I love it and say go for it. The mock up looks great!

btw... what program did you use to create it?

l love your color choices too!

Love it just as your mock up shows. Maybe wider window and sliding door trim and how about a funky Pom Pom tree on the left?

osideclyde: I used sherwin williams color visualizer for the paint part of the mock up. Then just crop, cut, and pasted the other parts of the picture (doors, railing) from pictures I found online. I don't own a photoshop program so it was the best I could do!

Nancy! The tree looks awesome. You are so right. Something is missing right there in the corner of the house and I had no idea until you put something there.

Love it. Do consider cable railing instead of glass, which can get water spots and fog up. Here's an example of cable railings on a modern gray house:

Another modern look are cedar railings.

If you have any budget left, a wooden garage door would be fantastic.

Love the mock up! The color is great, though I am partial to gray too. I have to agree with some of the posts about the glass. I have a similar issue with a balcony. Mine is a box made of bead board. I was going to do half stucco and half glass, but the glass was going to cost $6800 and the stucco another $6000. That ended my love affair with glass, cleaning concerns aside! I am going with a flat bar wrought iron railing with floating corners, sort of like the picture below.

Ya I think we are reconsidering glass and doing a similar thing to your horizontal bars. Maybe a cable railing.

I have also changed the mock up differently since I posted this. We are going with a cedar plank on the left side if the house.

Awesome!

That's great! How about a cedar garage door?

I'm not opposed to the cedar door idea :)

So Angela, how goes the remodel?

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Meg613, I did some more research on mid century modern exterior style and we ended up using cedar siding and a dark grey paint on the house. This just happened last week. We are now in the process of figuring out trim color around the front door and the color of the front door as well. Also we need to do some updating on the landscape (probably in the spring) plus paint the ugly dirty looking retaining wall, getting a new balcony rail (cable rail), and a new garage door. Unfortunately we live near Seattle and it's the rainy season for the next 6 months so those updates (retaining wall/landscape etc... ) need to wait based both on weather and available funds.

tell me what you think of the trim/door color ideas. The window casings on the left side of the house are white which are leaning me toward white trim. The door can't be an orange, red, or yellow bc the cedar siding has a lot of those tones so it wouldnt stand out as we'd like.

I'm open to any and all ideas different than my mock ups!

Which direction does the front of the house face. In Feng Shui, the color of the front door is very important for good flow of energy, and is based how the house sits. South facing = red/orange, north is blue, east is green, and I believe west is yellow. Any of those in a bright hue would work with mid century.

I like the last one best -- at least, if I'm making out a deep teal door? Remember the color of the cedar will change over the years, becoming grayer. I think there are some dark reds (bluish reds without orange tones) that might work esp. considering the future.

I still love the bright green. You could paint the trim around the door the door color, like in this picture, especially if it's a bright, fun color.

And here's one with white trim.

Love the glass garage door choice.

Also, is the retaining wall concrete? Concrete looks great with midcentury if you could just clean it up a bit.

Well done Angela! Really love the cedar. I'm not sure what I think about the white trim around the door. I can see your point in how the white would tie into the left-sided window casing, but somehow the white causes a visual imbalance with the rest of the house, and overshadows the color of the front door. At one point you were going to paint the eaves white. That would be a great tie-in for the white trim around the front door. I do like the green door. I saw a yellow-green that was pretty cool (see below):

The cable railing will be nice, but be very picky as to the quality. I've seen cable railings down in Laguna Beach, CA that have shown some rust, and they can sag over time. Check out deck-rail.com out of the Bay Area. The have some alternatives to the cable that are more durable. I did a flat rail design out of wrought iron. I got the idea from their website. They used aluminum, but that would have doubled our price, so I went with iron that was dipped in zinc for corrosion protection. My favorite part is the floating corners:

You can see from the paint swatches I have been agonizing over color. The deck and railing are Gauntlet Gray from Sherwin Williams. I have decided to go with Eider White for the stucco. We are in Southern California and this part of the house is west facing. The sun can be brutal, so the light paint will reflect the summer heat. The open railing has been a delight. It allows in more breezes, and give me a great view of the neighborhood. The balcony used to be solid bead board, with no view at all, unless you were standing. Painting for us begins next week. Our front door is Aquarium from Sherwin Williams. I envy your glass garage doors; great choice. We're going to have to keep our current garage doors, but will paint them Gauntlet Gray. This is our mock-up:

Keep the Houzz community updated on your progress. I think your house looks awesome.

Its the landscape that jumps out to me. Pretty as it is it could tell the MCM story much better.

I think the mock up is A+++

Meg613 I love he idea of a flat horizontal aluminum rail. It looks just as modern as the cable rail and it might stand the test of time better like you had mentioned. Your house is going to look great!

William Roy - yes the landscaping must go! I need to hire a landscape designer because we have a sloping terraced front yard that has very mature shrubbery. I just want to replace everything but I don't have a clue how to do at properly and with the best esthetic

Any updates? Love the progression of your house!

Angela E, I second Amber Lynn. Would like to know how your house is progressing!

No updates unfortunately! It's still rainy here therefore no work can be done yet :( I appreciate your interest though ;)

Still nothing terribly new on the home exterior. We still need to purchase a new door as the traditional style is not very fitting of the rest of the house BUT I did paint it black along with the trim around it- and I think it's good. However after I painted the trim black it made me rethink my black tall planters like maybe they need to be white now to pop?

Oh and we added cedar siding to the gable so it adds some cohesion to the cedar and the grey sides of the house.

plus we added a new porch light - I had been looking at these similar styled lights and it turned out that Lowes just started carrying them for $40!

next on the list is painting the ugly stained cement retaining wall. What color should I paint it? Grey like the house? Or white to make it pop? I have no idea.

Your house looks great. Paint the retaining wall the same gray as the house. Home Depot has a good looking MCM door for a reasonable price. It comes in a bunch of different colors:

I'd also keep the planters black. Simplify the landscape; perhaps add some hardscape to the front to create a courtyard/sitting area in front of the cedar siding.

Groveraxle yes on all fronts. The landscape is definitely going to need a makeover. It's so mature and unsculptured and I'm no landscape architect that I'm terrified to pull any bushes out without a major plan of attack. And because we have a terraced front yard, It makes it more complicated with me trying to figure our how to properly landscape it myself. So it will have to wait until I can hire someone to help me plan it out or put a more thorough advice post regarding my landscape on houzz -which I plan to do at some point :)

Angela, I agree with Groveraxle. I love your paint job on the entry!!! Would keep the planters black, so chic. Cedar addition: spectacular. Would love to see a wider angle picture of the new additions. Like what you did with the house numbers, really cool. I hear you about landscaping; same problem here in needing help in planning. I still have outside work to do, and landscaping will be the last thing I tackle.

Angela,

Can you please share the name of your exterior paint. Considering gray options myself right now for my MCM home and I LOVE your choice!

Kim smith- it's sherwin Williams Web Grey. I had a difficult time too finding a true grey that didn't have a brown, green, or blue tint. And that wasn't too dark or too light. I'd love to see the house you are working with :)

Hi Angela, You are much further along than I. Purchased a fixer upper last year and did a complete gut reno inside where I ended up using most of my budget for the exterior.

So now I need about 3 years to save, to change windows and completely reface this boxy hi ranch.

But I'm willing to spend some money now to paint the exterior just so I can live with it. Somehow house ended up with 3 different types of siding, and painted brick on front. By painting grey, I can modernize and also camoflogue the siding which is not in the best of shape. Also planning to remove storm door, and shutters. Ive done quite a bit of landscaping (myself), but now realize the aesthetic is not right for long term look and probably needs to be re done as well.

Ive included some before and after shots and also some rough renderings.

I love your gray and cedar siding combo (new inspiration house). but need to land on trim color for now...deciding between brown, or black but struggling. Roof is green (but not super noticeable)

Would love to hear feedback. Im totally open ..

before landscaping

after

You've made a good start, Kim. Do start your own Design Dilemma thread, however, with your questions, especially about landscaping. Do a Houzz search for "midcentury modern landscaping" to get ideas of how best to landscape your house down the road.

A couple quick, rewarding upgrades would be getting MCM house numbers and a great new MCM light over the garage.

Housegal I love your suggestions. Those will make a big difference in appearnce but not a big hit on the pockets. thank you! Will start my own thread

I know you're creating your own thread, but here are some inspirational landscaping photos for down the road:

So I just pulled all the old ugly bushes out from the front of the house and I've got a blank slate. I found these blue rush arrow grasses that looked tall in the pots but appear small against the two story backdrop. I wanted to use horsetail because it gets taller (and appears in the inspiration photos I love) but the lady at the garden store said it's invasive and they don't carry it. I also love the use of large grey river rock instead of mulch in the beds. I'm having a hard time with how to rearrange whatever plants I choose around that bottom window too. What should I do with this area?

We have a landscaper that I'm going to get advice from too and he's going to redo the grass in our lawn in front of the house and put in irrigation so we need to figure out this front bed at the same time.

Inspiration photos:

I have that same picture of the blue rock and concrete stepping stones in my favorites! I like horsetails too for their architectural look, but they are invasive. My neighbor planted them and they went under the block wall fencing into my yard. I was reading that the plant is considered a "living fossil" because it is one of the oldest plants around. If it can survive the Ice Age, it's probably more of an adversary than an asset to the average yard. I'm sure your landscape guy could make some suggestions. I'm partial to flax.

Once all the landscaping is completed have a look at our website:-

www.happychappyoutdoors.com

We have some amazing outdoor furniture products which would add a lot of style to your outdoor living area (front or backyard).

"Chondropetalum tectorum (Small Cape Rush): Great in planters, along walls. Good plant instead of Horsetail....grows around 4-5' tall."

Before- lots of ugly nandinas and huge bushes

It's not great but it's getting better

the retaining rock wall at the front needs repair bc the rocks are falling off of it. Those larger bushes to the top right need to be trimmed. The red flowers on the middle rock are just large annual hanging baskets I scored for $10 each and I got 3 of them. I'm not a fan of them but my mother in law is currently living with us and she's dying of cancer and she specifically requested that we have some flowers in our front yard so that's my concession to her wishes.

Not sure what else to do especially when those flowers aren't there in the coming months

without flowers: and before we put the rest of the plants in the ground

Oh and the person that my husband hired to do our landscaping basically did nothing to help me design this and offered zero help in design. He simply put in the irrigation work. So I had to go this alone and ended up buying and returning plants like 3 different times

Moving along nicely. Still hoping to see an upgrade in the front door to something more suitable to your mid-century home. The Victorian style door is killing the vibe!

Looks fantastic!!!!!

Is that festuca I see? I've always liked them. Reminded us kids of the tribbles from Star Trek. You're doing a great job, Angela.

Love the updates you have made to your home Angela! I live in Seattle as well and am in the process of re-landscaping my MCM, in addition to trying to add in special touches. Our glass railing was installed before we moved in, plus the paint color, and they missed the mark on some important things. I am dying to do the cedar that you have done; it looks gorgeous! Can't wait to see how you continue with your project!

I love it Beth! We are house twins!

Dark gray will look really good -- even without changing out the deck rail. Please don't choose that green door though -- keep the red one.