Curb appeal help for mid century west coast-style walkout?
Hey guys,
My wife and I just purchased a mid century modern west coast style walkout, the kind of house we've been trying to find for a few years now! We want to make this our long-term house and plan to restore it, but we're struggling with the exterior. The back is beautiful as it's basically a glass curtain wall looking over the yard and ravine/park behind but we feel the front needs updating/curb appeal.
Here's what we've decided for sure:
We'll add a small addition/vestibule on the front entrance to increase storage and the interior entry size, being a walkout split level the entry landing is very small with little closet space. Suggestions for vestibule design? Using the existing awning in some way makes the most sense since it's cantilevered out from the house and would be significantly more affordable.
All wood fences will be replaced by cedar slat screen type fences, the chain link/privacy slat fence will remain except for the chain link gates between the garage and house.
We'll likely install a new modern cedar door with windows on the garage, as well as new exterior lights.
The exposed aggregate will NOT be painted, however the stucco upper section of the house will. Colors are up in the air, leaning really dark (maybe black or dark navy blue) or white???
We'd like to leave the window trim and roof flashings white as they don't paint well and cost a fortune to replace, but we are open to replacing the horizontal architectural board details across the front with something else, or simply painting as well.
Please let us know what exciting ideas you guys have for this, we're open to any and all suggestions! Thanks so much in advance!
P.S. We're working with Kevin (Creative Visual Concepts) on mock-ups so we can see what these ideas would look like and share with the group :-).
Comments (14)
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Michael B
6 years agoWe're not sure who the architect was unfortunately, so far that information can't be located even by city records.
The exposed aggregate section is the lower portion of the house on the front, matching the stairway up to the front door, the rest is stucco:
Those horizontal boards across the front are actually an architectural detail used to hide unsightly blemishes on the side of the house like air intakes, dryer vents, etc. We thought to at least extend the top one so it's one seamless line, and either paint them or replace with cedar slats or something. Perhaps even play off the detail on one side further with something like this:
My wife and I have renovated a couple mid century era homes now and the exterior always give us the most grief to get right.
Many homes of this era and square/flat roof shape I see in white with black accent details which could be an option:
Otherwise we're leaning to dark colors with wood elements to break it up and play off the dark color as a black/blond type of contrast:
Michael B
6 years agoA few more pics:
The exposed aggregate wall in the lower bedroom is one of our favorite features, as well as the 2 story fireplace, wood ceilings and of course all of the windows.
I don't want this to be a discussion about the interior but it has been previously updated, most of which will be ripped out to take it back to more original design elements - white walls, cork flooring, new wood cabinet kitchen with stainless appliances, etc.
Michael B
6 years agoMichael B
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoLooks like everyone is stumped by this one? Here are a few mock-up color schemes to show some of our ideas. Preferably we could leave the window trims white, so we did some of the mock-ups with that in mind. Also, we're leaning towards the lower height vestibule for cost advantages as well as maintaining an unobstructed view from the front windows...
Michael B
6 years ago
rockybird