An MCM Forever Home in St. Petersburg, Florida

How a family found and renovated their mid century dream home—in St. Petersburg, Florida.

When they started looking for their “forever home” in Florida, Patrick and Nancy Dowling, who previously lived in Dallas, Texas, struggled to find a house they liked in the usual Mid Century Modern hotspots. “We never really considered St. Pete, though, until one night Nancy found this house,” Patrick says, “It was love at first sight—the lines, the details—and once we started learning the history of the house, we knew we had to figure out a way to get it.”

1954 St. Petersburg FL MCM home exterior at night — The wood screen in front of the windows, original to the home, blurs the lines between inside and out. “We had a lot of conversations about if it should be replaced with metal or something else,” Jody says, “but ultimately we felt like the wear on it told a story, so we kept it and restored it as much as we could.”

The home, a 1954 build by William Harvard, is surrounded by dense, jungle-like foliage and features the clean lines and indoor-to-outdoor transitions that mid-century homes are known and loved for. After purchasing the home, Patrick and Nancy enlisted the help of architect Jody Beck and her team at Traction Architecture to transform the house into their forever home. “They wanted to restore it, respect its character and create more connections between inside and outside,” Jody says.

Preservation and Renovation

The renovation process involved working around a few original elements that were imperative to keep. “The concrete block was really important,” Jody says. “It’s one of the really cool materials that we tried to celebrate because it’s not just your typical concrete block; it’s got a really interesting texture and proportion.” While it’s difficult to see in the photos, the concrete block walls in the living spaces don’t extend all the way to the ceiling, but rather leave gaps of space where the structural beams create continuity from room to room.

They also removed the carpet to uncover and restore the original terrazzo floor underneath. The white surface speckled with black, gray and brown is a theme that Jody repeated throughout the home in different scales with details like the kitchen backsplash tile and hexagonal pavers outside. “The colors in that drove some of the palettes throughout the house,” Jody says.

What Would Bill Do?

For the Dowlings, who fell in love with mid-century design while living in Dallas, it was important to stay true to the home’s original intent. “Whenever possible, I tried to imagine having a conversation with the original architect, Bill Harvard, about why he might suggest a certain material or style,” Patrick says. “I know that sounds nuts, but I really tried to be mindful of what we were doing.” Like renovations to many mid-century Florida homes, adding air conditioning and updating the electrical elements was a unique challenge. “A lot of the magic of it is what you can’t see,” Jody says.

When it came to changing the house’s layout, Jody and her team opened up the house to create better lines of sight and let in more natural light. “We decided to open up the back of the house to mirror the front sliders,” Nancy says. Prior to the renovation, when you walked through the front door you’d be staring at a wall. Now, you step into the open kitchen with direct views of the pool outside. Creating a more open kitchen was another major goal. Jody and her team adjusted the space by utilizing a “working wall” that is home to the sink and appliances. “Then there’s a very large island that floats just beyond it,” Jody says.

Reimagining The Classic Design

Details like the walnut kitchen-cabinet handles, a colorful hanging mobile in the entry and the pink subway-tiled bathroom with black accents all nod to classic mid-century design while maintaining a new and fresh air. “The original home had a pink bathroom that we couldn’t save, but I found a pink tile from Walker Zanger that was inspired by the tiled bathrooms of the 1950s,” Nancy says. The home feels both delightfully mid-century and welcoming. “No matter who comes inside this house, they all instantly enjoy the space,” Patrick says. “Great architects have the ability to create that sense of instant appreciation.”

These wood **cabinets** pulls add an interesting architectural element to the kitchen, and the colors and pattern of the pinwheel tile ties in perfectly with the terrazzo floor. “It kind of calls back to the terrazzo and they both have this sort of dynamic quality to them,” Jody says. The wood screen shown here is part of the original wood screen that extends from the outside and continues inside, creating a division between the entryway and this dining table.

This angle fully displays the short concrete block walls that separate the different living spaces. “The concrete wall doesn’t go to the ceiling,” Jody says, “It’s pretty interesting because you see that ceiling go all the way through.”

A balanced mix of artwork and furnishings, all personal to Nancy and Patrick, continue the theme of embracing mid-mod design with updated sensibilities. “Our home is one of the most important things for us. We spend most of our time here and it needed to be part of us,” Nancy says. “The furnishings include a mix of antique pieces that have been in my family for generations as well as mid-century pieces bought recently.”

Room For Two

The two living spaces, separated by the low concrete block walls, feature two different design aesthetics. The front room, a more formal space, features warm tones, bright colors and Patrick’s prized Eames chair. “It was a piece of furniture I had wanted for a long time,” he says. The adjacent, more informal living room, is home to the TV and a cozy Arhaus couch. “The family room became neutral because I had always wanted a white, comfy couch,” Nancy says. “The focal point and color in that room comes from the backyard.”

dining room and gallery wall in MCM forever home in Florida — The wood screen shown here is part of the original wood screen that extends from the outside and continues inside, creating a division between the entryway and this dining table.

Outside, in both the front and the back of the house, Jody selected large hexagonal pavers to bring the indoors and outdoors together. “It had a relationship to the terrazzo, with black, white and gray in a really tight pattern,” she says, “This was almost like expanding the scale of the terrazzo to these large hexagonal tiles.” Whether looking at the home’s interior or exterior, the attention to detail and original intent by all parties involved is evident in the finished result: a forever home for a family who loves it.

“The original house did have some built-in cabinetry, some of which we tried to save, but most of this is all new,” Jody says. “The built-ins in the bedrooms, the bath vanities and the kitchen are all made by the same person and kind of play with different combinations of similar materials.” The master bedroom features a darker wood base with white cabinet fronts for a dramatic flair.

In the master bathroom, new built-ins, reminiscent of mid-century design, add modern sensibilities, while a floor-to-ceiling window lets in the Florida sun. “That was original,” Jody says. “We reoriented the fixtures in this bathroom so you could see out of it.”

“Every room has a floor-to-ceiling view of the natural old Florida landscape,” Nancy says. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

“There is no bad spot in this home,” Nancy says. “Every room reflects our design aesthetic, blends our personalities and reminds us of how blessed we are to be its caretakers.”

For another MCM forever home in Florida, see Mid Century Spirit in Fort Lauderdale. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more Mid Century Modern inspiration!