Do you remember the first person you encountered who validated that your mid-century house was great and that you should LEAN INTO its charm when updating it to suit your own life?
That’s such a magical feeling. To realize that you’re not alone in wanting to steer clear of the HGTV “paint it white” world. Today I want to introduce you to one of MY OWN first sources of great Mid Mod inspiration.: Aletha VanderMaas
I first “met” Aletha when I was a complete newcomer to the Mid-Century world.Â
Her home, her design project photos and advice were a revelation to me. She showed me I was not ALONE in thinking vintage mid-century homes could be lovingly updated in ways that felt timeless and still charming. (She also showed me that it was possible to run a small business providing mid-century design services!)
I finally got to chat with Aletha for this week’s podcast and we covered a lot of ground!
Aletha is a designer and the owner of True Home Restorations in Grand Haven, Michigan. Her hashtag #IBrakeForBreezeblock, her feed of gorgeous, unpainted brick and sleek slab front cabinet kitchens, and her thoughtful comments about updating the values of mid-century design were a breath of fresh air to me when all the other home improvement resources I was finding online were so aggressively modern cottage oriented.
Listen Now On
Resources
- Check out Aletha’s projects on her website and follow her on Instagram.
- Here is Pam’s amazing archive at Retro Renovation.
- And, as always, you can find your own ReMod Squad by jumping into Ready to Remodel
- Would you rather have us master plan for you? Apply to work with us!
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
I tend to focus on the big picture, shifts in space and structure that can change the way a house flows. But I’m also fascinated by the kind of design that lives in the details, the perfect tile choice, wallpaper selection, or piece of art, a correctly trained drape.
Della Hansmann
So today I’m sharing my recent conversation with someone who knows how to focus on the details that make mid-century homes even more charming. Aletha VanderMaas of true home restorations in Grand Haven, Michigan. Not only is she a talented designer, she’s also one of the original tastemakers of mid-century Instagram. You may already know her from there or through her projects featured in atomic ranch magazine, and if so, you know you’re in for a treat. If not, let me introduce you to someone who has been loving MCM since she started visiting her grandparents in Palm Springs as a child.
Della Hansmann
Hey there. Welcome back to mid mod remodel. This is the 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, and you’re listening to Episode 2107 we’ll cover the buy a mid-century house to become a mid-century obsessive pipeline. Yeah, Aletha has been on that journey, too, and also the best places to look for vintage details and inspiration and how we can infuse modern ideals and activism with our love for vintage style. You can find links to the resources we mentioned, a transcript of the whole conversation, plus some stunning photos of some of her recent and favorite projects on the show notes page at mid mod, midwest.com/ 2107.
Della Hansmann
For the design tip of the week, I asked Aletha to share hers, so that’ll pop up at the end of the interview. Now, without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Della Hansmann
Marvelous. So this is so exciting. I’ve been really looking forward to this for quite a while. I am so delighted to be talking with Aletha VanderMaas of true home restorations. You are based in Michigan, and you have been working in the mid-century field for over a decade now. So I found you when I first fell in love with mid-century and went looking online for community and advice and answers and thought of you as an expert and a long time person in the field. I think you’ve been deeply into it, maybe just a couple more years than I had, but I always am so fascinated. What was your first moment? How did you get into mid-century? Were you always was it your house? Was it the chicken or the egg?
Aletha
So my grandparents have been vacationing in Palm Springs since the 60s, and I would go out there as a little girl the first time, actually, it was in 1985 and of course, I wasn’t admiring homes when I was four years old, but the more times I went out, the more I noticed they just live in like an, you know, an 80s condo, but all the homes across the street from their development are these really weird, you know, long, low ranches with desert escaping.
Aletha
And I’d walk out and be like, What the heck are these houses? These are so cool and interesting. We don’t have those in Michigan, um, and then I, you know, and then I went back home, and I had a two story, traditional Colonial Revival house that I grew up in. So it was so different from my own house that I just was interested in it again. I had no idea what I was admiring. It’s what I was. And then years, literally, years later, in 2012, so many years later, we were looking for a house, and my spouse and I both grew up in two story homes, and we were like, We do not want a two story house.
Aletha
It was too hot in the summertime, upstairs in our bedrooms. Let’s find a ranch. And the first ranch we walked through was this interesting ranch, and I was like, why is this house so different? It’s so cool. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know how to describe it, but it felt like a California house. And then, of course, we kept looking and looking, and I’m like, Oh, these are all over Michigan. I had no idea these are in neighborhoods, but there’s not full neighborhoods of mid-century modern homes, right? So where I am, they’re all mid-century ranches. And then there’ll be one weird one, one cool one, one that has a cool breeze, Black Wall, whatever you’re like, Oh, I like that. And now I know, you know. Oh, those are mid-century modern anyway. You know how that natural progression of like, Oh, now I understand.
Aletha
So it was very organic, from Little, little girl to teenager to a person. I went to school for design, um, fashion. So it was one of those things where you’re just always recognizing it, but not even knowing why you are. Like, why does that look interesting? I like it, but what is that? So that was kind of how and then our house came about, of course, yeah. And then it was just like, oh, maybe I could do this for other people.
Della Hansmann
Right? It’s it. I feel like, once you it’s like, when you learn a new word and you hear it everywhere for the next week, once you know how to recognize mid-century design and you put a name on it, it starts popping up all around you because. It is everywhere in infill buildings and ring city neighborhoods. And I think I grew I grew up in a 1970s neighborhood, in a split level house, which I would now love to do a master plan for. I could do such great things with that house. It was, you know, relatively modest, and it was done up in a very colonial style when we lived there.
Della Hansmann
And then my mom tried to make it into a Tuscan villa because it was the 90s, and that did not work. But sorry, Mom, I know you’re listening but, but I didn’t see those houses as in any way interesting or cool. They just seemed suburban, boring. But if you had interface with Palm Springs, even from an early age, those, I mean, they’re the Jetsons house there, they are just undeniably cool, even if you don’t know what they are, even if you can’t categorize them.
Della Hansmann
So that’s so fun. I have enjoyed watching you go to Palm Springs and your Instagram account over the last years. And there’s just always so much to love there. It’s really gorgeous. So your training is in design, but in fashion. So that I mean when you think about details, when you think about materials and how patterns and color and shape come together, that’s it. Is kind of a universal language. But you started by making changes to your own home, and then you wanted to sort of apply those to other people’s houses.
Aletha
Yeah, yeah.
Della Hansmann
What would you say? And I’m asking this question with an ax to grind, because I know you’ve been talking on your Instagram recently about how you’re now thinking how you’re now thinking about your home a little differently than when you first started. By the way, same what would you say you’ve sort of progressed through as you’ve gone further and further into the world of mid-century, as you’ve gotten obsessed with it?
Aletha
Well, I think what happened? Well, I know what happened when we bought it at 2012 I didn’t know about all I will tell you my grandma still lives in her two story colonial mid-century that has amazing bathrooms that I always thought was so beautiful, but I didn’t think of putting four by four tiles in our bathroom. I will say that my house, unfortunately, was remodeled extensively in the 90s, so there wasn’t much to keep that well, the brick wall behind me, and then the fireplace, which is over on the side of me, those had not been painted, and no one took them down. Um, they weren’t hiding.
Aletha
It wasn’t anything like that. But all the lights, all of the cabinets, the bathroom, was gone. There was nothing here. There were no wood doors. There were just things had been painted numerous times. So it wasn’t like I was coming into a time capsule and ruining it. Thankfully, I did not do that.
Della Hansmann
Yeah,
Aletha
however, I did not know how to restore it to its, you know, proper glory, which I wish I would have. But, you know, that was a learning process, and maybe for most of us, and it was the moment. I mean, it’s still somewhat it’s still hard to find the right advice. And I think one of the things you and I both do is just try to fill up the internet with good advice so that if someone’s looking hard enough for it, they will find it. But particularly in that sort of early cottage paint it white moment, you know, the subway tile, the just, just cover that brick with white it’ll be so fresh and new.
Aletha
Oh, my father in law was like, What are you doing? This brick wall, it’s so ugly. And I’m like, that’s like, the only thing that’s cool in the whole house right now, what would you do it? You’d like, I don’t know what I would do with it, but I don’t like it. I’m like, that’s fair. You don’t have to like it. But so I made a few good choices. I’m sitting in my kitchen. In my I did orangey teak colored, you know, birch veneer cabinets. Those are great. You’re not changing those. But, yeah, the subway tile really has to go. And it wasn’t the original plan, but what I wanted to do in there was too wonky. The tagline goes, that’s going to look terrible.
Aletha
So like, in a game day decision, I was like, well, just do subway tile. It’s super cheap. I’ll have it installed. Be white. We’ll do greater out. It’s totally 2012 and of course, you know, like a year later, I’m like, this was terrible, expensive mistake. This was terrible, so I went with it. I’ve added wallpaper to kind of make it feel exciting, but it still annoys me. So it’s, it’s leaving in June.
Della Hansmann
Hooray. That’s so exciting. Yeah, nothing. I think nothing hurts more than the choices you make yourself that you later disagree with, especially and you can, you can curate fortune. I mean, fortunately or unfortunately, you see your bathroom tile every day. I made a choice when I moved into my house to paint the exterior dark gray, which I don’t regret, because I like it. I would do it olive green now, but I don’t hate it.
Della Hansmann
But I left the replacement windows that a previous owner had chosen white, and so it’s white trim and dark gray, and it’s, it’s just that thing. And since I have lived on this block, I’ve watched my neighbors move in, and several of them have copied this pattern. And I’m like, you don’t know how much I hate this detail of my own house. Please stop. I have to. I’m gonna have to summon the energy to find the right primer to paint over that replacement window metal and get it to be dark gray as well, because I just can’t let another person think this is a good idea. It hurts me so much.
Aletha
We did taupe windows. And then last year I finally painted them brown, and they look like, perfect. They look great. It’s so sharp. Yeah, so great. I’m like, oh, which led to the interior changes this year. I’m like, I love the outside now. I love it so much, but the inside and I’m like, it’s time, it’s time.
Della Hansmann
It’s a cascade. Well, that’s really fun. That is created to sort of a waterfall moment for you, um, and you’ve been, you’ve been working on more projects that you manage yourself as well. You’ve got a rental property. Is that different or connected to the office property?
Aletha
The Office in the rental house are on the same property, and it’s, it’s been fun, but very challenging with our township and all of the legal jargon as far as it’s a house and it’s a building, and, you know, it was a grocery store. It opened in 1951 in the house is built after that. So unfortunately, it’s just they don’t really want us to use it as an office. They really want us to just pretend it’s a big, giant garage. And so it’s been back and forth.
Aletha
Della I would I should cry about how much time we’ve spent and trying to just figure it out. So now it feels like it’s still in process. We’re still going for it’s right around the corner from our house. It’s super close, so it’s very convenient. And my spouse works there, like every day, like working, working, working. So trying to get it so it’s not falling down anymore and raining inside and all of the things. So, yeah, it’s really fun, but it’s been a long, almost six years of working on it.
Della Hansmann
Oh, wow, yeah. Well, these projects can really be a labor of love. And of course, well, I want us to talk later about mid-century sort of society and social development and zoning comes into that. And the way that we still think about zoning in this country is really frustrating because it’s so singular use and not at all the way it makes it practical sense to live our lives in an integrated, un car necessary way, but, but it’s fun that you’ve got these projects where you get to have autonomy over how the choices get made, which is great, but you also work with other people.
Della Hansmann
So talk to me about how you went from I’ve done a project for myself. I found a cool house. I’ve highlighted some great things about it. Other people are asking questions about this. What was your first transition? Where did you jump in? And then how’s it gone since then?
Aletha
Sure, it was super specific. I had a woman in a neighboring town reach out, and she must have followed me online or something. I honestly, I wasn’t, like, advertising. I was doing this. She was like, Hey, I have this cool house. I’d love to hire you to help me. And I’m like, oh, no, I You couldn’t hire me. I had; I had a different business. I was doing event planning. And so I’m like, No, but I was swinging by. We could, like, talk about what, you know, what I would do if it were my house.
Aletha
And I walked in the door and I’m like, Oh my gosh, I know exactly what I would do. I would do this. You have all these different trims. They’re all different colors. Like, let’s just make unify everything. And I think I probably still have it on my computer somewhere, but I typed up like a 12 or 14 page like list each room, what I would do, how I would do it, not no subway tile, for sure. You know, all the things that I had learned in my own renovation, right?
Aletha
Probably within a year of moving into the house and really being like, Oh, dang, I made some choices that were wrong. And I don’t think anyone ever called me out in the internet of like, this was a terrible choice. I think people, most people, are kind enough, you know, like, Y’all eventually realize that was wrong. Um, but I definitely was like, Oh, this was a terrible choice. So I went into that, you know, just kind of like a freebie project, like, let me see. Then after that, I was like, Yeah, I should have charged her some money. This took me hours.
Della Hansmann
Oh, yeah.
Aletha
And not that I would send her, like a scary bill or something, but I was like, I’m totally charged for just advice, you know, like, right? And then that kind of an acquaintance of mine. Then had a an inquiry, and she’s like, Aletha could probably do this. So I did one, and then someone reached out about a kitchen, and it just kind of went from there. And I think that was 2015 2016 I’d have to look but I was like, Oh, okay. So then I slowly closed my event business and then started just doing houses full time.
Aletha
And you know those, I’m sure you’ve had things published, projects, published before. And so then people are like, can we publish this? And I’m like, absolutely, that would be great, right? Um, that starts. And then I reached out to a few places with photos, and then, yeah, I just felt really legit after a certain point. You’re like, okay, I guess I’m doing this now. And my parents are like, What? What are you doing here, closing for other business? And I’m like, I mean, I can only my brain. Can only focus on one business at a time. I’m not a multi businessperson.
Della Hansmann
Oh, that makes so, I mean, yes, the business part of running a business is so much and so pulls you away from the fun thing you’re trying to do. I can’t imagine running the administration for two at the same time. That would be madness. And if your parents are anything like mine, they they’re from the baby boomer generation. They probably just don’t see mid-century. I’m wondering, has this changed? Mine didn’t, and now I’ve kind of incepted them with the idea, but the you’re going to you’re going to focus on what kind of houses you get that question.
Aletha
Yeah, I think so. I think from lots of people like, what I’m like, yeah, it’s a really narrow, a narrow segment of homes. But this is what I do. People like, Oh, I do think it’s gotten more popular though. I remember speaking to a group of Realtors back in, I think 2016 just about how to classify homes as mid-century modern, or mid-century modest, or mid-century like colonial, because, oh, all of the different things, or Tuscan or whatever we’re looking at. And they were like, Huh? I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it that way.
Aletha
The houses aren’t that old, so they don’t seem that interesting. But someone always says the oh, it was Pam, a retro renovation. I think she would always call it the recent past, right? You know, it’s historical, but it’s more recent. And I always thought that was a good way to say, like, we’re not talking about Victorian era homes 100 years ago, 150 years ago. We’re talking about, like, people that were born in these, you know, people that are still around. Clearly, our parents were born in the midst of, yeah. So yeah,
Della Hansmann
Absolutely, and, and it’s as we continue to go forward in time the age accumulates. But I think that the requirement for historic designation is only 50 years, so we’re well beyond that moment for mid-century. It’s hard for me to see that things that were built in the 80s, in the 90s, and the 2000s that they’re going to have, I don’t know. I don’t want to be that person who’s like back in my day, but, but I don’t know that they have the construction quality or the design consistency to have the same staying power.
Della Hansmann
Certainly, if I think about sort of schools of architecture, post modernism is an interesting concept, but it was built in materials that are already so in such poor condition that I just can’t see that there’s gonna be anything there to preserve, If anyone even wanted to. But the mid-century era, these houses were built right in a new way. And they have, they have so much to love about them.
Della Hansmann
And so you really get to focus you like me, have a business that is all you do is mid-century. Come to me if you want mid-century. If you don’t want mid-century, enjoy your life and find somebody else to help you with that you with that. So I’m really curious what your philosophy is as you work with people on do you generally work on houses that have something to restore, or are you sort of recreating as you go along, because it’s had a bad remodel in the past? What tends to happen and how do you approach it when you when you start a new project.
Aletha
Most of my clients hire me to do a kitchen or bath or combination, or we do one, and then a couple years later we do the other. So I would say a majority of you of my clients have a remodeled kitchen or bath, and we are taking out something that was put in in the 80s, 90s, early aughts, and we are trying to reimagine what it a better working kitchen would be, and what was here originally I always talk about this is what I would assume was here originally, based on XYZ.
Aletha
We do not need to create a mid-century museum for you to live in, but what makes sense for your family. Now, if you’re talking about like, oh, well, we’re going to sell in five years, well, what would make sense to a family that would fit this house? You know how families have changed so much. You know, back then, every all the kids shared, most kids shared a bedroom, yeah. And now today, we look at a two bedroom house, three bedroom, three or four bedroom, you know, they’re probably not going to have six kids in three bedroom house.
Della Hansmann
Right? It’s probably going to be a couple that work from home,
Aletha
Right? So a kitchen doesn’t have to seat, you know, five seven people for dinner every so it’s just different. Of that has changed too. So I do mostly kitchens and baths and yeah, I would say a majority of the people have something we’re taking out that is not original. I have taken out some original kitchens that have worked hard for 70 years. They’re they’ve been repaired. They’ve been, you know, and it always pains me a little bit, because it feels very against what I feel about really, but I know that the person really, and what we’re putting is it’s going to last, hopefully another 50 years.
Aletha
Um, you know, wood is different today than it is that what is then wood cabinets, some, sometimes I get veneered, but sometimes I’m taking out solid wood, and it feels really bad. Um, but I understand. I can understand all the things. And I always say, this is your house, not mine. This is what I would do, but we will do what you want to do. You’re paying you live here. These are the things.
Aletha
So it’s me just kind of guiding people on what I think was there and what I think would be the best way going forward. And then, you know, in the end, of course, they pick the layout they want. I offer numerous layout options. I think we do the same, yeah, ABCDE. Like Which one, which one looks good. I got a few clients pick exactly the same layout they already have, which is always fascinating. I like, Really, okay? I mean, that’s fine, but okay.
Della Hansmann
For some people, it’s funny. My mom has recreated the same kitchen layout in every kitchen, and I designed my parents at home from scratch. And it’s, I mean, it’s a different looking kitchen, but it’s the same kitchen layout she always has, of the U shape with a butcher block in the middle. And it’s just how she works. So, yeah, it’s it. I do. I also I show people options. I try to limit it to three. I find I give people too many options. Yeah, they go into a conniption.
Della Hansmann
But, but I think, yeah, ultimately, you need to let people sit with something and decide what’s going to work for their family. No matter how many questions you ask in advance, you can only sort of estimate what’s going to actually land. And so letting them sort of lean into something that works, it’s so important.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, when you so I’m curious, I think, from my perspective as an architect, and I know everybody that listens to the podcast has questions about, what does it mean to work with an architect, to work with an interior designer, they are different processes. So where do you kind of start and finish with your hand holding with the clients? You begin with a kitchen that needs work, and then where do you end?
Aletha
So when a kitchen, they want to replace the whole thing, which is usually why they wouldn’t hire me, I start with layout design. So we do three different layouts, and, you know, kind of go back and forth on what would work for them. And I do everything electronically. I think you probably do too. So I’m not drawing anything by hand, but we lay everything out. I would say that my drawings are not precise down to the millimeter or anything like that. It’s basically like, this is the layout. And once we have that finished, we bring in my cabinet maker, and I have a few that I’ve worked with over the years, and then they do precise measurements.
Aletha
No one is making a cabinet based on my measurement I took that day with laser real quick, like, no, not going to happen. So, but we know the basic layout, and then we kind of lay out exactly where the cabinets are. Yeah, we know where the sink is going to go, but where’s the trash. We’ll figure the trash layout when we get this on the floor. So, so Well, my cabinet maker does all of his estimates as far as cost goes, and you know what the actual layout of each specific cabinet is going to be, then I start on the design, so color of the wood, backsplash options, the countertops, the poles, the sink faucet, the actual sink.
Aletha
Some kinds are pretty particular on appliances, but also I usually meet them at my appliance store and we pick everything out together. Um, I prefer everything integrated and seamless with cabinets. But that’s not everyone’s price point and not everyone’s preference. So we talk through all those details, and there’s a ton of meetings, just like, you know, at the countertop place, and you know, all the all the things that I do, and I think I don’t know how involved you get with, like, those selections, or you’re just like, quartz will be great.
Aletha
Whatever color you want to do is fine.
Della Hansmann
I don’t in my in my sort of boiled down version of I used to work in high end residential and we would not necessarily meet on site with people about those, but we would do all of those selections and to make a master plan affordable to people. What I do now is make a Material Palette recommendation and then leave product selections open to them in the process. I do for some clients, go further and get more into the weeds after we’ve concluded our master plan package, but I work from a fixed fee model.
Della Hansmann
So I have to kind of put a boundary on where that goes and because we often work remotely these days in the in this post pandemic era. I can’t be on site with someone who’s in California or Washington State, sort of walking through appliance stores, but I love the concept of getting to pick all those details. So it’s always the thing I’m most wistful about when I think about an interior design process, is getting to be in that moment of like, I really, I recommend this specific thing, this product, this exact stain, that sort of thing, because those details make such a big difference to the ultimate outcome.
Aletha
And I have, you know, a very basic formula. It’s the same cabinet; just whatever color we’re staining it. You know, I love fire to play tile. I love that they have all the colors, and I love that they have the trim pieces. That’s actually the most important part to me, especially with the bathroom, um, yeah, and the size and the shape and, you know, tile back splashes in a kitchen were very rare.
Aletha
So that’s always where I feel like we can do something a little more fun that definitely feels fresh and new and updated for a very mid-century, otherwise looking pictures. So, yeah, yeah, I help with all of those design details. And I had a client probably a year ago just hire me for a backslash she could not come up with the backslash she wanted. It was a mid-century colonial, so I probably wouldn’t have taken her on as a full kitchen client anyway, but it was great, you know, she kind of told me what she liked, and then she just couldn’t find exactly what she wanted.
Aletha
So I don’t do a lot of just hourly consulting. I do more like flat fee, and that my kitchen is based on a flat fee as well. So there, yeah, there’s an outline of what that is, and it works well. But some clients need you to hold their hand on everything, which is great. And some clients are, oh, we already have our appliances picked out. I’m like, Okay, well, that saved me a trip to, you know, the appliance store. So, Mm, hmm, yeah, but all of those really pretty things, plus the layout, I know you also do that part, and, yeah, I don’t it’s not my favorite part, because it’s more fun for me to pick out all the selections.
Aletha
But what I realized is, most people cannot lay out a new kitchen because they are looking at the kitchen that’s there and that’s all they can see.
Della Hansmann
Right? It’s overwhelming to the average person. They can’t see through a wall. They can’t adjust what it would mean to change up the cabinet footprint and that’s such a loss to replace in place. Occasionally, it’s the right choice for someone. But if you’re going to do all of the work, if you’re taking everything out of a kitchen and starting from scratch, starting from scratch and you put it back exactly how it was, it’s such a missed opportunity.
Della Hansmann
And I’m sure you see this all the time with those 90s kitchens, that they have all of the awkwardness of the original mid-century layout, because someone just took out the original mid-century cabinets and plopped in new formaldehyde box cabinets with a wrong finish. So it’s the worst of both worlds. It’s inauthentic to the period, but it’s still that awkward, housewife only layout, which is so silly.
Aletha
That was my first kitchen client. She actually called me down to her house to go over a dining room design while I was there. She’s like, Oh, we’re gonna replace the kitchen. And then she bust out the plans, and I’m like, Wait, you’re this whole kitchen. I’m putting in the same kitchen. Wait a sec, you there’s the opportunity here to make this, yeah, and we did. We did a really cool with a big island, and it was the same exact footprint. We didn’t make anything bigger. We just opened up the U to open galley, is how I would describe it. So, yeah, it was funny. And so she became my first kitchen client, kind of by accident, and I felt a little bad to whoever had proposed the other option. I’m like, I mean, but if this my house, I’d at least look at a couple other layouts. So
Della Hansmann
Yeah, I mean, I’ve run into that before as well, and I never want to speak ill of another designer, but I do think that there are a lot of people out of people out there who just haven’t given any thought to the specific challenge of a mid-century house, and we have, so it’s never inappropriate to give advice based on that, I think.
Aletha
And I don’t think that person was a designer, so I didn’t feel bad. I think it was just like a kitchen come, you know, a kitchen company, or even someone, a contractor, who happens to sell and rep these cabinets. And so I don’t know if it was, it definitely wasn’t another designer in that thing, in that it’s Yeah.
Della Hansmann
And that’s that is also so often. The trouble is that there isn’t a designer, and that, again, it’s such a wild missed opportunity, because we have a fee. It’s not nothing. But the idea of going to the entire expense of a remodel without having invested any thought whatsoever in design is such madness. It’s It blows my mind every time, every time I encounter it, which I constantly do, I just, I can’t even, I can’t even understand it.
Della Hansmann
But then, but yeah, so there’s the layout, which is, as you say, such a huge opportunity. And then you get into the details. Do you help people pick things that aren’t attached to the house, decorative objects? I know you do a lot of fun thrifting and finding art pieces for yourself. Do you do that for clients as well? Or is that something that’s more passion project?
Aletha
I do a lot of like, right now, I’m working on a basement for a client, and they took out, oh my, a 1970s mid evil themed basement. I’m not joking. There were nights in reliefs in it was insane. I was like, I’ve had one other client with a kitchen that was medieval themed that we did a really great yeah, it must have been a thing I haven’t dove into the like the weeds do that. But it was, it was very strange.
Aletha
So we gutted it, we took it all out, and we’re doing like a fresh it’s going to be nice. It was so dark. It was like a it literally was like a medieval castle of Dungeon. That’s what it felt like when you were in there. So it’s all nice and bright now, but all of their things, they were, they’ve been really awesome clients, as in, they love all the vintage things I can find for them. So for them, they’re about 40 minutes from my house, so I’m not like out and about, but I am looking on marketplace and Craigslist and, you know, secondhand option and sending photos from the thrift um, like, Hey, I found this giant piece of art. And. $40 that would work, you know.
Aletha
Or, here’s a really cool sculpture we could put on this wall. So I am deaf, so for the right client who wants to really dive into those, you know, vintage yet cool, but they’re not going to be perfect. You know, all that vintage stuff, like, isn’t perfect, so you have to be cool with like, well, it’s missing a piece, but it won’t. Noone will notice for us because we’ve talked about it. Um, so, yeah, I definitely am finding those things. When the client is up for that, I will say, I definitely have clients who want nothing vintage. They just want new stuff that looks vintage. And that’s fine.
Aletha
There’s also the part of like, you have to be able to go pick up these vintage things, you have to drive 30 minutes, or you have to be home to take a delivery. I mean, there’s lots of there’s lots of and I didn’t really think about that because I work for myself. So if I want to run 30 minutes away to pick up a tiny teapot, I can do that at any time. Right? My clients are like, I can’t just leave the house to go do, or my office to go do this. I’m like, oh, yeah, that’s right. We’re not all self
Della Hansmann
Absolutely.
Aletha
Um, so it has to be, yeah. So I have different kinds. I want to do different things at the end, if I come in and, like, style built ins or something, I usually, I have a lot of things that I can pull from, and I will just, you know, I will bill them for whatever they want. So I’m not, like, marking any of that up. I’m like, oh, it looks like I paid $1.50 for this. Like, tchotchke, do you want it? Like, I’ll only charge you $1.50 because it’s been sitting in my basement, and it’s really and then they’re like, another thing, sure. I’m like, Yeah, cool.
Aletha
Um, but, you know, I don’t keep a bunch of stuff on hand for clients. Specifically, I think that if I get my building up and running, that would be a fun I would love to have plans like come in and shop it like, whatever. Oh, yeah, you know what, your eye, and we’ll just pull it. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point where I just have so much stuff, because stuff is overwhelming. Yeah, just don’t like it all, yeah, so we’ll see.
Della Hansmann
Well, that’s really interesting, yeah, and getting into that level of detail, I think it was from you I learned the term drape training.
Aletha
Oh, yeah, I just did that.
Della Hansmann
It’s so interesting. Like, absolutely, the minute I read the words, I was like, Oh, of course, yes, and but then, of course, with as an architect, I only have blinds in my house because minimalism. But I love, I love the concept. I still think back to my grandparents lived in a perfect time capsule, 1953 it wasn’t fancy, but it was like a slightly elevated classic Midwestern ranch in Racine, Wisconsin. And it had every it really was unchanged since probably 1960 something, all of the drapes, all of the furniture, every piece of art. And I, I have their bedroom set, which I asked for from the family when we were breaking up their household.
Della Hansmann
But I wasn’t obsessed with mid-century then and now I’m like, I want to go back in time and take every single object out of their house, including their gorgeous, slightly tattered, but still so charming, pinch plate curtains that went across the whole living room window. Oh, love it.
Aletha
Think you can see the ones back, yeah, in mine. And I only have a panel here because I didn’t have enough of that fabric to do the full this is like 12 feet of window behind me. You just leave it open. But I did just, I Well, and then I have a shear behind it. So at night we pull the shear. It’s kind of hiding behind it. But I did just find secondhand drapes for the new color scheme out here. And they’re from, like Jace petty, but they’re, they’re, a, they’re a faux, you know, raw silk, so they, they match the fireplace, weirdly, like, exactly, I’m, like, for $80 Do you know how much 12 feet of pinch pleat drapes would be? 1000s, and I would gladly pay it if I didn’t find secondhand ones, because they make the right they are, oh, I, I love doing drapes.
Della Hansmann
It’s the necessary for, if you if you want your true vintage mid-century Time Capsule house, then, then it’s the detail that absolutely I agree it makes or breaks it. That’s so fun. Yeah.
Della Hansmann
Well, this might be a good place to transition as I talk about things that I learned from you and your Instagram account, because I think actually one of the first conversations we ever had in DMS was about terminology, and it was about the color, Cherokee red and Frank Lloyd Wright and how probably we shouldn’t be taking his word for it that it was okay to adopt that term and just run with it. I don’t recall whether you suggested Usonian red as a good alternative, but we were having a conversation about how that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. And I know I also picked up from you the concept of its kind of creepy to call it a master bedroom, and maybe we should think about it as an owner suite instead, or a primary suite, or something of that kind, which I now have like adapted all of my documentation language to match that.
Della Hansmann
But I know you have really made a point to have your beliefs and your political activism have a presence in your online footprint. I so admire that. So I know you’d mentioned you have thoughts about mid-century history and social times and how we deal with that now.
Aletha
Yeah, I don’t. I’m definitely not an expert in political of mid-century, anything, but I definitely have enjoyed, not enjoyed, but appreciated learning more. And I think, I think the redlining was the biggest eye opener to me of how people I’m getting I’m getting teary just talking about it. How crazy it is that people were not allowed to buy a house because they were not white. Yeah, that low, still, it was not that long ago, and it blows my mind.
Aletha
I think of a specifically of black servicemen coming back from war and not being able to buy a house I know because they are black or Asian or Native American. I It is insane to me that that was like in my grandma’s lifetime, in my mother’s lifetime. It’s wild to think about, and we were just fine with that. I’m like, what? And it just took a lot. And we are not out of those weeds yet, maybe the red lining.
Aletha
No, we’re not, but we don’t. We don’t talk about it quite that way anymore. I think, well, and in some ways, we don’t have to, because we built the home ownership structure of this country around who could and who could not get into affordable homes and where those homes added value. And now it’s just, oh, it, it just happens that only white people live in this neighborhood. But it’s not by accident.
Della Hansmann
And knowing that is really important to understanding why things are the way they are in their in our history and in our current society.
Aletha
And when we were looking for homes in 2012 you know, we wanted to be in a quote, unquote, good school district. And what does that mean? What is a good school district? Yeah, saying it out loud is not good. It is. It is mostly white school district, right? When you say it’s good, and that doesn’t sound good.
Della Hansmann
And it’s so easy for people to just take it from a realtor who can, even with the best intention the world’s just casually rattle off, oh yeah, this is a good school district here look in this neighborhood, whether they’re thinking about it today, I don’t even know, but yeah, my parents chose a house in a northern suburban Chicago school district because the realtor told them it was a good district, and yeah, we had a lot of tracked classes and opportunities to have special sort of after school activities and things like that.
Della Hansmann
But then, when we moved to Madison, when my sister was still in high school, and she ended up in an urban school that had a lot more demographic difference within it, she was at first really shocked, and then later came to become convinced that she was getting such a better education because she was actually experienced. Experiencing what it was like to be in the real world, and she still got to take great classes and have excellent teachers, and she also got into tutoring, and just Yeah, felt a little bit less like she was in a bubble where she deserved everything because she was a special snowflake, you know.
Della Hansmann
So, yeah, I think it’s so easy to take simple concepts, like, I want my kids in a good school district and use that to perpetuate totally Yeah, broken, bad systems that are so frustrating when we look back at the history of them.
Aletha
Yeah. And again, I’m not an expert, but I think it is interesting just to learn it and be like, Whoa. This is why my neighborhood is all white because no other families can buy here, and that’s really what it comes down to. And then you your family is right, like on my little street here, I’m the only person that didn’t grow up in this town and go to high school here, every other every other neighbor, there’s probably 20 neighbors. They all went to school here. They were raised here. They raised their family here, maybe not in the same exact house, but in this, you know, this small little school district.
Aletha
And so it’s like, Wait, you’ve never left Grand Haven ever like, like, that’s crazy to me, but a lot of people don’t, and then those legacies persist.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, well, I think it’s part of loving mid-century is learning what’s good about it, what’s bad about it in building materials. You know, there’s all this amazing the plywood is of a quality that hardwood isn’t today, and also there’s asbestos mastic under all the tile, and it was a such a forward looking, sort of optimistic era of positive future goals, sort of like the Jetsons, and we were all going to live in flying cars, and it was going to be perfect, and it was deeply segregated, and we were trying to push women back into houses and out of the workplace after World War Two.
Della Hansmann
All of these things kind of lock in together. So it’s, yeah, it’s important to be aware of it, I think, when you love this era and to talk about it, so I think it’s fun to talk about it on the podcast. I’ve had some fun digging into the history of well, I’ve had some educational times digging into the history of redlining and talking about that specifically and thinking about how our current values are or are not reflected in our houses and our choices, and for us to think about, you know, we live and love mid-century homes, single family homes, ranch style houses.
Della Hansmann
That doesn’t mean we can’t still support more density in our communities and more new construction and thinking about how people can be housed appropriately, as we are in another housing crisis, just like they were in the 50s and 60s when they built all these single family homes. But yeah, I think, I think all the things we can do to just sort of check ourselves and make sure we’re still living the way that we want to in these houses that are so beautiful is a good idea.
Aletha
There’s one area of my where I work a lot. It’s a small community, and there are a lot of mid-century homes there. It’s a very wealthy neighborhood. The schools are top schools, and they are very, you know, close together, so denser homes. And that is just, I don’t know, I don’t know the history of like that area. But I think when I’m there, I always think of, oh, wow, all of these neighbors seem to be very forward thinking and building a very modern home at the time.
Aletha
Maybe this area has always been more progressive and conservative, and I don’t know, because it was I was not born. I didn’t live in that part of town, even as a child myself and so but it is interesting just to think of the politics of each little area. I grew up in rural count, you know, area, mm hmm, way out in the country. And I have and whose parents grew up in the same town, and there, she just talks about, oh, my parents are so progressive. I have no idea why they ended up there. It was such a strange, backwards little town. I’m like, Oh, it’s so fun, like, I’m glad they were there and they were loud and proud. It wasn’t like they were keeping their feelings hidden.
Aletha
So, yeah, very interesting to just digest all those facts that I learned over the years about politics in different little towns. Why is this here? How did this happen? Why? You know, there’s lots of questions. So.
Della Hansmann
The why of things is, is really where it’s at, and how you learn to sort of connect the threads and figure out how one structural system is connected to a design result, or how zoning law influenced the way that houses are spaced, or, you know, all these different pieces that come together. And it’s part of spending a decade being obsessed with this moment in time that’s so true. And oh, that’s really fun.
Della Hansmann
So okay, well, I we have a limit and, well, we don’t really have a limit on how long a podcast can be, but we have a general length of podcast we’re probably pushing at this point, but I’m I wanted to ask you two specific questions, which I usually have in each episode of my podcast. And the first one is recommended mid-century resource, and that might be a design trick or a book or a website, a particular product, and then the other is a favorite mid-century design feature, so I’m completely putting you on the spot here. I apologize.
Aletha
Yeah, you are. That’s okay. If I were just getting started with mid-century, I would dive into Pam, retro renovation. Her website, I think she has such a catalog of information on bathrooms, all the expensive parts of anyone’s fault, bathrooms, kitchens. She’s got lists that, I mean, I don’t think she, she doesn’t update it anymore. Um, archival, but the archive, yeah, I totally agree. And she’s got links to products, and even if those links are defunct, you could still, like, probably Google what she had linked to before and probably find whatever it was. I know there was a really I’ve used it before, a really interesting, not interesting, a really simple bathroom vanity light.
Aletha
Um, I hate what is on the market today. I hate seeing a bulb. I hate all these clear things. Oh, they’re terrible. I hate them. Um, but there is one very simple, just bar light. It’s, I think SATCOM makes it. It’s just a simple glass. It’s 30 or $40 amazing. It’s the perfect light for every mid-century. Now, some people don’t want to only spend $40 rejuvenation used to make a really great one, but they have discontinued that, unfortunately. Um, but there, you know. So I know that. I know I found it on her site, and I was like, this is perfect at the time. It was probably 20 bucks. That’s probably 40 now, but that is a great a plethora of information. It talks about colorful tile and, you know, it just old appliances she has.
Aletha
So I always reference her website. Always, yeah, me too. There. I can usually, like, if someone ask me a question, I can usually quick. Google on her website, what I’m looking for, because I know I’ve read the article, grab the link for the person and be like, here’s your answer. Like, this is not my answer. This is Pam’s answer. Or she had Kate work for her for a while, it might be Kate’s answer too. So anyway.
Della Hansmann
Right? No, that’s such an amazing resource, and over time, so many people have responded to it that she really was able to crowdsource even more detail and background and accuracy. So, yeah, her retro renovation website, I’ll put a link to it in the show notes for the podcast episode. You’re absolutely right, and I don’t think I’ve talked about that recently. So that is a perfect jumping off point, or frankly, it’s a great deep dive for someone who wants to consider themselves a mid-century expert, it’s a good spot, yeah, for sure.
Aletha
I, when I started my own house renovation, I definitely started updating a blog with just what I was doing. I haven’t kept it up. You know, writing a blog is like a full time job, like, oh my god, yeah. I used to do that. Like, in 20, 2007 2008 I started my first business, and I was blogging because there wasn’t really social media to like, so you’re just blogging and linking and like sharing things. And I had a lot of readers, but man, after social media came in and you could just kind of mini blog, right? It kind of eliminated that. So I don’t write every day anymore.
Aletha
But anyway, yeah, so my favorite design feature, I’ll get back to your second question, I promise. And I it’s hard to pick just one, um, I would say exterior, definitely a breeze black wall, definitely, I would definitely, oh, I should have my little thing I have.
Della Hansmann
I was going to say I had that in my notes. You put together the hashtag I break for breeze block, which I should have a bumper sticker on my car saying that for safety, because I do and I’m dangerous.
Aletha
Well, I have a bumper sticker. I should send you one, because I still have a box. I made those. I just came up with my thing 10 years ago. I made a bumper sticker that says, I break through breeze black. I had sent them out to people who wanted them for, I don’t know, a while, and then I was like, I hate going to the post office. It’s stupid. I don’t like shipping things. So what am I doing? Um, anyway, I do have, yeah, I do have that cute thing. I seriously have a stack of them. I need to find someone that can just like, do the mailing portion for me. Anyway. Um, so that would be my exterior feature for sure.
Aletha
Interior, Oh, I love a good room divider built in planter, right? Oh yeah, lock in the front door. I had one client once that had this really, it wasn’t a planter, it’s just this room divider. And then it was a bookcase on both sides. And it was a pretty simple house, but this had remained there, and it was just such an eye catching feature that, yeah, I mean, a plant, an interior planter. I just have a little baby one on the side of my fireplace over there. But it’s still, like, so fun that it’s, I’m glad it stayed. No one ever, like, took it out.
Della Hansmann
That’s fantastic.
Aletha
Yeah, yeah, I’m settled on those answers.
Della Hansmann
I love those. I couldn’t agree more. I think those are great choices. And yeah, particularly with your palm springs connection. Freeze Black is it’s the thing, and it’s harder to find in the Midwest, but it does exist. So have you ever specified it? Have you ever asked sort of had helped someone install it? Or do you only love it in the wild?
Aletha
Oh, so. Pam, from Metro renovation used to have, she has a page there where she’s linked to all the ones where you could buy them in each state, I think. And I called to get some for myself, one and I called the one in Grand Rapids, which is closest to me, and they were like, we just pulverized those a couple of weeks ago, because they’ve been sitting in our yard for years, and no one ordered them, so we literally, like, ground them down to just concrete us. And I was like, okay, um, so I actually did Greg and I, my spouse, we, like, went down an hour south of here and rescued someone, but they were all full of mortar and like it would have been a giant and they sat in my backyard for years, and then I gave them away to someone else.
Aletha
But I did buy some new ones from a woman in here in town that she had gotten some leftovers from someone else’s project. So I have they moved around. I have a stack of them that we’re going to install over at our rental, but I have never done it for a client. I’ve had clients with breeze block walls that we’ve, you know, used and loved and made look better, but I’ve never installed them for a client. But I have installed a couple of planters. So that’s easier to do. It’s easier to do. Easier to find Roman brick that Matt, you know, that matches their fireplace and house. And so I have done that a few times.
Aletha
And that is, I have a great Mason that will, you know, he’s like, I know what you want. I take those out all the time. I’m like, I know it’s that should be a. Y’all, but I hear you.
Della Hansmann
Oh my gosh. If it could be, or if there could just be, like, a moment where you just sit someone down and say, like, this is what this is, and this is how hard it is to put it back. And are you sure? But people’s homes are their homes, and I’m sure, I know you’ve, you’ve talked about it, we’ve talked about it today. The choice someone makes for their own house has to be personal, even if we, as the designer, don’t love it, but we can make recommendations and show cool examples, and sometimes that’s what it takes.
Aletha
Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s all personal, but it also, I am like, ooh, this, yeah, the same thing you just said, like, this is how much it would I think that’s the hard part. You know, how much it would cost to replace an all tile bathroom in the wig.
Della Hansmann
And maybe that’s a good maybe that’s an argument that we should be making more often. Is that price point?
Aletha
Yeah, yeah,yeah. Like, I have people who definitely do not want a yellow bathroom or whatever. And I’m like, this tile is an excellent shape. You do not need to take this out. I hate yellow. I’m like, I get it like, maybe we could put together a different color, though, to make it feel not as annoying to you.
Della Hansmann
Right? And often, there is something you can do a complimentary color or tone it down or bring in some accent piece that makes it a little less, yeah, if you’ve got an original color block bathroom that is functional. It’s so hard to make them new. I know because I’ve had clients who’ve done it, but, but yes.
Della Hansmann
Oh well, I think the more we can spend time talking to people about what’s great about mid-century homes and just filling up little corners of the internet with better advice, so that people who are just starting out like we once were don’t make the same mistakes that we did.
Aletha
It honestly is why I’ve kept talking so I have a Facebook page called Mid Mod Mich and I used to write like 10 years ago or 12 years ago. I was updating my own house progress, and then I decided to start sharing houses for sale. And the point was that was, I wanted to call out all the features that should be saved. Like, hey, this has great XYZ and, and it’s the only thing I could figure out to think of to just like, put it out there. Yeah, these things are worth saving. And I know whoever buys it probably isn’t going to see my post and care about the purple bathroom or whatever, but I at least was trying to do a little part to just be like, Look at the built ins. Look at this. Don’t Wow. They’re unpainted, like, nicest way possible, just trying to call out those features so maybe it would get to the right person to not paint everything white. Do not pull out the room divider, to not Ooh.
Aletha
One thing I didn’t know when I bought my house is that I had limestone windowsills, not cement. I didn’t know that those were not concrete, right? Like, so those kinds of things I talked to my concrete man, could you fix this? He’s like, That’s not concrete. It’s limestone. I’m like, What is this limestone? You speak of? Oh, you can just still buy it. And so anyway, all those things that you learn over time, just asking are Yeah. So just yeah, just try and do what you can to educate but not feel like, don’t do this, young man, you know? So that feels like a balance. I would say.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, absolutely. And I, I don’t know, at this point, I feel pretty confident making statements to an Instagram reel like, never do this, because I’m assuming that anyone who really disagrees isn’t paying attention to what I have to say anyway, but, but I yeah, I think the more that we can just show people that there’s an option to preserve, the more people will feel comfortable doing that, and the better off all these great mid-century homes are, and there are a lot of them. But then, of course, the more that they get remodeled, the fewer original details that there are. So gotta call them out while they’re here.
Della Hansmann
Oh my gosh. Well, this has been such a pleasure to chat with you, and we’re just gonna have to do it again because we haven’t possibly plumbed the depths. But I just want to thank you again for joining me today. This has been such a delight and a really long time coming. Thank you.
Aletha
Yeah, cool. Well, it’s good to see you finally meet you. And yeah, this was great. We could totally go down rabbit holes of many, many things.