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Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

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Home / Decorating ideas / decorating misc.

Repeating architectural motifs: A hat trick example from this 1953 ranch house

pam kueber - April 16, 2015, Updated: August 18, 2020

mid-century-brick-ranch-exteriorTour-a-Time-CapsuleThis 1953 time capsule house in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan includes a number of lovely classic features (pink Cinderella bathtub alert!), but what really caught our eye is how the architect repeated one architecturaly motif — the pinwheel — three times throughout the house. We love repetition of architectural elements… and we love things in threes. Thanks to Teri for this time capsule tip!

midcentury-brick-ranch-houseretro-trellis #1 (above): The exterior trellis is comprised of six pinwheels. It’s very nice, also, how the trellis is used to add architectural interest to a very long slab o’ otherwise-unadorned brick on the front facade of the house. (This appears to be a house set on a corner lot.)

midcentury-entryway#2 — The pinwheels are repeated on the front doors, creating an immediate transition from the outdoors, in.

midcentury-banquette-eating-area#3 — Pinwheel-mullioned glass between the kitchen dinette and an adjacent room.

vintage-pink-bathroomAbove: We can only wonder: Why no pinwheel flooring??? Perhaps, though, enough of a good thing. Yes: A light hand is often best.

This house is currently for sale. From the listing:

  • Price: $275,000
  • Year built: 1953
  • Square footage; 3,300
  • Bedrooms: 4
  • Bathrooms: 2 full, 2 half

…Radiant heat floor and ceiling…. 3 lots with irrigation… Square footage estimated.

Thanks to reader Teri for alerting us to this  home and to realtor Robin Stressman and photographer Auric Stressman for allowing us to feature the property on Retro Renovation.

Link love:

  • View this home from sale, listed by Robin Stressman of Coldwell Banker 

Some more photos from the listing: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:


midcentury-brick-ranch-house
midcentury-brick-ranch
mid-century-brick-ranch-exterior
retro-trellis
midcentury-entryway
midcentury-living-room
retro-built-in-shelf
midcentury-kitchen
retro-kitchen
midcentury-birch-cabinets
midcentury-banquette-eating-area
laundry-room-retro
vintage-pink-bathroom
vintage-wood-paneling
midcentury-wood-paneling
vintage-wet-bar
vintage-wall-mural
yellow-and-grey-retro-bathroom
built-in-midcentury-storage
midcentury-closets
bedroom
midcentury-closet-doors
vintage-bedroom
midcentury-bedroom
pinch-pleat-draperies
midcentury-patio
midcentury-ranch-house

CATEGORIES:
Decorating ideas decorating misc.

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43 comments

Comments

  1. Lee Ann Rogers says

    November 6, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    We now own this house on Maple.We love it. Oct. 30 was when we closed. Working on the whole house inside and out.

    • Mary Elizabeth says

      November 7, 2015 at 12:39 pm

      Lee Ann, that is fabulous news! Have fun fixing up your new home, and be sure to send photos to Kate and Pam.

  2. Ronda Vallejo says

    April 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    I absolutely love this house. It’s definitely a time capsule–and amazingly well preserved. You can tell that the people who lived there did a wonderful job maintaining the house. I would love to live in a house like this. There’s not much I would change. The trellis, doors, and the room divider are show stoppers for sure!

  3. Amy says

    April 19, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Oops – I meant pinch-pleats (kitchen curtains) – I must have been hungry when I wrote that!

    • Ronda Vallejo says

      April 20, 2015 at 10:51 pm

      Amy, you made me laugh! 🙂

  4. connie says

    April 19, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    discoverd a show on HGTV where the couple renovate old homes into new ones. (Fixer Upper, sure you know of them, The Gaines’s) I mean they gut renovate. They are in WACO Texas. Maybe your readers should contact the show to see what they are discarding. I live in NYC area where do those prices come from?

  5. Joe Felice says

    April 19, 2015 at 5:06 pm

    I just love it when people are able to keep the original things in their homes, and maintain them so well through the decades. Back in the day, people were more meticulous about their homes, but a lot of water (and time) has gone under the bridge, and people have changed. Trellises were popular. My dad used to custom-build them for privacy around our houses. The evergreens were also very typical in landscaping in the ’50s & ’60s. Today, people are ripping them out, instead of “shaping” them, as these are. Well shaped and maintained junipers are very attractive. And everyone had pleated shades on traverse rods. I even learned how to re-string them.

  6. Amy says

    April 19, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    What a GEM! I would LOVE that bathtub – and storage all over the place! And Pam – pinch eats in the KITCHEN! Wow & more wow!

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