Thanks Beth! Yes - definitely have to dump that front door. We love the bookcases so keeping those. Need some lighting ideas if you have any? Thanks!

Need to know more about your style. Your house has a blended feel, so your specific tastes will push it more midcentury or more transitional/contemporary.

i love that huge room. yes, what is the style you want? more mcm or contemporary or ? do you have any ideas about lighting? you can go pretty big there. if you like mcm, then a sputnik type would certainly work or the big globes

you could recess some lights and add a few fans. again, depends what you want.

I love the library shelves!

Once the tiles are replaced with wood the barn siding might not seem out of place.

I think the fireplace is stone that was painted. Is there any stone on the exterior? The corbels holding the mantel seem out of place for midcentury. You could do something really dramatic with this fireplace. But if nothing else I'd paint it a charcoal.

I like this dark gray brown with a black mantel.
I love all the bookcases, but if you find there is more storage than you need you could hang paintings, prints and photographs on them to hide the voids. I'd like to see the backs painted a neat color.

My take is to leave the siding, and board / flat finish american clay / smooth trowel stucco) the fireplace as you desire so you only have one texture going - the verticality of the siding is amazing. I would paint it out a not so yellow but clean warm white chosen to work with the other warm elements .. .The wash on the wood now looks a bit gray which fights the ceiling. My (I do but . . your house) but take all the base, door and window

trim and doors into a 30 LRV deeper mid-tone contrasting shade .. maybe a mid tone warm olive gray (equestrian gray, Crownsville gray - both ben moore) to deal with the brown beams and natural ceiling, and use a lighter version - sag harbor gray . .on the back of all the shelves so that you make the room cozier . .

you can also test river reflections, river gorge gray . .

Your wood ceiling will then resonate . . the deep brown beams will have contrast . . the doors will look amazeballs if painted and the paneling gets to be the quiet star. . .You do need a new white . . right now the paneling looks gray and the casework / fireplace yellow.

Do budget for a new mid century front door blank with a single contemporary wider sidelight - the cottage-y thing they put in could not be more wrong for your home. That is a place where you could do a shot of mid century color - a strong shot of mustard yellow would be divine with the shades of that ceiling (which would need adjustment if you want to put charcoal or black anywhere). Let me look for a white to work with the colors you have built in here . . . I would test bm powder sand, bm easter lily, bm mayonnaise .. don't paint the top trim on the paneling dark . . just the baseboard . . you could paint only the doors darker . . keep all the trim white like paneling. Budget also for light fixtures .. Tuscan chandelier is not doing anything for you . . not sure if they are original lights over stair (may but likely are not be worth keeping here . . use them as pendants hanging over nightstands in a guest bedroom instead . . better scale for mid century . .

I would be much more worried about the massive amount of bookshelves and the gap at the end of the fireplace.

Think of closing the gap to make the fireplace wall extend over to the wall on the right.

The room will be so much calmer without all the stuff (books, etc) that will fill the shelves if you leave them. It will probably be less expensive to do away with shelves rather than try to decorate.

We do love the bookshelves and have lots books, art, etc. to fill them!

Of course that could work if you know what you're doing. Mainly books and an absence of lots of small framed photos and little things. I just cringe when I think about all the dust that will gather on the floor to ceiling shelves and all that's on them.

What do you think of extending the fireplace wall? Then TV over the fireplace and no mantel.

We would prefer no TV in this room actually. We have a game downstairs more suited for it. We would need some styling for the books as we don't want the shelves to look too cluttered.

Yes - the paint is a pretty drab yellow so a fresher white would be great. Thank you all for the suggestions!

libradesigneye what kind of door would you recommend?

The bookcases are going to be amazeballs - add some wash lighting down them as you act if you can - no doubt you are running electrical across face of old painted stone for art lighting over fireplace and can get it there. If you want to do a hidden door and use the space to right of fireplace for even stereo components with a remote sensor, you can get a sleeker contemporary look on the fireplace wall with all the function .. you can do a mantle . it just needs not to have corbels . . free floating / embed the rebar / structure before you build . .

I will find some great images here for you . . back in a flash . do you have an exterior photo of the house from mls? I like this one because it has the vertical accent windows that echo your panel lines . . repetition of elements strengthens them all . .

Here's a single sidelight wider - you could frost for privacy if that is an issue

Clean lined hardware - larger scale -

If you want to go all out wowsa, then a pivot hinge door would be a showstopper . . requires a bit more investment . . removal of threshold so you can drill for anchor / etc. . .but you guys are doing most of that anyway . . new floor makes it easy ..

that is a bigger budget item found on a custom home . .can be wider so you may end up buying a custom door . .look at any local architectural salvage though . . so long as height (standard 80") is right, width can be adjusted by sidelight .. .

door systems sometimes have specialty code requirements . . but if you reuse your header and just shift door over to wall, you likely have the structure you need . .

here's a simple economy door painted bright and frosted - don't have to break the bank . .

It's a shame you can't find a way to work w the Saltillo tiles! They get such a bad wrap but can be so beautiful in a modern setting. I'd ditch the barn wood if you do wood floors but I think you could make them work w the Saltillo.

that wood in the entry is rough cut pine of fir siding, with 1x1 battens. it belongs outside! take it out and drywall. ditto for the sky-high library. nothing mcm vintage about it. this is probably what it looked like before paint.

that entryway can be beautiful with a few changes.

I'm assuming the wood is consistent throughout the house . . the verticality of it in the main room is wonderful ... no reason it has to be everywhere but save your pennies for the stuff that makes a bigger difference .. layering drywall over it will narrow the room . . . it is vintage and original and flows .. suits the aesthetic if painted properly . . ..

libra, that is not original to the house. it's exterior siding. they didn't use rough sawn siding on the interior walls of mid century homes. sorry. You can see how it was done after the fact because of the way the panels are joined and the way it was cut around the beams. If it was original, it would have fit perfectly and flowed together. this wasn't a very good job when it was done, probably in the 70's

Isn't it likely that there is drywall behind the wood?

Home Depot actually has a decent mid-century modern door:

That barn siding could be original (it's actually lapped cedar, I've seen it in some 70's developments down here). That said it's not attractive, smooth drywall will be an improvement, and may hopefully be lurking behind the boards. You can always sell the wood to someone who watches hgtv!

Ellsworth, lol. I also said 70's. but I thought she said mid century home. to me that means something in the 50's, early 60's. They did not use that stuff inside homes then. If the house was built in the 70's, then ok. It's possible. but if so, they still did a crappy job installing it.

Yes to stucco over the fireplace, yes to keeping the paneling, yes to getting rid of the yellow. If the saltillo is just in the entry, look at slate for the floor in that space. Consider also a slate slab for the hearth. Maybe cable lights for the ceiling.

I hope you have a lot of books...

Thanks Grover for showing the fireplace wall extended and the mantel removed. With all the shelves you aren't going to need another shelf in the form of a mantel.

I like how you closed off the right, but whats wrong w/the brick and a nice, thick wood mantel? the stucco doesn't fit w/the ceiling and bookcases, IMO. maybe a tiled FP, but not left like that.

the first pic that 'houssaon' posted, above in the beginning, is perfect. the fp has the split faced quartzite and a wood mantel. that looks really good.

You can always count on lots of input when you have such a fab place. Hope you will come back and show us anything you tried - we love to celebrate progress here!

Well I can’t believe it’s been a year but I thought I would post some pictures of what we decided to do.
There was no drywall behind the siding so we had to go over it. We are still buying art, furniture and accessories - imagine this house will be a work in progress for a few years. But - we are so happy with the direction we took (with the help of our architect and designer) and appreciate all of the feedback y’all gave!

We did all new lighting in the house.