Anne McDonald is fastidious with floor plans, but her secret weapon is her confidence with color.

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“My brain always thinks in color first,” explains the Expert. When the owners of this mid-century home in Minneapolis returned from a decade in New York City, they gave her carte blanche to simply 'go wild' with their 1962 ranch.

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Built in the post-war era, the house looked like hundreds of others in the neighborhood. It boasted unique mid-century features—like a brick fireplace and sloped ceilings—but, drowning in a sea of white and gray décor, they were nearly indistinguishable. Anne’s mission was to highlight them: “It’s easy for homes to get dumbed down over decades,” she explains. “Between different owners and phases of life, people don’t know what to do, so they paint everything white or gut the kitchen.”

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Anne started by tackling the home's structural issues, reworking the “weird and choppy” layout, and opening up some areas while closing off walls to create a den and home office downstairs. Her first major move was to restore the living room floors to their original oak planks and extend them throughout the home. "It sets the tone for what the house wants to be," she says.

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Amplifying the ceilings

There was no debate, the popcorn plasterwork had to go: “Your eyes gravitated more to the texture than the skylights’ architectural features,” Anne remembers. Her remedy was to wrap the ceilings in Douglas Fir. “All the hard, jarring lines now just melt away,” she says. The Noguchi light over the dining table acts as a strong focal point to help soften everything up. The designer doesn’t fret over how different wood tones work together. “Both the species I used on the floors and ceilings are native to Minnesota, so they get along,” she reasons. “They both have a warm, glowy amber undertone.”

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Pivoting the kitchen

Rather than gut the kitchen entirely, Anne kept it in the same spot but completely rethought the layout from a U-shape to a simple straight run, which opened it up to the dining area. While many people would opt to place the sink in the new island, Anne tucked it under a section of open shelving, which shows off the owner’s curation of beautiful ceramics. “It’s not a huge space, so I wanted to keep the island counter clear, and it gives the sink more breathing room," says Anne.

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Glorifying every nook

To make the most of an adjacent (and widely unused) bonus space, Anne integrated it into the kitchen with a section of cabinetry that butts up against a newly designed staircase railing. Housing a coffee bar wrapped in quartzite, the built-in unit (painted in Bisque by Farrow & Ball) nods to the kitchen island and effectively breaks up the different woods.

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Going big in small spaces

Anne also repurposed a nook off the living room into the owner’s cozy office. The contained area created an opportunity for a dramatic play on texture and pattern: she painted the fireplace in Paean Black by Farrow & Ball and chose a moody floral wallpaper. “The colors felt very mid-century, and it created this strong moment without going overboard.” Paean Black reads as dark eggplant—a shade Anne carried throughout the home's trim.

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She applied the same school of thought to the powder room. A heady mix of Pierre Frey’s Momiji wallpaper, a chartreuse Water Monopoly sink, and Zellige tiles makes for a theatrical escape. “It’s one of my favorite spaces I've ever designed,” says Anne.

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Supersizing the furniture

"Clients always underscale furniture," says Anne. "They're afraid to fill a room." In the main living area, in went a Lawson-Fenning sofa, custom stools by Seer Studio, a George Smith ottoman, a pair of 1950s vintage armchairs in original blue leather, and an iconic Le Bambole sofa. The result: a seat for every mood, unified by a rich palette of jewel tones.

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For Anne, it's the vintage armchairs that make the space sing. “They have this perfect vibration—not too heavy, not too saturated, just right." The result is a home that feels both bold and livable, where mid-century bones finally get their due.

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