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Untouched midcentury modern in Grosse Pointe Farms asks $1.2M

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This pastel-infused home in the Hollywood Regency style is fascinating, but needs updating

Low, wide home with a cylindrical center and hedges all around it Photos by Barney Nowicki First Impression Photography

Homeowners who love midcentury modern architecture and like restoration projects, then we’ve got just the listing for you. This home in Grosse Pointe Farms designed by Carl Habermas is practically in the same condition in which it was built in 1953. That means all the features that made in fascinating are still intact. It also means the home is in serious need of upgrading.

Right across from Lake Saint Clair on Lake Shore Road, this home is listed through Beline Obeid Realty for $1.2 million.

The 5,361-square-footer is in the Hollywood Regency style, which, according to the Wikipedia entry, is “meant to feel frivolously overdone and pleasantly, extravagantly unbalanced, yet sleek and modern.” That’s a pretty perfect description.

The Grosse Pointe Farms home has fascinating asymmetry in the room dimensions, rounded edges, and surprising shapes. In the enormous den, for example, a half-wall extends out, cutting the space in two creating a display, perhaps for a sculpture. The rooms are awash in pastel colors and gaudy wallpaper more typical of Los Angeles alongside geometrical forms like wall-length windows of the kind you’d find in a Mies van der Rohe townhome. Also see the grand staircase, which curves and then has playful squiggles as it nears the second floor.

To really get an idea of how little renovation this home has seen, look no further than the kitchen, which has all the original cabinetry and appliances. We actually love the vintage look of it, but you’ll definitely want to upgrade the laminate countertops.

Kitchen with pastel blue cabinets and vintage appliances. Photo by Barney Nowicki First Impression Photography

It also has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half-baths, an attached two-car garage, and a sizable yard.

There’s a lot more we could say about this home—the bathrooms alone could get a couple paragraphs—so be sure to take a look at the pictures and listings.

Or you could check it out in person. The Grosse Pointe Historical Society is offering two tours of the home on Saturday, August 24 as part of its pop-up series.

Staircase by the front entrance with wrought-iron rail
Living room with round sculpture stand
Resting room with sparkling wallpaper looks out into the gardens
Hallway with weird wallpaper leads to two storage rooms
Master bedroom with pink wallpaper and bay windows
Marble-floored bathroom with pink tub