Tour a Warm Midcentury Modern Home Filled With Vintage Finds

Watch and read how a designer restored and updated a classic home with wood-paneled walls and stylish furniture and art

Mitchell Parker August 4, 2024

Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative trends, breaking news, industry analysis and humor.

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This homeowner had fond childhood memories of spending time in her mom’s best friend’s house. So when an opportunity came up to buy the home, she jumped at it. She then hired interior designer Susan Yeley, who uses Houzz Pro business software, to perform a careful update that honored the home’s roots while giving it modern-day comforts. Wood-paneled walls wrap the interior in warmth. Vintage midcentury furnishings nod to the home’s origins. The kitchen features an inviting white-and-wood palette with new appliances. The primary bedroom boasts ample built-in storage. Colorful artwork throughout the home and monkey-shaped tile in the laundry room add playful punches.

Susan Yeley Homes

Photos by Sarah Shields

House at a Glance
Who lives here: A woman who splits her time between here and New York City
Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Designer: Susan Yeley
Contractor: Rusty Peterson Construction

Yeley calls the living room a “pristine representation of the original home.” The window openings are the same but Yeley added new glass and rift-sawn white oak veneer wall paneling.

She faced a challenge matching the grain on the panels and installing them in an aesthetic way around the windows and below the angled ceiling. “We had to figure out where those seams would be,” Yeley says. “And then we had to actually paint a black grid on the wall so that when there’s that little reveal between panels you don’t see unfinished white wall behind it. You get the effect of a shadow. So there was a lot of thought and a lot of collaboration among the trades and designers to figure out how do these panels come together, and where, and what happens behind them.”

On the left, wood slats replace a former wall to gain more visual access between the living spaces and the home’s entry.

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Susan Yeley Homes

The limestone fireplace is original and Yeley custom-designed the sofa with an angled end “so you can lie on the sofa and have your feet propped up against the warmth of the fireplace,” she says. And lucky for her, a TV wasn’t on the homeowner’s wish list for this room. “The television would have made the space harder,” Yeley says. “So we were instead able to capitalize on the fireplace as the focal point.”

The other upholstered pieces in the room are vintage. On the left is an original white Papa Bear chair by Hans Wegner. “We love purchasing vintage because we feel that it lowers our carbon footprint,” Yeley says. “And it’s got really wonderful soul, of course, but we also don’t want to buy something vintage that comes from really far away. So this one, as it turned out, was in the middle of Illinois and then we reupholstered it in fabric from the original fabric house that did the Papa Bear chairs.”

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Susan Yeley Homes

The living room flows into the dining area. On the right is the slatted wall that separates the living spaces from the entry while maintaining an open feel.

A black dining table by Paul McCobb, one of the homeowner’s favorite midcentury modern designers, sits beneath a midcentury Sputnik chandelier. On a nearby wall hangs artwork by Martina Celerin. “She does these three-dimensional weavings of all types, and they’re also tactile,” Yeley says. “They’re whimsical in their subject matter, they’re just wonderful.”

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Susan Yeley Homes

Warm wood details continue in the kitchen, which balances white oak cabinetry with units painted in Pure White by Sherwin-Williams. The countertops are 2-centimeter-thick white quartz. The island light fixture is custom.

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Susan Yeley Homes

The galley-style layout features tons of built-in storage and a paneled fridge at the far end.

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Susan Yeley Homes

An addition on the back of the home includes this new bedroom suite. “You might notice these windows reflect the shape and character of the windows in the living room that were original to the house, because we wanted sort of an echo of the front room back in this bedroom,” Yeley says. “When you walk into a space like this, that has these rich textiles and colors and wood all over the walls and light coming through the windows, it’s a palpable feeling of warmth.”

The bed is custom. The two nightstands are vintage Harvey Probber. The bench is a vintage John Stuart piece. “We found that and had it re-covered in a lovely wool fabric,” Yeley says.

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Susan Yeley Homes

A vintage Finn Juhl cabinet sits beneath a Wyatt LeGrand painting. The vintage chair is by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, re-covered in a wool fabric. “This chair was made in Indiana in the middle part of the century,” Yeley says.

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Susan Yeley Homes

Inside the cabinet is a white drawer and an orange drawer, which complement a palette used throughout the home.

Susan Yeley Homes

A bank of built-in clothes storage units has white, yellow and orange drawers.

Susan Yeley Homes

In the primary bathroom, cement floor tiles feature white, black and brass-colored details. “This room was designed to work in the same palette as the en suite bedroom, so you’ll see that it’s wood, white, black and sort of a goldy yellow color,” Yeley says.
“It’s got just a little bit of color, but it’s mostly a very quiet en suite quarters.”

Yeley selected wall-mounted faucets for aesthetic and practical reasons. “One of the things about a deck mount is that it can kind of collect more grime when it’s on a horizontal surface,” Yeley says. “So it is a little easier to maintain and keep clean when you put it on the wall, but for the most part it’s an issue of aesthetics.”

The artwork over the tub is by contemporary photographer Maggie Taylor. “She does fantastical things,” Yeley says. “We have other Maggie Taylors in this house as well. Every bit of it looks like a fairy tale.”

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Susan Yeley Homes

In the laundry room, interlocking monkey tiles handmade by Good Press Ceramics in Seattle add a playful look and feel. “It’s everybody’s favorite thing,” Yeley says.

Susan Yeley Homes

Here’s a closer look at the green interlocking monkey tiles.

Of Houzz Pro software, Yeley says: “Houzz has been part of our process for years. And when Houzz Pro came along, it was quite logical for us to also start using that platform.… It’s an invaluable tool. We use it every single day.”

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