Renovating
How to Renovate a Mid-Century Classic
Bringing a 60-year-old house into the 21st century without ruining the thing you love isn't easy, but these stylish homes show you how
If you’re lucky enough to own a mid-century classic – and even better, one that is largely original – then you have something of a dilemma on your hands. When they were designed, houses from the middle of the 20th century were cutting edge, designed for a bold new way of living that flourished after World War II.
Gone were the dark, cluttered spaces of pre-war housing – the collections of small rooms with individual functions – and in came open-plan living, access to light and the outdoors. Architects around the western world delighted in designing houses that were radically different to those of a previous generation. So how can you respectfully bring one of these classics into the contemporary world?
Gone were the dark, cluttered spaces of pre-war housing – the collections of small rooms with individual functions – and in came open-plan living, access to light and the outdoors. Architects around the western world delighted in designing houses that were radically different to those of a previous generation. So how can you respectfully bring one of these classics into the contemporary world?
Despite the fact that some of them are now up to 65 years old, mid-century houses have stood the test of time and in many ways, they’re ideally suited to modern life. Their open spaces and way of living have remained remarkably well tuned to current circumstances – certainly when compared to houses built in the later part of the 19th century or early 20th century.
But sometimes – as with this house in Portland, Oregon in the US before its renovation – they are showing their age. Not all of them were architect designed, and many tract or developer homes came with quirks and oddities that have only grown more annoying over the years. On other levels, they need updating – technology has come a long way, ensuite bathrooms are now standard in many family homes, and families just seem to need more space these days. Which begs the question: how do you approach such a renovation? The short answer: tread gently.
Make friends with timber
It’s all too tempting to paint everything white and replace timber cladding with sleek modern materials. For an example on how horribly wrong this can go, watch – with your hands over your eyes – the first season of Transparent, in which Tammy renovates Maura Pfefferman’s iconic Pacific Pallisades house with a garish and unsympathetic combination of glass, white and pastels. (Thankfully, this didn’t actually happen to the real house.)
It’s all too tempting to paint everything white and replace timber cladding with sleek modern materials. For an example on how horribly wrong this can go, watch – with your hands over your eyes – the first season of Transparent, in which Tammy renovates Maura Pfefferman’s iconic Pacific Pallisades house with a garish and unsympathetic combination of glass, white and pastels. (Thankfully, this didn’t actually happen to the real house.)
Mid-century design – well, good mid-century design – was all about exposing the details so you can see them, and that often meant leaving beams exposed and bringing timber panelling inside along walls. But very often – in contrast to wooden interiors from earlier decades – that was balanced by pops of colour and large expanses of glass.
You can see this beautifully done in a careful renovation and extension of a mid-century house in Berkeley, California: timber, primary colours and careful modern insertions such as the cedar wall outside on the terrace come together harmoniously and respectfully.
You can see this beautifully done in a careful renovation and extension of a mid-century house in Berkeley, California: timber, primary colours and careful modern insertions such as the cedar wall outside on the terrace come together harmoniously and respectfully.
See?
In the kitchen, Koch Architects added stainless-steel cabinetry, which goes beautifully with all that timber, along with skylights to draw in the natural light. The walls, floors and beams are all made of natural timber. Spectacular.
Mid-century modern kitchens: key design elements
Mid-century modern kitchens: key design elements
Block out colours – and put away the beige
For a masterclass in how to use colour, may I direct you to the (fictional) offices of Mad Men’s Stirling Cooper Draper Pryce? White floors, white walls; timber panels and blocks of colours – red, orange, yellow, aquamarine, navy. Strong, pure colours – no muddiness or retreat to them. That’s how you use colour in a mid-century home.
Very often, the owners of mid-century homes think the way to bring their house into the 21st century is to paint everything in shades of beige and taupe: all this does is make the spaces feel small and bland, rather than rich and expressive. Don’t do it!
For a masterclass in how to use colour, may I direct you to the (fictional) offices of Mad Men’s Stirling Cooper Draper Pryce? White floors, white walls; timber panels and blocks of colours – red, orange, yellow, aquamarine, navy. Strong, pure colours – no muddiness or retreat to them. That’s how you use colour in a mid-century home.
Very often, the owners of mid-century homes think the way to bring their house into the 21st century is to paint everything in shades of beige and taupe: all this does is make the spaces feel small and bland, rather than rich and expressive. Don’t do it!
Instead, paint large surfaces in one colour – sliding doors to storage, say – as with this magnificent renovation of a mid-century house in Los Angeles by Johnson Berman. Look carefully at this image: there are actually four colours on the doors – a reddy orange with a red and a yellow with an orangey yellow –and these are repeated through the room.
Make it look like it’s always been there
In an upcoming Houzz story, I write about how if you’re renovating, you might want to think about adding on in a different style to the original. To illustrate this, I picked examples from around New Zealand where architects had added beautiful, contemporary additions to small, often prosaic, houses made from brick or weatherboard (stay tuned for this story in the coming weeks). I stand by that (hell, our architect is planning exactly this for our own little 1950s cottage right now), but if you live in something with long, low lines and a sense of flow and craft, I’d hesitate.
In an upcoming Houzz story, I write about how if you’re renovating, you might want to think about adding on in a different style to the original. To illustrate this, I picked examples from around New Zealand where architects had added beautiful, contemporary additions to small, often prosaic, houses made from brick or weatherboard (stay tuned for this story in the coming weeks). I stand by that (hell, our architect is planning exactly this for our own little 1950s cottage right now), but if you live in something with long, low lines and a sense of flow and craft, I’d hesitate.
The owners of this lovely house in Pasadena, Los Angeles rescued a long-neglected 1950s house, gutted it and then set about effecting a very lovely – and entirely sympathetic – renovation designed by Bilden. As part of that, they added a second storey housing a master bedroom and bathroom, which followed the language, scale and detailing of the original – right down to the timber ceiling that carried on under the eaves of the top floor. It takes great skill to make a renovation like this work.
The redesign added a few modern touches: all the windows are double glazed using low-e glass, and there are sophisticated sound and electronic systems through the place. Possibly because there was so much work done, the place feels harmonious – as if it was just a very well-maintained mid-century home. (It helps that the owners picked Ligne Rosset‘s Togo sofas.)
Essential pieces for a mid-century mood
Essential pieces for a mid-century mood
Or, break all the rules
I come and go on this house, an addition to a sweet little mid-century house in the suburbs of Austin, Texas in which architect Webber + Studio added a tower (yes, it is a tower) behind the house. It’s surprising, and in its own way it has a kind of crazy 1960s A-frame sort of language to it. It’s clever and striking and beautifully realised, the two structures united by a shared language of timber, concrete and steel.
I come and go on this house, an addition to a sweet little mid-century house in the suburbs of Austin, Texas in which architect Webber + Studio added a tower (yes, it is a tower) behind the house. It’s surprising, and in its own way it has a kind of crazy 1960s A-frame sort of language to it. It’s clever and striking and beautifully realised, the two structures united by a shared language of timber, concrete and steel.
But was it the right thing to do?
Introduce new materials – carefully
The wonderful thing about mid-century design is the sense of excitement with which the architects of these houses approached new materials. Much of it had to do with engineering: suddenly, big expanses of glass appeared, as did cantilevers and exposed, pared-back structures. This allowed architects to blur the boundaries between inside and out, and it allowed them to make houses sit in the landscape in an entirely different way.
Moreover, their kitchens and bathrooms included the latest gadgets. Put bluntly, they weren’t afraid of new technology: rather, they built whole houses around it.
The wonderful thing about mid-century design is the sense of excitement with which the architects of these houses approached new materials. Much of it had to do with engineering: suddenly, big expanses of glass appeared, as did cantilevers and exposed, pared-back structures. This allowed architects to blur the boundaries between inside and out, and it allowed them to make houses sit in the landscape in an entirely different way.
Moreover, their kitchens and bathrooms included the latest gadgets. Put bluntly, they weren’t afraid of new technology: rather, they built whole houses around it.
It’s safe to assume that mid-century architects would have been beside themselves with excitement at the advances in technology and engineering in the past half-century or so. That’s the attitude Flavin Architects took with this house near Boston, USA, when they undertook a major renovation. They respected the original design, but introduced some lovely touches.
This is best seen in the kitchen, where the architects ‘riffed’ on a very 1950s idea of the ‘floating kitchen’, in which the kitchen sat in the middle of the house, away from any walls. Cabinetry floated, seemingly unsupported. It was radical then; it’s still a great idea now.
In this version, the bench is Corian, while the cabinetry has extensive – and practical – LED lighting. It’s cutting edge in its construction, but polite about its placement – and it follows the right lines. It doesn’t look like a thoughtless intrusion from the 21st century, as so many modern kitchens in 1950s houses do.
In this version, the bench is Corian, while the cabinetry has extensive – and practical – LED lighting. It’s cutting edge in its construction, but polite about its placement – and it follows the right lines. It doesn’t look like a thoughtless intrusion from the 21st century, as so many modern kitchens in 1950s houses do.
Respect the idiosyncracies
Mid-century houses sometimes have some oddness to them – split levels are common, and sometimes the kitchen isn’t front and centre in the living area, the way it might be in a modern house. Sometimes you just have to respect that – as the owners of this house in Washington State have.
Mid-century houses sometimes have some oddness to them – split levels are common, and sometimes the kitchen isn’t front and centre in the living area, the way it might be in a modern house. Sometimes you just have to respect that – as the owners of this house in Washington State have.
After buying it on impulse, they renovated it according to original drawings – the original blueprints for the house still exist.
Keep the outdoors strong and simple
In other words, don’t be tempted to add a cottage garden to the outside of your mid-century marvel. Keep the shapes neat and tidy, with circular shapes and large paving stones. Palm trees here are a brilliant touch.
In other words, don’t be tempted to add a cottage garden to the outside of your mid-century marvel. Keep the shapes neat and tidy, with circular shapes and large paving stones. Palm trees here are a brilliant touch.
Again, the architects of this house used wide-scale concrete pads to define the courtyard, which sits in front of the main living area.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Think very, very hard before you change anything in a mid-century house. What’s dated today may become iconic – even historic – in future decades, and some of these houses were beautiful exercises in design that would stand up solidly if they were built today. Changing them unnecessarily is something of a design crime.
Think very, very hard before you change anything in a mid-century house. What’s dated today may become iconic – even historic – in future decades, and some of these houses were beautiful exercises in design that would stand up solidly if they were built today. Changing them unnecessarily is something of a design crime.
Like the Castlecrag House, designed by Porebski Architects in 1972. Flat roofs and cantilevers defined the house, which is built overlooking Sydney Harbour, near a national park. The trees have grown and the rock walls are covered with moss, but little else has changed in this classic house, which is still in the hands of its original owners.
The house works as well today as it did when it was built: the owners’ collection of classic furniture and fine art slots beautifully into the high-ceilinged space. The deep, cantilevered eaves, meanwhile, keep the heat of a hot Sydney summer at bay despite the floor-to-ceiling glass. A masterpiece.
Give it a whole new identity
If you’re going to update a mid-century house, make sure it’s done in a way that feels seamless – and kind to the original structure. The owners of this 1960s house in Auckland had lived there for five years before they asked Strachan Group Architects to rework the place, which was cold and dark, and lacked decent access to the outdoors. It was a standard mid-century spec house that hadn’t been particularly well thought through.
Key to the design was the idea of a ‘blade’ running through the house – made from plastered brick, it connects the two levels of the house and covered up the original brick.
If you’re going to update a mid-century house, make sure it’s done in a way that feels seamless – and kind to the original structure. The owners of this 1960s house in Auckland had lived there for five years before they asked Strachan Group Architects to rework the place, which was cold and dark, and lacked decent access to the outdoors. It was a standard mid-century spec house that hadn’t been particularly well thought through.
Key to the design was the idea of a ‘blade’ running through the house – made from plastered brick, it connects the two levels of the house and covered up the original brick.
Upstairs, the renovation is whole-heartedly modern, but with sympathetic materials including plywood. Here, the kitchen sits under the exposed ceiling and rafters. In many ways, the redesign made the house into what it should have been in the first place – after all, not every mid-century house is a design classic.
The house now operates entirely differently – open and breezy, with outdoor spaces and access to the environment outside. The timber screen on the balcony and decks are a genius move – the screening gives the house the gravitas it lacked. In many ways, the architects have lifted a standard little spec house to a whole new level.
TELL US
Do you own a mid-century home? Tell us all about it in the Comments, or better yet upload some photos.
MORE
Houzz Tour: Shades of Japan in an Updated ’60s Gem
My Houzz: Decorating a Mid-Century Robin Boyd Home
Houzz Tour: Mid-Century Marvel for a Modern Family
TELL US
Do you own a mid-century home? Tell us all about it in the Comments, or better yet upload some photos.
MORE
Houzz Tour: Shades of Japan in an Updated ’60s Gem
My Houzz: Decorating a Mid-Century Robin Boyd Home
Houzz Tour: Mid-Century Marvel for a Modern Family