Home Alterations in Falls Church, VA

Recaptured Modern: Repurposing and reinventing space

Architect: Christiane deJong AIA, Builder: T.W. Herren

MCM Home Alterations: Where to Start

A vibrant, creative family with a DIY spirit found their “diamond in the rough” mid-century modern home in the Holmes Run Acres neighborhood of Falls Church, Virginia — a suburb of Washington DC. They fell in love with this Northern Virginia home’s potential and committed to making it shine. After years of tackling smaller projects themselves, they were ready to address the home’s most challenging space: a carport that had been converted to a florida room and then pressed into service as a front entry. Dark, uninviting, and crowded with bikes and gear, it wasn’t functioning as an entry in any meaningful sense — and it was holding the rest of the house back.

Street view of the home showing new dining room addition at right in former porch area and new entry where dining had been. Included are new steps and landing, new front door, new windows and new refurbished cedar cladding or siding

Identifying the Team and Home Improvements

The homeowners found deJong Studio through a Holmes Run Acres Open Holmes event, where they were able to see the work firsthand and hear from neighbors who had been through the process. For clients looking for an architect who specializes in mid-century modern home alterations and renovations in Northern Virginia, this kind of firsthand exposure to completed work is often what makes the choice clear.

Occupying the space of the former florida room, the new light filled dining room and entry way add generous, fluid space to the front of the house

After initial conversations it became clear that practical storage was the non-negotiable first priority — until the bikes and boots had a proper home, a real foyer wasn’t possible. But looking more closely at the generous footprint of the florida room, a larger opportunity emerged: the program could be expanded to capture a full interior addition. The existing dining room, repositioned into the new space, would free up the original dining area to become the true entry the house had always needed — set further toward the center of the facade, with the covered overhang that is a hallmark of mid-century modern design and so much of our work at deJong Studio. That single move changed the entire character of the street elevation.

Exposed structure and floor to ceiling windows make for a very open, inviting entry and dining room

Designing the Addition and Entry

Orienting the new front door perpendicular to the street created the entry sequence the house deserved — a moment of pause and arrival before stepping into the living areas beyond. The florida room footprint was divided between two new programs: the larger portion becoming the new dining room addition, and the remainder carved out as a dedicated mud room entry — finally giving those boots a proper place to land.

For the addition itself, the homeowners’ deep appreciation for the home’s original floor-to-ceiling rear windows provided a clear design direction. Bringing full-height glazing to the front of the house as well created a new front-to-back transparency — a visual connection that draws the eye through the living spaces to the wooded landscape beyond. The new dining room, occupying the now light-filled former carport turned entry volume, feels both of the house and newly expansive, with exposed structure and a cathedral ceiling that honor the original mid-century spirit.

The homeowners completed the exterior work in true DIY fashion, painstakingly stripping and restoring the original cedar cladding themselves, adding a new driveway with charging station and investing in native species landscaping.

A New Mid-Century Styled Kitchen

As is often the case, one successful project revealed the next opportunity. With the new entry and dining room complete, the existing kitchen — tight, closed off, and disconnected from the living areas — felt increasingly out of step with the home’s new openness. The homeowners returned to deJong Studio during the Covid pandemic to explore what was possible.

The design challenge was a familiar one in open-plan kitchens: achieving visual calm and flow in a space that is, by nature, highly functional and often chaotic. The solution organized the work zone into an efficient triangle while concealing as much of the operational complexity as possible. A deep coffee bar and shelving set in a drywall enclosure at the end of the island anchored one end of the space while also housing an adjacent coat closet off the foyer. Combining wall oven and microwave allowed for a clean cooktop drop-in and uninterrupted countertop continuity.

Contrary to popular belief an open kitchen requires much more careful planning to present a well composed image to adjacent spaces

For the cabinets, deJong Studio worked with a California-based custom maker known for exposed Baltic plywood edges and bold laminate colors — a natural fit for the mid-century period’s affinity for sliding doors and graphic color. The result is a space that functions as the hardworking heart of a busy household while presenting a vivid, carefully composed collage to the living room beyond.

Working with bold color laminates and exposed plywood edges gave us the unique opportunity to curate a bespoke collage of color in 3D. At the entry foyer a clever blackboard and drawers conceal both keys and a charging station.

The Completed Renovation

Across two phases of work, this Falls Church, Virginia mid-century modern renovation stands as an example of what thoughtful architectural design can unlock in a postwar home. Once held back by a dark, dysfunctional entry, the house now invites the neighborhood in at the front while remaining beautifully embedded in nature at the rear. A once-overlooked gem in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, it is well-positioned for decades more of life in a thriving community.