Slowly renovating a midcentury modern house

Arne Jensen and his wife agreed: A multistory loft was no place for a toddler, so it was time to move out of their place in Lowell. Rather than set their sights on a specific suburb, the pair concentrated on finding the perfect midcentury-style house. They landed on this 1,900-square-foot home in Walpole. “The house had good bones, didn’t need too much work, and was equidistant to our jobs,” Jensen says.

An Emmy Award-winning art director who worked for WBZ-TV, Jensen slowly spruced up the home and the property around it. But similarities between designing a set and designing a home are minimal. On a set, he says, “Comfort takes a back seat to presentation.” He did, however, highlight his midcentury modern predilections in designing the TV station’s lobby, where he used Mad Men-era colors and silhouettes.

Hints of that palette carry into his home. For one, he painted the front door a spicy red. While the rest of the façade is unchanged, Jensen stepped up, so to speak, the walkway from the driveway to the front door with crisply-cut granite pavers. He infused the front garden with lush personality, planting a Japanese maple, azaleas, and a dwarf white pine.

One enters the home beneath a sloped roof sheathed in pine tongue-and-groove planks. Large expanses of glass go from floor to ceiling in front and back, melding the tall, airy space with the mature trees that surround it. “The inside/outside connection attracted us to the home,” Jensen says.

The wood floors and ceiling remain untouched, but Jensen stained the interior window frames dark brown so that they recede, allowing the eye to better take in the scenery. The dated, sharp stucco walls were grounded, sanded, and painted. The upper portion of the highest wall, which divides the public space from the bedrooms, is a comforting shade of mochaccino. “The darker color helps knit the wood ceiling to the walls,” Jensen says. “Painting the entire wall bright white made the room feel vast; this brings down the scale.”

The fireplace got a makeover, too. The stone chimney, faced in the same material used on the home’s front façade, was midcentury in spirit but…it was ugly. A Portola Paints’ lime wash lends a nuanced patina to the now-smoothly stucco-ed surface. Jensen dismantled the raised hearth and inserted a blackened steel plate flush to the floor. A new Stûv insert, which he says throws off a lot of heat for the room, got a blackened steel surround. Finally, a pine mantel connects the fireplace to the wood ceiling. The result is streamlined but cozy.

The coffee table centers on the fireplace, flanked by leather sofas that exude a relaxed, midcentury sensibility. The leftover area at the end of the long, narrow space became a reading nook with Barcelona-style chairs, black and white photography, and those Emmy statuettes. On the flip side of the fireplace, chunky metal chairs scored at an RH outlet sit around a narrow dining table with a walnut finish.

To further open the floor plan, Jensen took the down the wall between the dining room and kitchen, replacing it with a breakfast bar. Upper cabinetry was banished in favor of maple base cabinets with deep drawers that the couple loves for their ease. Black granite countertops ground the light wood. The focal point is the backsplash, composed of skinny, stacked olive tiles from Heath Ceramics. “I’m from the Bay Area, where Heath tiles are a staple,” Jensen says.

The varied green tones blend beautifully with the view, pulling one’s attention outdoors. Not that the family needs encouragement. The refurbished deck, which runs the length of the house, features an outdoor kitchen with a gas grill and a smoker. There’s also a Solo pellet stove for warmth and a pergola with a louvered top for dining al fresco. Grape vines replanted from the existing arbor spill over new, modern rails. Motivated by the soothing sound of running water, Jensen nestled a pond, complete with lily pads and frogs, off to the side.

The bocce court, however, was already there; Jensen appreciates how it separates the house from the lawn. Visitors are more likely to find the homeowner in the vegetable enclosure he built, tending to raised beds of tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, and more. (No luck getting asparagus to grow yet.)

Since undertaking this multiyear project, much of it accomplished with his own hands, Jensen has transitioned out of television, launching an interior design and graphics firm. “I discovered it’s a lot of hard work,” he says, “but it’s fun.”