Houzz Tour: Mid Mod Split-Level With Colorful Retro Flair

Photos by Evan Taylor Studio

House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Size: 3,220 square feet (299 square meters); five bedrooms, three bathrooms
Designer: Brittany Arnold of Ario Studio (architecture and interiors)
Builder: Corey Mercer of Tekton Builds

This is the home as it looks today. Although not far from downtown Greenville, it feels secluded thanks to its setting away from the road, on a large, leafy lot with a stream running through the backyard.

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Before: When the couple bought the home, it had vinyl siding covering the original wood siding. When the vinyl was removed, the wood was in bad shape, says architect and interior designer Brittany Arnold, who co-owns Ario Studio with her husband, studio director Matthew Arnold.

After: Arnold had the house re-sided with a highly durable textured aluminum product that, painted an almost black charcoal gray, resembles shou-sugi-ban (Japanese-style charred wood siding). She paired it with a new black standing-seam metal roof.

Arnold also had the overgrown vegetation along the front of the home removed and added a poured-in-place concrete paver pathway.

The exterior architecture of the home remained largely the same, including the windows, some of which have an unusual pivot-slide function.

“They’re really beautiful,” Arnold says. “You’re not really going to get any made like that again.”

Exterior paint: Iron Ore, Sherwin-Williams

Before: This was the view from just inside the front door. The kitchen was through the opening in the wall on the left.

After: This view was taken from a slightly different angle compared with the previous picture, but it better shows the new layout of the main level.

Arnold relocated the kitchen to the back left of the home, which was previously the dining area. That allowed her to push back the wall on the left in the previous photo, opening up the entry area. It also expanded views to the backyard through floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors that stretch across the back of the house.

Scroll to the bottom to see the floor plan.

This is the view looking from the living room toward the front door. Pushing back the kitchen wall also opened up the views to the front yard and let more light into the house. The ceiling paneling visually pulls the trees into the home too.

Arnold preserved the entryway’s distinctive terrazzo floor, which was made with large pieces of terra cotta. But she had the damaged wood removed everywhere else on the main level to expose the concrete slab, which was then simply polished.

A George Nelson for Herman Miller triple bubble chandelier hangs above the terrazzo.

Before: The kitchen, which had dark traditional Shaker-style cabinetry, opened directly into the carport.

After: In the space opened up by moving the kitchen and pushing back the wall, Arnold paired a custom dining bench by local furniture maker Pratt Woodworks with the owners’ vintage table and chairs to create a compact dining area.

Most, if not all, of the artwork decorating the space was done by the husband’s father.

Wall paint: Pure White, Sherwin-Williams

A new laundry room-mudroom is now behind the dining area wall, in what’s left of the space once occupied by the kitchen. The homeowners primarily enter the house from the carport through this mudroom and then into the new kitchen via a door on the right of the photo.

Blue-painted and natural white oak cabinets, also by Pratt Woodworks, include built-in dog bowls and coat and pantry storage.

Blue cabinet paints: Atmospheric and Rest Assured, Sherwin-Williams

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The door between the kitchen (formerly the dining room) and laundry room is next to the refrigerator. The side of the dining bench is peeking out on the left of the photo. Scroll down to the floor plan if you’re feeling disoriented.

Arnold worked with Seattle-based Kerf Design to dream up the cabinetry for the new kitchen, which has a retro palette driven partly by the Louis Poulsen PH 5 pendant lights over the island. The midcentury-modern-inspired plywood cabinets are finished with a rich walnut veneer and a mix of white and three shades of orange laminate. Arnold paired them with a white induction range, a Samsung refrigerator with aqua and white panels and Herman Miller Eames counter stools.

“It’s a very asymmetrical choice of where the colors are, but we like the balance of the composition,” Arnold says. “The homeowners were very open to having something that was expressive and interesting and fun.”

The kitchen flows into the living room, which has a butterscotch-colored leather sofa facing a rugged stone fireplace. The fireplace opening is on the lower level, which Ario Studio reconfigured but didn’t photograph.

Before: Prior to the renovation, the fireplace had incongruous pillars on either side, as well as a structural header at the top.

After: Ario Studio removed the pillars and reset the header to give the fireplace a cleaner look, then added a Kerf Design white-and-walnut floating console and built-in cabinetry. The homeowners planned to eventually hang art above the console.

The primary bedroom is at one end of the hallway. Ario Studio absorbed part of the hallway into the bedroom redesign to create a kind of anteroom with built-in white oak storage and a bench made by Pratt Woodworks.

One small but impactful change was replacing the doors on the closets at the foot of the bed and drenching them and the surrounding drywall in an earthy olive green. Long wooden pulls coordinate with the wood floors.

After: Ario Studio changed the layout and upgraded the finishes to make the room clean, modern and functional. A soaking tub and dual shower share a wet room that has a glass enclosure, curbless entry and stacked rectangular porcelain wall tiles.

The team also replaced the wood-framed window and moved it higher for more privacy.

Before: The house is built into a hill, which is clear from this “before” photo of its back side, with its original wood siding. This photo also hints at the property’s drainage challenges, which caused water to pool in the backyard.

After: Drains and new retaining walls covered in smooth stucco (which extend beyond the frame of this photo to the right) help with the drainage issues. Ario Studio carried the stucco across the lower level’s exterior to create a cohesive and clean look. It also replaced the deck and stair railing, and the doors, brought all structures up to code and installed a gravel area for a fire pit. The furniture hadn’t yet been installed when this photo was taken, aside from the white Thomas Heatherwick Spun chair.

The new garage door opens to reveal an airy office.