classic? Frank Lloyd Wright would approve of the natural tone-on-tone palette on this A. Quincy Jones-designed home in Fullerton, California. Your Perfect Paint Palette 1. Behr Tart Orange (HDC-MD-27) 2. Behr Burnished Pewter (PPU24-04) 3. Benjamin Moore Carbon Copy (2117-10) Feeling Blue Few colors please the eye more than blue. The subdued shade on this 1960 rambler in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the perfect calming color that still has a touch of retro pep. And…

LIGHTING TILE & WALLPAPER HARDWARE…

WHEN YOU’RE RENOVATING an architecturally significant home, the end product aims to impress. When new homeowners purchased this Bellevue, Washington, home in the Lake Hills subdivision, the fact that the home belonged to developer George Bell of the Bell and Valdez building company, which built more than 4,000 homes in the area during the 1950s and ’60s, made the results of their remodel rather high stakes. Thanks to Rick Chesmore and Dave Buck of Chesmore/Buck Architecture, they succeeded. In particular, the rear of the home is a stunning example of leaving a modernist design better than you found it. “This modest waterfront Mid Century Modern home had been added onto many times in the last 65 years, which created a very disjointed floor plan. The new owners had an interest…

Experts in Mid Century Modern style will tell you that MCM expresses itself differently depending on its location, architect or original owners. Just as characteristic breezeblock adorns Palm Springs MCM homes, the Plummer House in The San Fernando Valley comes with its own distinguishing feature: a concrete block-and-beam design and finishing that is original to the home. “Much of the flooring throughout the house is white porcelain, which intentionally minimized any clashes with the concrete block—the real star of the show.” “Sometimes a designer’s favorite design choice is the one the original architect and owner intended.” HIDDEN GEM The neighborhood where the Plummer House resides has plenty of tract MCM home counterparts, but very few, if any, have exposed, original concrete block. “It was a very polarizing part of the…

In a design era when most new homeowners are requesting open floorplans with light, bright interiors, Alyssa Donovan had other ideas for her home. She hired Christine Turknett, principal interior designer at Breathe Design Studio to create the environment she envisioned for herself. “Alyssa wanted her home to be cozy and warm,” Christine says. “She wanted to convert it from a bright, open, airy space into a moody sanctuary.” The designer’s first impressions of the home, located in Westlake Hills, Texas, a suburb west of Austin, confirmed that she could create the ambience Alyssa wanted. “I felt an instant connection with the clean, modern architecture by Alterstudio Architecture,” Christine says. “It was a new build in 2018, specified by the architect. I’ve always admired their work and was thrilled at…

“I LOVE THE FLOW OF THE KITCHEN AND ALL THE LIGHT THAT REMOVING THE WALLS AND ENLARGING THE WINDOWS GIVE THE SPACE,” SAYS CATHERINE FILLMORE, PROJECT COORDINATOR AT FORWARD DESIGN BUILD REMODEL. WHEN REIMAGINING THE DESIGN OF YOUR HOME, nothing can seem as daunting as the kitchen. It needs to reflect your MCM aesthetic, function well day-to-day and include all the necessary upgrades of a modern kitchen. And for the owners of this custom-built Ann Arbor, Michigan, home, it was important to create a larger, brighter space that could easily host friends and family. Project Designer Carly Withers and Project Coordinator Catherine Fillmore of Forward Design Build Remodel detail three key ingredients in renovating this kitchen. 1. Wall Removal “As with many remodels, our challenge was to open and remove…