How a 1950s Wisconsin Home Got a Stunning Mid-Century Modern Landscape Makeover

A bland Cape Cod gets mid-century modern landscaping with curb appeal, a hidden hot tub, and year-round greenery — all designed to match its MCM architecture.

If your home sits in a neighborhood full of authentic mid-century modern (MCM) houses, the landscaping needs to keep up. That was exactly the challenge facing the new owners of a 1950s Cape Cod-style home in Fox Point, Wisconsin — a Milwaukee suburb celebrated for its mid-century architecture.

The previous owners had already hired an architect to gut and update the home’s structure, adding large glass windows beside the front door and flattening the roofline to give the house an authentic MCM profile. When a new family moved in, they needed landscaping to match.

Enter James Drzewiecki, owner of Ginkgo Leaf Studio and a licensed landscape architect with an architectural degree. “It’s our specialty — we let the house tell us what we should be doing with the landscape,” he says.

A mid century modern backyard in Wisconsin with square stepping pavers on the right leading to the concrete patio pad — Sone of the key plants James included in the backyard design were boxwood shrubs on the corners of the patio and hydrangeas against the back of the house, right up against the stucco siding. “We always pic some evergreens so we have some green during the winter, too,” James says. Stepping stones come off three sides of the patio and add to the clean, straight MCM lines as to the runnels running down the middle of the patio. Those are small trenches filled with the same pebbles as are in the bed by the front walkway.

The Design Challenge: Tying Front and Back Together

The homeowners’ priorities were clear: expand their backyard living space for entertaining, add a hot tub, and create a cohesive look from front to back. But their front yard, though not terrible, had been hastily landscaped to help sell the house — and it showed.

“My suggestion was to work the front yard into the design,” James explains. “We always want to tie the front and back together for a cohesive whole.”

His team gutted the front landscaping (keeping only the walkway and a few shrubs near the garage), replanted the side yard, and designed a new backyard patio large enough for entertaining — all while mirroring the home’s architectural language throughout.

a concrete walkway leading to the front of a one-story mid century modern house — James worked to match the MCM architecture in the landscaping. The ornamental grasses mirror the vertical window lines and the walkway and planters have straight, clean lines like the roofline. “We also matched the metal finish on the house with the landscape lights,” he says. “One of our favorite things to do is to pull things off the house and incorporate them into the landscape so that it looks like it came off the house.”

How the Landscaping Mirrors the MCM Architecture

James’s architectural background is central to his approach. “Without the architecture background, I would not be able to do the mid-century modern landscaping designs we do for these types of homes because they’re so strong architecturally,” he says.

Here’s how the design elements directly respond to the home’s MCM features:

Ornamental grasses in the front yard mirror the vertical lines of the large glass windows
Straight, clean walkway lines echo the flat roofline
Pebble runnels (small trenches in the backyard patio concrete) use the same stones as the front yard planters, creating visual continuity
Metal landscape lighting was chosen to match the metal finish on the house itself
Boxwood shrubs frame the patio corners with structured geometry

“One of our favorite things to do is to pull things off the house and incorporate them into the landscape so that it looks like it came off the house,” James says.

the side of a mid century modern house with corner windows that span from floor to ceiling. the flat roof is a mid century modern highlight. — The side yard got an update too, but James kept it minimal. “There was a weird every-other-shrub planting with an invasive species, so we wanted to get rid of that and do something simpler,” he explains. “In general, the side of a house isn’t worth doing something big with the landscape.” Instead several evergreen junipers ensure that the house has greenery year-round, even during the middle of winter.

The Hot Tub Problem — and a Clever Solution

The homeowners wanted a hot tub, but the original plan — placing it in the center of the existing raised deck — would have made it visible from three different windows inside the house.

James had a better idea: sink it in.

“The top of the hot tub is only 12 inches above the surface of the deck, so what if we cut into the deck slightly?” he says. The result looks fully built-in, hides the hot tub from interior sightlines, and frees up the deck surface. He also added steps on both sides of the deck, giving two entry points into the new patio space below.

“It’s about as ugly as a grill — you don’t really want it just sitting out in the open,” James notes. The subtle recessed installation solved the problem without sacrificing usability.

the back view of a mid century modern house with a modern patio set and an umbrella to the right and mid-century modern landscaping — When the homeowners moved in, the raised deck was in place but not the patio. “That was their number one priority,” James says. “We hung a patio off the house, but we matched the width of the deck. It’s not a very big backyard, so that’s why the patio didn’t get larger than what you see. We didn’t want it to feel out of scale. “

Mid-century modern landscaping for All Four Seasons in the Midwest

Unlike warm-climate landscapes that look the same year-round, Midwest landscaping demands a four-season strategy.

“The fun part of landscape design in the Midwest is that the plants go through dramatic changes, so we make sure our landscapes here are interesting to look at in all four seasons, if possible,” James says.

His plant selection criteria:

Fall color — species that transition beautifully before dropping leaves
Winter form — ornamental grasses that remain upright even under snow
Interesting bark — visual texture after leaves fall off
Evergreens — ensure color and structure throughout winter months

The side yard, for example, was kept intentionally simple: invasive shrubs were removed and replaced with evergreen junipers to guarantee year-round greenery with minimal maintenance.

Plant List: What James Used and Why

Front Yard

Plant	Species Choice
Ornamental Grass	Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster to emphasize verticality
Ornamental Onion	Allium x ‘Summer Beauty’ for interesting texture and more height
Prairie Grass	Sporobolus heterolepis for movement an to replicate the lines of the windows
White Flowers	Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lime’ for color and character

Side Yard

Plant	Species Choice
Evergreen Trees	Juniperus chinensis ‘Trautman’ for year-round greenery
Ornamental Grass	Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ for it’s low maintenance quality

Backyard

Plant	Species Choice
Pink Flowering Shrubs	Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Quickfire’ for color
Patio Border Boxwoods	Buxus x ‘Green Velvet’ for structure
Purple Flowers	Salvia x nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ for texture

The Result: Curb Appeal That Belongs in the Neighborhood

The finished landscape doesn’t just look good — it looks right. Every element, from the pebble runnels to the ornamental grasses, was chosen to reinforce the home’s mid-century identity and connect it to the Fox Point neighborhood it’s part of.

“The result is a mid-century design that matches the neighborhood and has great curb appeal and efficient functionality,” James says.

For homeowners with MCM properties looking to upgrade their landscaping, the lesson is clear: start with the architecture, and let the landscape follow.

Looking for more landscaping inspiration? Check out this backyard renovation with some good projects for the handy DIYer. And of course, don’t forget to follow Atomic Ranch on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more Mid Century Modern inspiration!