A peek inside mid-mod living that is light, distinctive, and welcoming.
In 2015, a twenty-something Zach Marshall would drive past a mid-century ranch in Botany Woods. From the street, he could play peek-a-boo with a courtyard he glimpsed through wide front gates. Marshall recalls, “I really wanted to know what was behind those gates: A pool? Was that a palm tree? A Japanese garden?”
On one of his drive-bys, Marshall saw the owner, Dr. Bill Jones, outside. “I introduced myself and said, ‘Wow, your house is amazing and I hope that one day I can buy a house like this,’” says Marshall.
Three years later, he learned through a chance encounter at Publix that the Jones house would be hitting the market. He was able to tour the house while the Realtor was hammering the sign in the yard.
“Once we made it into the main room and saw how the house opened up, I was ready to put in an offer,” says Marshall. “The way things were falling into place was special. It felt very meant to be from the start.”
He had been dating his now-fiancé, Chad Gilliam, for less than a year. After seeing the house, Marshall told Gilliam, “By the way, I’m moving and I want you to move with me.”
It came during an emotional time for both; each had lost a parent the year before. “I handle grief and uncertainty by keeping busy,” says Marshall. “The house gave us a project to work on together. I remember putting together a mid-century wall unit and joking to Chad, ‘If we can make it through putting this together, we can make it through anything.’”
The Mid-Century Modern Courtyard
At first a visitor might be a little confused: do I stop at the front gate or open it and walk to the front door? There’s no doorbell at the gate but that doesn’t really matter. The courtyard is surrounded by huge windows and Marshall and Gilliam’s sweet Norwich Terriers, Levi and Lily, will have already made your arrival known.
The centerpiece of the courtyard is a red footbridge where guests are compelled to take in the lush landscaping and waterfall bubbling down into a petite pond.
But this wasn’t always the design. As legend goes, when the courtyard was being built, Jones and his wife, Anne, came to check on the progress and were surprised to find a six-foot-deep pool dug out in the courtyard where a six-inch-deep reflection pond was supposed to go.
The pool was filled in in 1987, so Marshall and Gilliam use the courtyard for sunbathing, yoga, and welcoming visitors.
“When someone first comes through the house, I hope they come through the courtyard,” says Marshall. “I think that is how the house was designed to be entered in its most grand form.”
Plant Life
If the garden courtyard and the huge picture windows achieve the sought-after indoor-outdoor living space, then Marshall and Gilliam’s indoor plants elevate the concept to new heights, literally. There’s a 12-foot fiddle-leaf fig, an 11-foot Norfolk Island pine, and a 10-foot rubber tree.
Even calling them indoor plants does a disservice to these living sculptures. “This house is a plant sanctuary,” says Marshall. “It has really great natural filtered light and it has some areas of really direct sun. When we put the fiddle fig in there it just kind of started to take off and grow.”
As most people find out, buying and decorating a new house gets expensive. Marshall and Gilliam used plants in unique pottery as art to quickly create an inviting space. They have around 50 indoor plants and commit to watering them at the beginning of each week. Marshall admits, “We both have green thumbs, but don’t give us an orchid. We can’t keep those alive.”
A Slow Renovation
Rehabilitating a 60-year-old house with a distinctive style rooted in a specific time period can be daunting, so Marshall and Gilliam started by just doing what was necessary: painting everything a fresh white, adding hardwood floors, taking down drapes, adding lighting, and fixing the electrical and gutter issues.
When it was time to tackle larger projects, their philosophy was to focus on function with a nod to mid-century design. The primary bedroom’s ensuite bath was renovated to include a large walk-in shower and floating vanity.
“We knew we did not want carpet in the bathroom, so we had to do something,” Marshall acknowledges. “The black tile we used isn’t necessarily mid-mod, but the lighting, teak vanity, and terrazzo sink feel like a blend of the modern and mid-century.”
The patio also received a major upgrade. A ramada, an outdoor structure with a protective roof, features a warm-toned slat-wood privacy wall, an outdoor TV and cozy seating with a fire pit, offering an appealing extension to the house’s entertaining space. When the weather is nice, Marshall and Gilliam spend nights out here sipping cocktails while grilling in the outdoor kitchen.
Back inside, Marshall and Gilliam want to fix a bottleneck that stops the flow between the kitchen, dining room, and patio. But rather than just blowing out walls to create an open-concept kitchen that isn’t necessarily period-appropriate, they are taking incremental steps to find a solution. With renderings from Lars Gradel, they will start by converting the dining room windows into sliding doors that open onto the patio.
The other reason for a lack of urgency would make a great advertisement: The Sub-Zero refrigerator and JennAir range from 1987 still work just fine.
For years, Marshall dreamed about what was beyond those white gates and the sunny courtyard. Now he uses his respect for mid-century aesthetics, his eye for design, and his love of this house to create an inviting, memorable space.
“We have just tried to share the uniqueness of the house,” says Marshall. “I don’t ever want to do that in a pretentious or bragging way, but the house is just freaking cool. I think anybody can look at it and say, ‘Damn, that’s just a unique house.’”
Photography by Jess Yun.
