This 1983 suburban contemporary has a clear architectural lineage.
The silhouette is familiar—low rooflines, strong massing, and the cedar siding these homes were originally known for, whether in warm red tones or weathered gray, often laid on the diagonal. They appear in suburban neighborhoods all over the country, forming a recognizable thread within 70s and 80s residential design.
The renovation works with that existing silhouette. The footprint is unchanged. The color palette leans into warmer wood tones that flatter contemporary homes, continuing that modern, slightly out-of-the-box aesthetic—without pushing it too far. It’s a measured update, one that understands the house it’s working with.
And then there’s the entry.
Where It Falls Short
The architecture is strong, but the approach doesn’t carry that same weight.
The stairs feel narrow, out of proportion to everything around them. They angle their way up to the entrance instead of giving you a clear, direct path. The landing feels secondary to the home, not integral to it.
It reads as an afterthought—as though the house was renovated, but no one ever stopped to define how you actually get to the front door.
A Proper Point of Arrival
The move is straightforward, but it changes everything.
The stair is widened and brought into a clean, direct approach. Instead of angling its way up, it now meets the house head-on. The proportions make sense. The scale finally matches the mass of the house.
This is not a small house. There’s a width to it, and a height to it as well. The entry needs to hold its own. Widening the stair brings that balance back and makes the approach feel integrated, not added on.
The door is doing just as much work.
The original sidelight made it clear there was more width available—it was already there, just not being used. By absorbing that space into a set of double doors, the entry becomes a single, unified element.
And with a house like this, that move makes sense.
A larger opening gives the entry a sense of authority, but it doesn’t lose its invitation. It actually strengthens both. You arrive at it, but you’re also drawn in.
The railing and base complete the sequence.
The clean, modern railing carries the line of the stair without
interrupting it. At the base, the scored concrete extends the entry outward, connecting it into the driveway and giving the entire approach a defined edge.
And then there’s the stone.
That irregular, time-worn fieldstone—with its natural variation and patina—brings texture against the smoother finishes and ties the renovation back to the home’s original character.
At this point, the palette is doing more than one thing.
Wood, stone, and concrete—three tones, three textures—working together without competing.
The result is an entry that finally feels resolved.
Bringing It All Into Focus
What makes this work is not what changed, but how those changes relate to the house.
The footprint is the same. The structure is the same. It still reads clearly as a 1983 suburban contemporary, rooted in the 70s and 80s residential design language it started with.
What’s changed is how it comes together.
The entry, the proportions of the stair, the scale of the door, the palette—everything now aligns with the architecture instead of working against it.
It doesn’t read as a redesign.
It reads as an evolution.
The character is still there. The modernity is still there. The house still knows exactly what it is.
It’s simply more resolved.
More confident.
A stronger version of what it already was.
Read more in the “Before, After, and After That” series, an ongoing look at how 70s and 80s contemporary homes can be updated while still feeling true to their original design language.
Before, After And After That: A 1978 Contemporary Home Exterior Renovation That Gets It Right
Before, After And After That: A Modest 1970s Split-Level Remodel You Need To See
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