It may date to the middle of the 20th century, but it is not MCM. It's a ranch style house. Decorate it as you like.

Decorate as you like and then post the update on this thread!!!

I really want to see the update :-)

I agree that none of the elements read all that mid-century to me - and you should easily be able to translate the elements to the style you love. Decorate as you wish ... no worries!!

Looks like a great neighborhood and house. Agree it is classic 60's ranch. I would love to sell my classic cape and find a ranch like yours.

Rebirth: Our 1960s Ranch House Renovation | Transforming the Front Elevation - Redeem Your Ground

This is so encouraging. Thank you, everyone! I'll post updates here. Kitchen is up first! :)

@jck910 Thank you! I really love that exterior renovation..would love to do something similar. Thank you for linking!

These houses took fairly traditional details pretty well. The one on my street had some colonial revival bits here and there like the fireplace mantle and the plank doored cherry and copper country kitchen.

I don't think the exterior of your house needs anything done to it really. I don't know that I would do a shaker door in the kitchen regardless, it's currently ubiquitous and associated with millennial contemporary, but you don't need to do a slab, either. A recessed door with a little moulding was not uncommon in the era: Kraftmaid still calls this a Shaker.

I was surprised when I looked at the pictures. Thats not mcm house at all. It is a ranch house. Do what you want with it, and enjoy it. Its a very attractive ranch house too.

To be fair there are elements of a classic MCM home that were incorporated like the white brick fireplace and the wood slab kitchen doors.

But this home wasn't designed by an architect but was probably built by a builder who used standard plans that incorporated decorative elements from a variety of home styles.

It is equivalent to new builds that call themselves Arts & Crafts style when they have a few elements like a front porch or whatever but really nothing else has anything to do with true Arts & Crafts style homes that were built 100 years ago.

There is a thread that was started recently in which the OP is asking whether she MUST decorate her MCM modern home with period style furniture as opposed to what she likes and I just don't understand that kind of thinking - especially since the pictures she posted had a few elements that might be called MCM but it's not as if it looked like I was stepping back into time and it was the Chemosphere house or its equivalent.

People move into brownstones and have a mix of furniture even when there are still elements of the original details left - not talking about homes that have been stripped of every original architectural element.

I live in a high rise that was built in 1965 and the realtors attempt to sell it as MCM. I guess the exterior is although to me it is more Bauhaus if anything. People do their interiors in all kinds of different styles although most people don't have Victorian furniture as a rule because it isn't what most people currently find attractive.

Nice house, looks like a great backyard. Personally, I prefer the slab cabinet doors to Shaker style. Are they in good condition? Enjoy the process of making this house your home!

The doors that Palimpsest shows are exactly the doors in my ranch built in 1964, I call it schizophrenic because it has lovely MCM touches (24 feet of floor to ceiling glass windows in the family/dining room) but also traditional touches such as crown molding in the family and living rooms and a bow window on the front. I use MCM/scandinavian furniture and it seems to be OK--probably "warmer" than if it were pure MCM. You make your house your home with personal touches. (Excuse the ratty landscaping; this photo is from the first year that we lived in the house.)

It's true, I struggled with what to call this house at first. Since it was built in the middle of the century and has a few of those elements it seemed like it fit most in mcm....but without the modern part haha! Just literally mid-century. I think you're all right that it's just a ranch house. The builder lived in it for a year or two after he finished it, so I don't think it was designed by an architect. I think he just built what he liked.

I guess when we moved in I felt like we could do whatever we wanted to on the inside and it would work, but everyone who comes over tends to throw "mid-century modern" terms around like baseballs so it made me second guess everything! I think the dated...well, everything...makes it hard to envision as anything but 60s/70s vibes. So once we start doing our work it will start to take on a new life.

@flopsycat1 Thank you! The backyard is maybe 75% why we bought the house :) It's incredible!

This is definitely a ranch with a nod here and there to what was popular in midcentury homes. You should be able to do the exact aesthetics you want. So exciting!

My suggestion would be to take things slow - you can get over your head very fast in a large scale remodel. If you can actually live in the home before remodeling, that's even better. This way you can get a feel for the flow of the house and you move with it. It will help you to identify areas where there may be move of a structural change is needed vs just cosmetic.

Congrats on your new house! Can't wait to see all that you do.

My $0.02, clean the fireplace brick and work with it — don’t take it out or paint over it. Look up the works of Cliff May if you want to pull ideas from high style ranch house.

First house was a 1953 modern ranch. Still miss that living room.

@Debbi Washburn Thank you! It is very exciting! We moved in at the beginning of August and don't plan to do anything major until early spring, so hopefully that will give us enough time to really figure out the flow. We'll do one room at a time spread out so we're not overwhelmed with tons of decisions and issues all at once.

@jelenhart Thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely look up Cliff. And what an incredible living room!

As per jelenthart, here's a Cliff May restoration you might want to use as a model.

So much potential!! I would suggest looking at each room and deciding what you really need to do . Some may just need new paint or flooring while others will be more extensive. It may be easier to figure out and actually do the smaller jobs first and build up to the larger projects.

Love all the natural light bathing your rooms! We’re nearing the end of a room-by-room remodel of our 1970’s home. One thing I’ve learned is to redo all the floors that you want to match at the same time. Tile gets discontinued :(