Laura and Brent Harsh's midcentury-style house in Nevada near Lake Tahoe was built in the 1970s. But when the couple bought the home in 2019, much of its charm had been lost to a 1980s renovation involving shades of beige and lots of "Dynasty"-era mirrors.

"The home before was piecemealed together," said Laura, a former educator who now helps her attorney husband run his legal office. "It was a strange layout and not functional."

The couple had initially been attracted to the house for its welcoming feeling. That was a quality that the Harshes, who have two teenage children, wanted to retain. They sought out an interior designer to restore the residence to its former glory while introducing modern touches that complemented its low-slung profile and angular roofline.

For the job, they hired Chloe Legras of Boxwood Avenue Interiors, whose design firm has offices in Reno, Nev., and Paris. Her first step? Removing the '80s-era renovations to allow the home's original architecture to take center stage. "I look at the bones so that the interiors feel unified," Legras said. Here's a room-by-room breakdown of the revamp, which took about three years to complete.

The Atrium

Raised planters original to the home's atrium were a big inspiration for the entire renovation. "The greenery of the plants set the mood," Legras said. "We wanted to incorporate an indoor-outdoor feel." But the planters' pale slumpstone sides made them look dated.

They covered them with high-density fiber cement panels, topped with black granite (about $22,000 in materials), a project overseen by M.D. Construction, a custom home builder in Truckee, Calif.

The Living Room

"We wanted comfort," Laura said. "Everything that we selected needed to fill that desire of a good, homey feeling." A walnut-flanked ceiling helped cozy up the living room. "It really grounded the space and helped give the home a nestled feeling," Legras said.

The Dining Room and Kitchen

The dark wood of the living room extends to the adjacent dining area, as well as to the home's kitchen. Both spaces feature sculptural Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert lights ($42,000 for the dining-room fixtures), as well as clerestory windows and skylights. Legras designed each with the Harshes' day-to-day routines in mind, especially meals with their children.

"The kitchen needed to be incredibly functional because they love to cook and spend time together," Legras said.

"The whole goal from the beginning was to restore it," Legras said. "When you walk in this home, you feel like you can just breathe."