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Ten years after Mad Men’s final bow, the aesthetics of the era maintain a grip on modern design lovers as strong as Don Draper’s mid-morning old-fashioned. The show catalyzed the renewal of public interest in midcentury-modern design with its depiction of geometric offices and warm, open residences. As with the terms hipster or democracy, though, the true definition of midcentury modern has steadily eroded from overuse and blatant misrepresentation on Facebook Marketplace. Its principles, however, endure.
Born into postwar optimism in the mid-20th century, the movement favored steel, concrete, and insulated glass in defiance of ornamentation. Indoor-outdoor layouts defined by openness, functionality, and an abundance of wood are core tenets of the style. Not every midcentury structure is necessarily aligned with the mid-mod ethos; it distinguishes itself as an American aesthetic of midcentury style popular from roughly 1945 to 1969, comprising influences of modernist, international, and Bauhaus styles. So the look is specific, but the appeal is timeless—and a handful of AD’s most beloved home tours harken to the era. In celebration of one of our favorite styles, we picked through a slew of Open Doors, singling out five in particular which share a mid-mod flavor that’s anything but mad.
Ellen Pompeo’s chic SoCal beach house
Onscreen, the Grey’s Anatomy star’s tumultuous life at a Seattle medical center has seen half her friends and loved ones killed off over the years, but IRL Ellen Pompeo laughed all the way to Malibu. Some impressive expressive flourishes—the handiwork of Martyn Lawrence Bullard—distinguish the actor’s Southern California dwelling, starting with some quintessentially mid-mod wood surfaces as well as stone accents across the façade and pool deck. Inside, a vintage patchwork leather sofa informs elements like immersive black marble walls whose veins echo waves framed by glass walls. In the neighboring dining area, 1960s Swedish seating is paired with a Yves Saint Laurent cutting table overlooking the compact kitchen through a void connecting both rooms. A meditative reprieve awaits in the primary bathroom, where a white marble shower opens onto a quaint alfresco space with complementary stone seating and greenery via sliding door. Even the children’s bunk room is on theme, with a David Hicks–inspired grasscloth ceiling and a cane backgammon table, while a guest room evokes midcentury splendor with 1950s Gio Ponti bedside tables and Herb Ritz photography.
Heidi Gardner’s stylish Kansas City pad
“This room is a perfect encapsulation of a curated ’70s moment,” SNL comic Heidi Gardner affirms in the living room of her Kansas City retreat, which AD toured last year. Though also likened to Boogie Nights, this home is only host to real estate porn for now. Stone and wood walls offset sinewy chrome coffee tables, channeling the disco era beside a caterpillar sofa and Italian sconces. A floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace partitions the living room and lounge, which maintains sight lines into a kitchen clad with blond cane panels. Italian marble countertops imbue color, while a sparkling range hood distills retro-glam inspiration with mirror tiles sure to cast even the most mundane dishes in a dazzling light. Transparent elements like expansive windows and the bathroom’s glass block wall round out the modernist vision executed by Brooklyn-based designer Madelynn Hudson.
Dakota Johnson’s Zen Hollywood gem
Ryan Murphy’s former Hollywood sanctuary provided Materialists star Dakota Johnson an ideal midcentury canvas for a collaboration with Pierce & Ward. “I love wood, and I love light and windows and green,” Johnson declares in her living room layered with vintage furnishings, a statement-making crushed mohair sofa, and a brick fireplace. Warm timber surfaces and built-in bookshelves abound, complete with several modern titles Johnson is too shy to share. (Celebs: They’re just like us.) The actor’s intimate kitchen, however, is the viral standout of the AD100 firms’s design; a modernist geometry maximizes its narrow footprint under a large skylight, allowing it to really breathe. Alligator-green cabinets mesh with a heaping bowl of limes—which Johnson totally loves and totally always has on display….
Mandy Moore’s 1950s LA sanctuary
In 2018, AD was treated to a look inside multihyphenate talent Mandy Moore’s dreamy Harold B. Zook Hollywood home, which touts original brick floors detailed with brass inlays and a restored copper fireplace hood in the neutral living space. Broad windows flood interiors revitalized by AD100 designer Sarah Sherman Samuel with daylight, augmenting a that classic midcentury sense of openness from the dining room to the living room. “Nothing about this house feels formal. I love that everything still feels so open. There’s not a ton of separation between main living areas,” Moore explained in the tour. A large marble block anchors the kitchen beneath a central skylight, while tableware imbues subtle notes of color upon open shelves. A vintage lavender bench and pink drapes perpetuate the color story’s blush motif. Anyone else suddenly craving candy?
Troye Sivan’s seductive Melbourne retreat
Hear us out on Aussie pop star Troye Sivan’s Melbourne abode—a former handball court converted into a brick factory in 1950 before it was refashioned as a residence in the 1970s—when it comes to our midcentury prompt here. “There’s a strong affinity between Melbourne and LA in terms of climate and architecture. That strain of classic California midcentury modernism has been a big influence,” Sivan said when AD stopped by for a tour in 2021.
A central double-height space commands the Flack Studio–designed oasis. The lofty nucleus boasts a rear façade covered in glass to naturally illuminate the space with indirect light. Earthy notes of terra-cotta, sage, and burgundy recur along with leather upholstery, tile floors, and sculptural vintage lighting. Botanical-hued stone and expansive woodblocks harmonize in a kitchen equipped with integrated wooden appliances, black steel walls, and modular windows opening to the garden. Upstairs, ample skylights, original cork ceilings, and Venetian plaster walls compose a cocoon of coziness—as Sivan puts it, “Everything kind of hugs you at night.” We’d greet that stylish embrace with our own open arms.
