We kicked things off by talking about how Adrian defines his ultimate mcm home—the elusive “unicorn.” For Adrian, the unicorn is an untouched mid-century time capsule that’s stayed true to its origins. A house where every detail, from the kitchen cabinets to the bathroom tiles remains from the 1950s or 60s.
While I share Adrian’s passion for these vintage beauties, I also love rolling up my sleeves and blending the old with the new. We discussed how to go about creating spaces that honor their mid-century roots and keep their retro charm alive while making the home work for modern life.
Through his vast experience with Cliff May, Adrian built a truly impressive skill set balancing preservation, restoration and modernization. He’s currently knee-deep in recreating period-perfect bathrooms with authentic B&W tiles.
Adrian has a unique way of crafting his dream homes. He takes inspiration from various MCM houses he’s explored, piecing together his favorite elements to create a one-of-a-kind living space. His current home is a masterful blend of features he’s loved in other houses, thoughtfully assembled to form his ideal mid-century retreat.
One detail that stood out is Adrian’s commitment to authenticity. He even incorporates quirky elements like lower-placed light switches from his previous homes into his new projects. It’s these personal touches that make each renovation special and deeply connected to the mid-century spirit.
Finding the perfect MCM home in today’s competitive market is no small feat. Adrian shared some valuable advice on hunting for “good” homes—the ones that tick all the right boxes. Flexibility and a creative vision are key.
Your perfect home might not look like much at first glance, but with a little imagination and the right team, it can be transformed into something extraordinary.
Having a realtor who understands the nuances of MCM properties and a designer who can see their potential makes all the difference. They can guide you through the process of finding and shaping your mid-century dream home.
If you’re on the hunt for your own mid-century unicorn or looking to transform your current space into a retro haven, remember to keep an open mind, get creative, and seek out the experts you need on your ReMod Squad!
In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:
- What makes for a “unicorn” of an mcm home.
- How to adjust your search to find your new mcm home in the tightest market.
- Why a flipped house might just be the best bet when times are bad for buyers.
Listen Now On
Resources
- Learn more about Adrian and browse some mid mod unicorn homes at https://www.midmodcolorado.com/about
- Get ready to remodel with my free Masterclass, “How to Plan an MCM Remodel to Fit Your Life(…and Budget)” available on demand!
- Get the essential elements of my master plan process in my new mini-course, Master Plan in a Month.
- Want us to master plan for you? Find out all the details with my mini-class, Three Secrets of a Regret-Proof Mid Mod Remodel.
And you can always…
- Join us in the Facebook Community for Mid Mod Remodel
- Find me on Instagram:@midmodmidwest
- Find the podcast on Instagram: @midmodremodelpodcast
Read the Full Episode Transcript
Della Hansmann
When I think back to every mid-century house I’ve ever stood in, I would still put Adrian Kenny’s home right at the top of the list. It’s not a time capsule by a famous architect. Well, it is a cliff may. But when Adrian founded the 90s, had really done a number on the place, He lovingly restored it and upgraded it to perfectly suit his own taste, and to be a perfectly sociable extroverts hosting hub. And it’s a work in progress, which I appreciate.
Della Hansmann
Adrian loves to remodel. So he’s currently in the process of redoing some of his first choices, more modern ones into mid-century recreations. And since he’s been steeping himself in the world of MCM, for well over a decade, and has now restored seven Clif may homes for himself and his partner, or on behalf of others, he knows whereof he speaks.
Della Hansmann
So today, I’m giving you another chance to chat with Adrian about what are the features of a mid-century home that makes it a true unicorn for him and for me, too, and how to go about finding yourself a mid-century home at all in this economy. He is the expert.
Della Hansmann
Hey there, welcome back to mid mod remodel. This is a show about updating MCM homes helping you match a mid-century home to your modern life. I’m your host Della Hansmann architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast, you’re listening to Episode 1802. By the way, if you’re curious about Adrian, his work and his gorgeous house, I’ll put some more info and photos that I got to snap when I visited into the show notes page. Find that at midmod-midwest.com/1802.
Della Hansmann
Or you can also check out our previous chat. That would have been episode 1004. We had a lot of fun talking about our backgrounds and design. What draws us demand sentry homes, the works. If you like this, you’ll like that. But for now, without further ado, Adrian Kinney on unicorn mid-century homes, let’s get into it.
Della Hansmann
So my question for you, Adrian is what is a unicorn house? For a realtor who gets to look into cool mid-century houses all the time? What are the features of your dream house?
Adrian Kinney
Yeah, absolutely. Luckily, I get to see quite a few vertical houses out there specializing in the mid-century modern field that I do. Now haven’t been in for gosh, 13-14 years, I’ve seen some cool ones. So come across the unicorns, they’re still really rare. And in my world and love, I’m pretty much a purist at heart. So the more original the more our most authentic houses. Those are the ones that really are my unicorns, where they’ve been untouched for 50 or 60 years. And just by that nature alone, they’re rare, because they just have everything that is purely perfect from the era.
Della Hansmann
For you, it’s the time capsule. That’s always gonna do it.
Adrian Kinney
Yeah, yes, those are those are the ones that do it. I love a good architect house like somebody that you know, especially in Denver Metro area that’s got a good name behind it has the story. I think my personal bias because I’m a tinkerer with houses that I love to kind of mess with all of them. I lean towards the post and beam type houses where I probably covered this with something or design clients.
Adrian Kinney
Yeah, they’re easier to manipulate because they don’t really have load bearing walls. They’re basically a giant barn. Yeah, and for my sake, and we have mostly crawl spaces in Colorado, all of the electrical and plumbing runs through the crawlspace. And so my world are like, let’s just manipulate this or that, all I got to do is go the crawlspace and mess some things up and then pop it up to the New Rome. Those are my favorites, kind of the time capsules that are posting beam, because then they can be manipulated easily for my sake to do some small tweaks to them. Versus like a true architects house, they’re just they’re perfectly built that if you want to touch a wall or do a little bit of work to it, they’re a little bit heavier but left because it’s such a thought out piece of art,
Della Hansmann
right, there is sort of a jigsaw puzzle effect to the more something is designed and I find myself doing this when I’m working with someone as I’m putting pieces in and I’m thinking man, if someone ever wants to change this later, they’re gonna have a lot of undoing. I do a lot of built ins and you do a lot of like let’s push in on this wall here and you store it on the other direction whereas a post and beam house gives you such a wonderful sort of structural element and kind of a blank slate to slip.
Della Hansmann
Yes, this is around for the bathroom and a bedroom get the best view that sort of thing. So to you personally, is a house that needs something done to it actually more fun than a house that is perfect in itself is sort of like what could you change? What would you change? You shouldn’t.
Oh, totally that that’s a great question. There’s been a couple of time capsules that I’ve seen that I absolutely wouldn’t touch even a single thing like the layout is absolutely perfect. As a general thing, I just have trouble touching time capsules in just a general sense because they’re just so amazing.
Obviously, if it’s something I plan to live on for a while, they’re still kind of like how do I make it work for today’s world? Because there are a couple things you know the washer and dryer in the kitchen. Not usually to go for today. I’m sure there’s other spots we could find for which we know requires altering a little bit.
Yeah, I, I think I like the ones that need a little work as you’ve been to our house and you kind of see behind us. Everything here is not original to the house, but it’s an original piece or made to kind of mock or be an original piece that would have been here. So do you enjoy that re-creation factor. And as we’ve done in our house, we’ve kind of been able to see so many amazing houses throughout the Denver Metro and Palm Springs areas that we were able to like pick and choose the perfect things from each of the houses.
We like that we’re like, Oh, we love this from the Joe’s house and Palm Springs and this house from this house in Denver, and then put it into our house currently, that’s like cool. It’s like a mishmash of every perfect mid mod thing in one little house. So I do enjoy that part that I can recreate, like the perfect combo house. Yeah. But it’s still like when it’s all original. And that’s still just, that’s the spot in my heart right there for that.
Della Hansmann
Just the ones…I mean, when I’m looking if I’m poking around on Zillow, or if I get invited into someone’s house, those time capsule houses that are perfection are the ones I always drool over. But then I know myself and I also I like to tweak. And of course, for the work that I’m doing when I work with clients. I actually like it when they’re home needs something.
Della Hansmann
I mean, it’s great. It’s got great bones or some great feature we can emphasize. But the reason we do a master plan isn’t because the house is perfect. That’s because the house needs work. So the question of what’s the ideal house to work versus what is the ideal has to find is maybe a little bit distinct. But yeah. So you’ve picked some of the favorite features you have.
Della Hansmann
And your house is maybe a perfect example, if you were just to like list, what are the items of a unicorn house, you’ve assembled them, you’ve got the fireplace with glass, above and below, you’ve got the sort of open plan layout between your kitchen and your sitting area. You’ve got some fun screen walls. What else have you added that you’ve really loved to this house.
And we’re in the process of re redoing, I think you’re here in the middle of some of the stuff because I’m always looking, I’m tinkering. So that is yeah, we’re you know, we’re narrowing it down, we’re doing things it is. So the bathrooms are in the process of working on now we’re taking them back to full period correct with the four and a quarter tile with the blue bathroom and yellow bathroom and the pink bathroom.
Right. So that’s it’s not done, but it’s a in process thing. And we’re you know, ordering the tile from b&w Trying to get the original everything in a manner. So that’s something I love is actually recreating it, doing a nice, like the primary bath has the five piece, the shower, the bath, the two sinks and the toilet. But we can make it a mid mod vintage one but in today’s layout, and that’s that kind of combo I like where it’s authentic as much as it can be with the original pieces.
And I’ve got original crane sinks that are going in, but it’s a layout in today’s fashion. So that’s again, that kind of nice that unfortunately was renovated in the 90s and early 2000s in our house so it didn’t survive fully original. So I’m able to kind of take back to what have been a better bath built here with the materials of the era which is great. We have basically the whole back we opened up so every room in the back has a door to the outside, which again is that just modernize connection to the outdoors we’re in and out.
It’s a small footprint by normal standards but it just lives so much bigger because you’ve got so many doors to the inside and outside which I absolutely love. So that’s been a fun part that we’ve added into it as well. And probably the kitchen that we were able to kind of do the layout that we wanted but again we added in some nice today the commercial appliances but kept as much of the field original as we could again kind of you know traversing the two different sides of you know full Pyrrhus but nothing was here originally and then putting in what we could for it.
But then probably my ultimate favorite is the lighting I go a little crazy with the lighting so all of the you know hanging lights the sconces everything they’re all vintage fine so we put in all the electrical work for it and then we’re able to connect these pieces to the different electrical works to have like full vintage lighting in the house and that’s the fun part I’ve been able to bring in that I really love is that lighting part portion of everything.
Della Hansmann
that’s something you can go and find salvaged you know ventured stores estate sales and so yes, find that in a house although he has all its original lighting and it’s gorgeous. It’s cherry on top but yeah, well it sounds like in fact it’s not a particular house that’s a unicorn to you it is the ability to take house and continue to build on to it and make it even better and
that’s a lot of it and I’ve noticed that over the years of like there’s been some you know the I always go back to the Aegis house which is in Palm Springs that’s probably the most perfect house in my opinion I’ve ever seen that you know it’s been capital the time capsule its location was absolutely amazing. You know, the primary bath is to say standard that’s massive. It just, it has enough that that one I wouldn’t absolutely touch a single thing in that type of house.
Besides that most of the house there’d be a couple little tweaks to kind of make work for today’s standards for things here and there. But yeah, for the most part I’m a master of you know what to pick and choose the most perfect from, you know, the cliff may house we have.
For instance, in our house we have currently the cliff may we lived in beforehand, he put all the light switches lower part flip part in full because he didn’t like them to be an ice eyesight. And the other part was they were cross framed walls that went up. So when the light switches normally go, they weren’t able to put the actual switch because of the cross framing spectrum. So they ended up at about hip height. So they’re getting out of sight, but also from necessity.
So when I redid this house here in Lynwood, we actually put all the lights which is at that lower level to kind of bring back from our Cliff May, that we love that they were just lower, and I stayed out of eyesight, and then just kind of that homage back to what we had in the tough Mae house.
So it’s again, back to that piecemealing of you know, only the cliff Mays have them down there. Well, why don’t we do that in our house, because it was a great reason behind it. So that kind of putting things together, we’d love to do as we go through different houses, and then do our own house in the very end.
Della Hansmann
That is so much fun. Well, and I think that leaves a lot of positivity for people who are trying to find and purchase a perfect house, that if you’re willing, if you enjoy the process of personalizing a little bit, you can make your unicorn house from scratch or from raw materials, at least from the right shell.
Della Hansmann
I mean, that’s a topic for another talk is how to find a house that could be a shell, even if it’s not the perfect house, the house that’s ready to be the perfect house with a little work. Alright.
Adrian Kinney
Smart for finding, it’s hard to find. So I think it’s a great topic to talk about.
Della Hansmann
Right?
Della Hansmann
I want to ask you about what we need to know about finding a mid-century home in this general Realty economy and what you can do if you can’t find your dream home, what kind of compromises you might make to find a home that could work?
Oh, absolutely. And that’s a great question right now. Obviously, my expertise here is in the Denver Metro market. But what we’re seeing here is actually a pretty common thread throughout all of the US that our supply is still very tight. And that’s the supply of homes that are listed for sale on the open market. And the overall numbers have finally increased.
But when you break it down to what I call, you know, good homes, or we’re checking off boxes, for most buyers, that number is still unfortunately, really, really low. Again, seeing in the Denver area, a lot of stuff does make it past that first weekend, and does sit for a couple of weeks. But the really good stuff, it’s still unfortunately, going in three days, usually a little bit above less, not as crazy, but it’s still getting really tight.
So I get that same question for my buyers that are like, Hey, here’s my stats of what I’m looking for, you know, my bed bath price range location, like what are the odds of a house like this actually coming up? And we chat about it? And unfortunately, it’s not great. You know, especially if you’re a normal buyer and that normal price range in your area.
Yeah, there’s a lot of y’all looking for it. And you know, finding something that’s unique and different, seems to be a little bit more on trend than just, you know, a ticky tacky box. And those are more dime a dozen. So I’ll talk a lot with my buyers about hey, you know, what, what are the odds of the area’s you’re looking for something coming up at that might fit what you’re looking for, and kind of work through the reality of okay, if it does come up, is it going to be competitive or is going to be able to compete.
And we really talked about what is that unicorn feature and what maybe can be given up or recreated in the house, that’s super unique, right, it might actually work. And a lot of stuff is honestly the heart characteristics of a house, you know, the square footage, the bed and bath count as it sits and the condition of all the major systems, you know, the H factor roof, the plumbing, the electrical, those are kind of honestly the less negotiable side of things, because Sure, you can add a bed and bath.
But if it’s a true mid mount, and you’ve got 1000 square feet that you’re working with, adding a bed and battens gonna be a little bit tight. So you want to make sure that you’ve kind of got besides adding an addition, that what you’re looking for actually makes sense in those characteristics of okay, Gosh, I really need to stick that 1000 square feet because that’s, you know, I don’t want bigger or smaller. Maybe we need to, you know, give up this or that because of that reason.
Della Hansmann
What do you do in that situation? Yeah, I was just talking with someone who is they would like to be a masterplan client of mine, but they’re looking for the house. And unfortunately, well, fortunately for them, they used to live in their dream house.
Della Hansmann
And then for purposes of employment, they had to move. This has made their search for a new house very hard, because to give up your unicorn house and then go looking for something else, and then to go looking for it in this economy. She basically came to the place about a year later to say, Okay, what do I have to give up? Does it do we have to plan to add on? Do we need to start looking at flipped houses that we put mid-century on its back into air? Where can it give because we’re not we’re not finding it?
Della Hansmann
And that’s I’m so glad that I get to talk to you about that right now. Because I think the answers can depend and of course, depends on energy level and price point and what you’re interested in doing, but do you feel like there are certain things that people see as deal breakers that are actually not as big of a bar to finding and modifying your house as someone might assume?
Yeah, and I have a I have a biased lens that I looked through on this now, as I remind my clients, and a lot of it, I think is the general workload of, you know, how heavy of a lift is this going to be to renovate something, right? I know. And one of our other talks, we talked about a post and beam house. And that’s the you know, the style it is, it leads to an easier renovation.
And that’s what I was getting trouble with my clients. They’re like, easy like, you’ve done one, like I’m actually buying a fix and flip tomorrow to take on like, it’s relative, you know, it’s one of those like, like it, yes. And like, Yes, I know, I’ve done a lot of houses. So to me, it’s like, oh, unless it’s like completely collapse. It’s no brainer, like I got it. But I think that’s one that I think a lot of folks may look over.
And again, it’s through their lens, as well, as you’ve seen with your clients where you’re like, Oh, this is an easy project. And they are hyperventilating in the background, because they’re like, What does he mean easy, this is the most insane thing I’ve ever done. Yeah. And I think that’s one that goes back to I know, it’s a big motto of yours of kind of finding the right team. And that’s a big part of it is you know, when you look at the real estate agent initially, to kind of find the house that you want, make sure that professional has a good background and experience always put for myself that you know, I’ve done fix and flips and design work and all that that really helped my clients see beyond what’s there.
That if they want to do renovations, I can at least prep some of like, Hey, you might be able to put a bath here, you might not the systems are new and old, the plumbing is new or old. That way they get a good idea of hey, we had XYZ budget, this might or might not actually fit because of what you’ve told me about it. That way I can team up for someone like you that does renovations and helps kind of do a master plan with them, that they can figure it out of like cool.
You know, Adrian said these things about this house, now I can talk with you and figure out hey, this is great, now we can do it for our renovation. I think that’s a that’s one of the biggest thing things that gets overlooked is the true factor of how much of a bite do you want to take into from it. And that’s obviously very personal for people up, you know, part of its budget, and part of its the you know, the mental anguish they have to go through to actually get it done.
Della Hansmann
Right, or their life stage or any specific client, I was really trying to steal her tour, steer her towards, she might need to choose half that’s been flipped and remove some of those previous changes. It just feels so painful to waste the emotional and the embodied energy of like something, bought this from Home Depot and put it in the house. And I’m going to take it out and throw it away. And we said we’d be talking about like, what could you restore what could you find other sources for but then psychological things are factors as much as the price point sometimes?
Oh, absolutely, they are. And I had a great example of that client, we were looking in the area about where they lived currently. And unfortunately, just the type of house they wanted in the area was just too much for what their budget could support. So we started looking out just two or three miles from the house.
And we came across a really cool little enclave of just classic mid-century ranches. Again, nothing to write home about, but their price point what the price per square foot was they had some use of downtown was a really unique spot that they were unfortunately it was a great out really basic flip that was there almost no characters left in the house. But these buyers were actually excited about again, the bones of the house were in great shape, the location was primed for them.
But they could see past Yes, it’s all grayed out. It’s all like not exciting, but they could do as a blank slate to them. In that case where it was well under their budget, their monthly payment was perfect. They could live in it, which was really nice. They didn’t have to, you know, move in and be like, oh my goodness, this is this is a lot for day one falling down or it’s unsafe. Yeah, like holy moly, it was it was livable.
And that way they could kind of really get a feel for how the house lived. And then add in those fine mid-century characteristics. Now, maybe not full on mid mod, but at least bring back some of that cool, warm tones, the wood elements, some screen walls to separate the stairs, just a little stuff to really make it feel less flipping in Home Depot we’d like in circa 2015 to 2025.
And so that exactly to that thing where they were like, it’s not great. It’s more soulless. It’s not awesome, but it’s very livable, and the price point was great. So it’s just like your client there that they were wondering, my gosh, can I even do this even though it’s completely not their tastes personally, definitely, it’s a great route to go because it isn’t a complete disaster. It’s livable, and you can kind of take a couple of months before you jump into the project.
Della Hansmann
And I think you’re right, particularly for people who want to project sort of piecemeal rather than who are hoping to come in and have something done all at once. Yes. Do you think a house that’s been flipped is disheartening, but it’s much more sort of rollback double than if the House has major structural issues or major layout issues that you can’t live in that Well, that happens you need to sort of budget no contractor it’s just a bigger unless you’re a huge enthusiast. It ends up being not a manageable DIY job. Certainly not for first time.
Oh yeah, it definitely is. And I’ve had you know, folks look at that too. And it’s, it’s a lot to take on sometimes and that goes back to that You know what you’re willing to take on? And if it’s, you know, in your actual wheelhouse to make it work, and sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.
And that kind of goes back to the Hey, what? What do you want to do as far as you know, what, what things can you give up? And what things can you keep to make sure that you still get the house you want. But also the reality of Oh, my gosh, this is, you know, a six figure project or yeah, this is a DIY, we can totally do it and just get a little bit of help project.
Della Hansmann
Right, it becomes, well, eventually it becomes your entire personality, but it starts as a hobby, and then
It literally becomes your personality. I feel sorry, to everyone coming down the rabbit hole eventually. But it’s very much a
Della Hansmann
Warning sign. I mean, we like it here. So
yeah, the water’s fine. Come on in.
Della Hansmann
Great. All right. Well, this has been really helpful, I think, optimistic for people who are struggling to find what they’re hoping to find maybe a little bit of a reality check. But in the future, and I think with, with the type of thinking that I like to apply to house, how can you bring back charm that’s been lost, and with the search parameters of just like, maybe have to look a little bit further maybe to look at something. It’s been subway tiled and whitewashed.
Exactly right on No, there really is. And that’s exactly it, that there’s, you know, the search isn’t over thing I know, folks aren’t as you know, crazy motivators, they work because it’s not a crazy market, but they really do want to purchase something. So you’re right on exactly that point that, you know, there are some compromises to be had. But homes are still fixable.
And yes, it might be sad that you saw the previous photos, and it was absolutely perfect. But the reality is, you know, someone did get it before you they did flip it. And that is a story that you will see over and over again. And if it’s not a position to grab at first, you know, find one of these that you can actually add your touch to that’s close enough and really make it a dream house just kind of from a different angle.
Della Hansmann
And then you know, then it’s your forever home. Or if you have to move on a couple of years, you’ve made a better option for somebody else.
So absolutely, yeah, you can you kind of fix the gray-washing.
Della Hansmann
All right. Well, I think that’s, that’s very helpful to end on. Great.
Adrian Kinney
Yes, I think so too. And I appreciate you having me on. This has been great to talk to again.
Della Hansmann
Excellent. See you again soon.
Adrian Kinney
Great.
Della Hansmann
So I guess the question really is, are you going to hold out for a unicorn mid-century house? Can you afford to? Can you stand the house you’re in? Or maybe you don’t even want one? Maybe you are looking for a project maybe like Adrian, like me, you’re up for finding a house that can work and then crafting it into your actual literal dream house.
Della Hansmann
If you wanted to dig a little deeper on that idea, find the transcript of this episode and the link to the resources we discussed in the show notes at midmod-midwest.com/ 1802. I will be chatting again with Adrian sometime soon. And we’ll get into how to find the right team of people to help with mid-century home search and the process of tailoring your mid-century home to your life.
Della Hansmann
Plus, we’ll also debate what are the exact qualities that make a house mid-century the date the features? What else? Speaking of make it mid-century? Next week, I’ll be sharing a conversation with Susan Hala the mind and the muscle behind make it mid-century.
Della Hansmann
By the way, if you’re enjoying these mid-century mastermind conversations, let me know who else I should be talking to. The odds are I may already know them from the internet and I’ve just been too introverted to ask them onto the podcast. Give me a reason. Or if I don’t know them, I’ll be glad to add them to our little world of people who love mid-century design. Shoot me an email or a DM Sure some names.
Della Hansmann
All right. Catch you next time mid mod remodeler.