Ship-What? Timeless Midcentury Modern Home By Waco Designer Wows

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WacoWe know, we know. When we say “Waco” nowadays everyone is nearly conditioned to think “shiplap.” But we found a home in the Waco exburb of Woodway that will ship the shiplap straight out of your noggin.

It’s a good day for a good midmod, yes?

This incredible home at 7820 Tallahassee Road sits on a heavily wooded lot that’s not quite an acre.

It was built in 1961 by Waco designer Ray Barnes. A bit of scrounging found a 1955 story about Barnes at the beginning of his career in Waco, where Barnes said he wasn’t quite sure what his signature style was just yet, but that it definitely had a lot to do with bringing nature to the forefront.

“Even a low-cost house or office can be attractive,” Barnes told the Waco News-Tribune. “It’s all a matter of placing materials cleverly. People want their houses to be functional. Fine, but appearance is also a function.”

And it seems that Barnes was still hewing closely to that belief when he designed this home. It takes advantage of the heavily-treed lot by large floor-to-ceiling windows and multiple outdoor living spaces.

He also adopted the clean lines and mixed materials — stone walls, wood paneling, tile, washed concrete flooring — that became ubiquitous with the Midcentury Modern style of the sixties.

The three-bedroom, two bath home has 1,888 square feet of living space, but with all the natural light, tall ceilings, and sleek design work, it feels much larger than that.

Bedrooms have built-in storage (including a custom wardrobe in the master bedroom). An open floor plan throughout the common areas provides plenty of entertainment potential, and Barnes choices of materials — the wood paneling, the stone walls, and even the choice of cabinetry in the kitchen — refuses to become dated.

A glassed-in sunroom off the dining area and kitchen provides a way to enjoy the serene setting no matter the weather. There is also an art studio and insulated garage, too.

The home is priced at $277,000 and is listed by Roman Novian with Coldwell Banker Apex. Want to see more? Check out the rest of the listing. To read more about Ray Barnes, click here.

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Bethany Erickson lives in a 1961 Fox and Jacobs home with her husband, a second-grader, and Conrad Bain the dog. If she won the lottery, she'd by an E. Faye Jones home.
She's taken home a few awards for her writing, including a Gold award for Best Series at the 2018 National Association of Real Estate Editors journalism awards, a 2018 Hugh Aynesworth Award for Editorial Opinion from the Dallas Press Club, and a 2019 award from NAREE for a piece linking Medicaid expansion with housing insecurity.
She is a member of the Online News Association, the Education Writers Association, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
She doesn't like lima beans or the word moist.

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