This MCM home probably should not have windows and a door with traditional grids, so changing those to solid glass and a MCM-style door would help with the look. Also, you have a very traditional bench out front, and landscaping with more 'modern' plants and hardscaping would help, too. Is that center section faced with painted brick? I think a darker color scheme would improve the look. There are many pros here who can weigh in with a color scheme, but your first step should be replacing the inappropriate (style-wise) door and windows. Good luck!

Totally agree with decorpatti. To start with, change out the front door and the windows in the bricked porch area. Look at Mid Century front doors. And window patterns. Get rid of anything in the front of your home that is “colonial”—-the light, the bench, the fancy address, the lawn ornaments, etc. Design is in the details. AND…colors for your home. The paint colors should be more bold. Especially the front door! Search on Houzz for photos of mid century split level homes. Good luck with your project!

Here are some examples of MCM homes with features that you can use on your home.

There is a ton of things you can do. Let me show you pictures of redone split levels and see what you like.

I'd paint your brick (Romabio) and get diff siding. consider doing vertical siding/batten planks, or some composite wood accent

Consider a diff door w/a transom above, maybe diff window on that 2nd floor.

diff garage door.

landscaping

This was a poster on here who did some rather simple upgrads

This is one of my favorites mcm split makeovers. this home already had the transom.

not super keen on the gray color, but just look at the basics. the vertical siding, painted brick, addition of wood accent, mcm style door.

if you did your porch area w/floor to ceiling windows, a pendant light, new door, wood plank ceiling, broght in diff siding and darker garage door, you'd get a similar look

you'll notice this one has vertical and horizontal siding, transom over front door, and windows that all match.

James Hardie siding. wood in the gable portion. batten panels two window instead of the large one.

new door, transom, pendnat light, dark siding and landscaping

Simple makeover w/paint. the brick was painted on this one to match the white vertical siding. dark windows/garage

Dark gray siding; MCM style door in orange, blue, yellow, or lime. Temove window grids if possible; and wood garage door or (wood garage door cover) or paint same dark gray.

Glass Wall House · More Info

Above all get a garden designer to help you plan MCM style landscaping--walkway, hardscaping, local plants. These houses have some of the elements people are suggesting: non grid windows; bright door; wood features, well planned front garden beds instead of spread out lawn.

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Lucerne Place · More Info

I agree that the house could use better siding and windows. (But those "paned" windows aren't original.)

Just take into account that this house is 60 years old. When houses built in 1900 were 60 years old people were taking out the "drafty" stained glass or leaded glass windows and tearing off those "high maintenance, room-darkening" porches and replacing them with concrete block stoops and "light and airy" wrought iron filigree porch posts. And then covering the entire house in aluminum siding. And it all looked okay because that's what new houses looked like. And then not too long after that, people started saying "What were they thinking doing to that old house?"

And before people start saying "But those old houses had beautiful details"--in retrospect, maybe. But most people didn't think so when they were taking off some details and tacking on others.

So my advice is to try to make it look like a better version of what it is, not tart it up with 2020s details that look great now because they are trending, but will look dated and wrong not so far in the future because they are stuck on a house that is not of the era of the details.

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas. Here's a sketchup rendering incorporating some of them. I like the idea of a transom above the front door and windows and maybe a garage door that mirrors the front door.

I like that jeff. add in a nice mcm style pendant. bolder address plaque, light

you could even do the glass garage door

I think this siding is james hardie Evening Blue. they redid the windows

Check out this similar house style and what they did

https://www.dwell.com/article/villacarillo-house-ric-design-build-5eb2fafe

similar porch/house style

don't forget some planters

Jeff, check out some of these

https://www.dwell.com/photos/exterior/siding-material--brick/building-type--mid-century

I don't think you need to cover the brick.

If you replace the siding and use horizontal, please make sure to be true to the house and use 8” or wider planks. these thin boards are colonial/ victorian style and arent appropriate to 50/60s homes.

I disagree. I like it better covered or painted.

that current yellowish brick is nothing special or even nice looking.

Beth, you always make it perfectly clear that you will not be happy unless everything looks like it was updated this morning. I get it.

I also dislike the beige brick. What about vertical clear cedar siding for the center section and either board and batten or wider clapboards painted dark grey or blue for the rest? Definitely lose the window grids.

palimpset. lmao. well no. But the op did ask for a modern update. Clean modern style is what he said. (Not, "how can I work w/what's here and not paint anything".)

Leaving 60 year old nothing-special-yellowish-brick is hardly a clean, modern style.

I try and offer suggestions that the OPs specifically are looking for, rather than force them into accepting what they don't like.

I get it that you're not happy unless people refuse any change and learn to live w/the original elements, regardless of how it looks.

Do you honestly think this brick and this original brown siding

Look better than this update?

You may not like the black and white, but there would have been plenty of other color combos they could have used.

Not everything was better in 1960.

they redid the brick and siding on this one.

maybe you prefer it like this?

sorry. the brick is ugly. it's dark, dreary, and needs to be covered or painted.

hurray! million times better.

same w/this one. original brick and siding. sorry, but this brick is not only ugly, it's busy looking.

I don't care for the farm shutters, but painting out that brick was the best thing to happen to this 60's beauty

I think the new front door and extended porch are preferable on the updated house but no, I think white siding and brick and the black trim and that light fixture are hideously inappropriate on that house. The older scheme sat better in the landscape and doesn't scream look at me.

in that particular landscape setting, I'll agree w/you. they didn't have to choose the bright white and the black.

But this? yeah it doesn't scream "look at me", but it's just plain ugly. I seriously hate that brick and I loathe brown, so that's probably why

maybe a softer gray or cream w/more of a sage siding and wood accents would have looked better in that setting.

while this brick isnt my fave, it's OK. and the newer wood siding actually works with it.

The bright white vinyl windows and the generic doors/garage are a big NO though.

what do you think about this one?

James Hardie Evening Blue Arctic White & Cheerful Yellow Door · More Info

personally I don't like either. The brick is too busy for all this other frou frou to the home. it the brick had been painted, the rest would have looked better.

James Hardie Evening Blue Arctic White & Cheerful Yellow Door · More Info

back looks good

James Hardie Evening Blue Arctic White & Cheerful Yellow Door · More Info

Actually I don't think the brown house is particularly ugly either. Variegated brick and solid brown are not my favorites--but I think if it had some color around the door, that's more or less one of the variations of what a house like that "should look like" in the context of what style it is, when it was built and its overall setting. I think the yard looks terrible as a brown house and great as a black one. Improve the yard (and enhance the photography) and the brown house does not look nearly as bad:

true. to an extent. I still think the brown and brick are ugly. it doesn't have to be done in black and white, but any other color combo would still be an improvement.

I don't believe that a house MUST keep the look it was 'born' with just because it's a certain style. Has nothing to do w/trends either. Sometimes things just look better w/a fresh coat of paint

even w/a new door, address/lights, it's still not a pretty house. It's tired and worn looking.

But I think redoing the brick in a lighter shade, paired w/a dark siding, would look 10X better. (doesn't have to have these black framed windows, which I actually don't care for on this home)

Just my opinion. I'm sure you and others would think the opposite. perfectly fine.

These next two are original. I don't care what landscaping you come up with, both of these are fugly. The brick is horrible. the brown is horrible.

This one, with shed style roof, has a lot of potential. The after on this style could be amazing

I look at this one and just shake my head. it's hideous. The brick, the windows/shutters, the door, the roof/siding color. There isn't one redeeming quality on this house that I like.

Split levels are a love em or hate em type of look anyway. I never did like them. So ANYTHING that would upgrade this thing I'm all for!

This isn't the same house, obviously, but many modifications that were done on this one could be applied to the one above.

I just found a similar home style w/similar color brick. this just shows what it would look like if the OP went w/a vertical siding in a darker color. the brick is still worn and tired looking, regardless.

For OP's house, above, I actually like something liek this for the porch area. I especially like the wood clad underside of the porch and roof eaves. I do like the vertical siding orientation a bit better.

I am not necessarily against people changing the way their houses look, but I like to make things look like they could just possibly be original. Like making a house that was built in 1965 look like it was a house built in 1965 but better. Not a 1965 house with 2022 gift wrap on the outside. It's almost always a mistake to fight the underlying architecture of a house by tacking on trends from whatever year you are doing it, because it will probably look great when those things are on trend for a decade or so, and then it's going to look like X house with Y and Z tacked on. And I don't buy the "It's just paint, it can be redone in 5-10 years, not when I know someone who paid $50K to paint a house, someone who paid $100K to paint a house. If it's a wood house, of course that can't be avoided, but if it's a masonry house, it can.

And as for the garrison split, that was never a great looking house, it was designed to allow a daylight basement, and that's about it. It's a utilitarian ranch with extra living space. But at least it is a straight forward expression of what it is. And I have seen some really horrendous improvements done to splits and split entry houses trying to make them look like something they are not and instead of being a mildly dull or homely straightforward utilitarian house, they look like a homely house with tumors growing on them. But given the culture that we live in where people think it is preferable to have smooth skin at the expense of having a face blown up with collagen and all sorts of implants to stretch things out, and looking like an alien rather than an ordinary aging person, I think we are at a point where anything looking its normal age is out of fashion.

The brick and the sloping roof are the only classic parts of this house. Changing that large front window per your rendering and the door will do wonders for it. Paint the siding including the garage door and you're got it.

What's your budget? Nothing is inexpensive these days.

This is already fresh and (mid-century) modern! Ditch the wrought iron bench (if you want seating, have someone build you a period-appropriate bench), replace multi-pane-looking windows with single-pane and if you want to splurge make the window on the left double its height, new single-pane door, invest in period- and environmentally-appropriate landscaping, and you’re done!