Houzz Tour: Atlanta Couple Update an Inherited Midcentury Home

A designer helps homeowners make Grandpa’s house their own with a vaulted ceiling, two-tone cabinets and more

Becky Harris April 15, 2019

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected." I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More

Comment21

Click "Embed" to display an article on your own website or blog.

Photos by Jeff Herr Photography

House at a Glance
Who lives here: A professional couple
Location: Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta
Size: 1,800 square feet (167 square meters); three bedrooms, two bathrooms
Designer: Katelyn Rountree of Terracotta

This midcentury ranch in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood has been well loved by three generations of a family. When a young professional inherited it from her grandfather, she and her husband wanted to give it a fresh update and get it ready for the family they were planning to start.

“They loved the house and neighborhood, but they wanted to make it their own rather than feeling like they were living in Grandpa’s house,” says interior designer Katelyn Rountree of design-build firm Terracotta. “They had really great style and had started collecting art, which gave us a jumping-off point with the design.” The whole-house renovation included redesigning the kitchen and bathrooms; vaulting the ceiling; enlarging windows and glass doors; and choosing new furniture, accessories and lighting.

Find a local design-build firm on Houzz

Rountree also brightened up the house indoors and out with white paint with hits of color.

On the exterior, she made the home stand out in a neighborhood full of red brick midcentury ranches by painting the exterior white and the front door a cheerful blue. She added new house numbers and installed a slatted wood wall along the carport.

Paint: Oyster White (exterior) and Freshwater (door), Sherwin-Williams

Terracotta Design Build

Architectural Changes

The most dramatic change to the architecture was vaulting this ceiling over the living room, dining area and bonus room. Two sets of beams are original and structural, and the designer added two matching sets to create repetition. All are painted in Sherwin-Williams’ Caviar and finished with wax.

The original fireplace received a boxy modern makeover, including an Absolute Black granite surround and porcelain tile in a herringbone pattern on the hearth. The flooring is original — the installers wove in new pieces where needed and covered everything with a dark stain.

Wall paint: Greek Villa, Sherwin-Williams

Terracotta Design Build

Injecting Personality and Color

The vaulted ceiling extends over the dining area, defined by a modern chandelier.

“The homeowners received the candlesticks as a wedding gift, and they were eager to show them off,” Rountree says. Inspired by their playful forms, she mixed two types of chairs. The Eames shell chairs nod to the home’s midcentury vintage, while the red chairs inject color into the space.

And this was the perfect spot to hang one of the couple’s favorite pieces from their art collection. “The chandelier, artwork and red chairs make the space young and playful,” she says.

Terracotta Design Build

The artwork inspired colorful accents throughout the home, mostly in blues and reds. This cushy distressed caramel leather sofa will only look better the more beat up it gets.

Browse brown leather sofas in the Houzz Shop

Terracotta Design Build

Opening Up the Kitchen

The second dramatic architectural intervention was removing a wall to open up the kitchen to the living room. Rountree’s clients got on board with eliminating upper cabinets around the range. This allows the natural light to bounce off the tiled wall, creating an airy and open feeling.

The Pros and Cons of Upper Kitchen Cabinets and Open Shelves

Terracotta Design Build

The small backsplash tiles have subtle blue around the edges and are gray in the center, adding depth to the range wall.

Rountree chose matte black wall sconces to bring some contrast up the wall. “Using the black sconces pulled that strong contrast seen in the living room into the kitchen,” she says. The base cabinets provide a big dollop of cheerful blue, contrasting with the white of the island.

Cabinet paint: Smoky Blue, Sherwin-Williams; backsplash tile: Savoy collection, Ann Sacks

Terracotta Design Build

Maximizing Kitchen Space

“It can be a challenge to talk clients into using mostly lower cabinets, but we always outfit them with lots of useful features like pullout drawers and inserts to maximize them,” Rountree says. She also included a cookbook shelf in the peninsula and two open shelves on the wall. “Another wedding gift our clients were excited to display was the set of test tubes full of spices,” she says.

To make the most of prep and food storage space while cutting down on countertop clutter, she repurposed the old pantry closet, left. The center portion houses the microwave and coffee maker. The other doors open to deep pullout drawers for food storage.

Cabinet paint: Fleur de Sel, Sherwin-Williams

Terracotta Design Build

Rountree set up the bonus room off the dining area as a home office. The pleasing texture of the original brick wall keeps the spirit of the midcentury architecture alive. The tennis racket clock was one of the couple’s original pieces that drove the playful design style.

Terracotta Design Build

Master Suite Improvements

While the interior design of the public spaces is fun with bursts of color, the couple wanted something more luxurious and calming in their master suite. The color scheme is a mix of warm grays and creams, with textural accents in wood, metals and crystal.

“We added the flat millwork to the ceiling to add some life to it,” Rountree says. “This was simple to do and less expensive than vaulting it or adding a tray, but still has a big impact. And the crystal light fixture adds some glamour.”

Installing plug-in reading sconces on both sides of the bed was also a simple, effective and inexpensive move.

Shop for a semiflush-mount light fixture with a crystal shade

Terracotta Design Build

Like most midcentury ranches, this one had a compact master bathroom. “Even though the space was tight, we wanted to make it beautiful and make it feel grand,” Rountree says.

The couple already had the large mirror, which helps bounce the light around, and the new vanity is larger than the original one was.

Terracotta Design Build

“Being able to give them a walk-in shower also makes it feel more grand in here. The dark tile helps the shower wall recede visually. And laying out the tile vertically visually heightened the space,” the designer says.

The couple love their Buckhead neighborhood and hope to stay in Grandpa’s house for many years to come. Their family started growing soon after construction was completed, and Rountree has been back to help them plan for a potential future addition. Stay tuned.

More on Houzz
Read about other renovations of midcentury homes
Find an interior designer in your area
Shop for home products