The Beautiful Home is pleased to feature a Mid-Century Modern home renovation by Carbon Design-Build. This Washington D.C.-area house is the first of our “Period Renovation” series. Each featured house will in quarterly episodes trace the existing condition, the plan for renovation, the demolition or new construction, and the opening tour.
In this first house, The Beautiful Home is especially fortunate: the home, untouched since construction, circa 1950, is a unique design, yet contains original furnishings, has all the hallmarks of the Mid-Century Modern, panel glass, an open-plan, modernistic amenities, a pool, and that savoir faire of the Mid-Century, the hip.
The home’s builder and current owner, Matthew Bieschke, is experienced in Mid-Century Modern renovation. Several of his renovations are showhouses, especially the penultimate Alcoa House of Hollin Hills, a house which is among the finest prefabricated metal homes in all the world, a home featured in an upcoming “Beautiful Home” program.
In this yet unnamed house, Bieschke and his wife, Deborah (an architect), will update the house for contemporary living by expanding the kitchen, by merging rooms and adding rooms to live as now we do (id est, closets), and improving the energy deficiencies common to the MCM. Clearing out and cleaning up has begun, and much of the collector furniture has already been restored to its original, streamlined beauty.
In renovation, what can be saved will be saved, what must be replaced will be replaced, as you will find in coming editions of The Beautiful Home. When completed, the series will be a compact monograph on how to tastefully, sympathetically renovate a Mid-Century Modern home. We hope you will follow these pages to witness the transformation of a much-neglected house into a much-loved, beautiful family home.
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featured image: Svekloid