the midcentury ranch for a new generation
38 min read30-ish minutes to learn how to plan a remodel in 30 days?
Believe it! You can check off maintenance, meet a deadline and still get a remodel that enhances your home’s MCM charm and suits your life and family! Listen to my new workshop for all the speedy remodel planning skills.
Continue reading “Speedy Strategies to Plan a Remodel You’ll Love (in the time you have)”23 min readWant to mix Wright’s style into your mid mod remodel? Focus on simple, natural materials and (of course!) the color red.
Lots of mid mod lovers are also big Frank Lloyd Wright fans. And why wouldn’t you be? In the last podcast episode we explored how Wright’s Prairie School and later Usonian homes are cool aunts and uncles to modest mid-century ranch houses.
As you plan your ranch remodel, you can absolutely dip into Wright design ideas. Your house is actually already full of them!
Continue reading “How do I mix the Wright style into my ranch remodel? (Part 2)”When you love your mid mod house … but also like Frank Lloyd Wright for his Prairie and Usonian design … how do you choose? The great news is that you don’t have to!
Because here’s the thing: Wright’s Prairie School and later Usonian homes are cool aunts and uncles to modest mid-century ranch houses. You can absolutely dip into Wright design ideas when you plan an upgrade for your mid-century modest home!
Continue reading “Can I mix Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style into my ranch? (Part 1)”42 min readLet’s talk mid-century landscaping with a certified expert – Jim Drzewiecki of Ginkgo Leaf Studio.
I get asked about the right landscape design for a mid-century a lot.
And, while I do design outdoor “rooms” and have a landscape at my own house, I am far from the expert on designing beautiful gardens. Seriously…I only just succeeded in not killing (most of) my houseplants in the last couple of years.
So to tackle all your landscaping questions I called up a landscaping expert.
And big giant bonus? An expert who specializes in design for mid-century homes. Jim Drzewiecki, APLD, award-winning principal designer, is the founder and owner of Ginkgo Leaf Studio where he and Hannah Paulson design beautiful landscapes for all kind of homes.
Long story short: The best way to design a landscape to fit your mid-century house is to … listen to the house! Jim so good at doing just that. He’s interested in the shapes and materials on a good MCM house. And not locked into (probably) overgrown and (almost certainly) DIYed plant placements from decades of yore.
Continue reading “How to plan a Mid-century landscape…is that a thing?”31 min readThe best mid-century flooring for your house? It really does depend – on your taste, the size of your pets, the age of your kids and even your tendency to be a little bit of a butterfingers.
What is the best mid-century flooring for your house? I get this question ALL the time and I have a lot of opinions about it. But before I tell you about what I like and what I’d choose … we need to focus on you.
That’s because my answer to you, to my clients, to my students and to everybody who asks me this is …
It depends.
Now, when I answer this way, I’m not hedging or hesitating.
I do have opinions about and experience with many types of flooring in all sorts of applications. And strong personal preferences of my own!
But when people ask “What’s the best mid-century flooring?”, what they actually mean to ask is, “What’s the best mid-century flooring for me and for my house?” And that’s where it really does depend.
Continue reading “What are the best mid-century flooring choices?”26 min readTL;DR: Your remodel will probably take longer than you hoped, but you can shorten the timeline of the actual work by investing your time in solid planning!
One of the questions I get asked most often (right after how much will my remodel cost) is, hey, how long will my remodel take?
We all want a solid answer to this question before moving forward. But the reality is how long it all takes depends on how much of your house is affected, who does the work, when it starts and HOW DECISIVE YOU ARE ALONG THE WAY!
So … the answer is it depends.
But I’ve got good news for you as well as bad news, here. Because it depends on some factors you can predict and sometimes factors you can control with your own choices!
TL;DR: Your remodel will probably take longer than you hoped, but you can shorten the timeline of the actual work by investing your time in solid planning!
Continue reading “How long will my remodel take?”25 min readToday we are going a little more positive in our HGTV exploration. Because it is SO FUN to look at other people’s homes.
OK, so I spend a lot of time warning Mid-Century homeowners off of getting their ideas and advice from general shelter media. A lot of it is just not for us. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing we can learn from HGTV.
Home improvement shows (and magazines, and social media) give us lots of chances to look at other peoples homes. And to observe those people looking at lots of different homes. And even have the occasional good Mid-Century design idea. (It happens!)
Let’s talk about what we can learn from HGTV.
Continue reading “What we CAN learn from HGTV.”30 min readToday’s episode is going to be a love story to the wooden elements of a mid-century home. The main takeaway? Leave your original mid-century wood alone.
White paint on original mid-century wood work? Well, that depends. But in a well planned mid mod update the answer is almost ALWAYS … no!
If you have unpainted original wood in your home, set the paint brush down and step away.
You and future occupants of your home will thank you.
Continue reading “White Paint. It is STILL not the answer: Please don’t paint your mid-century woodwork”25 min readToday let’s talk about why slapping a coat of white paint on your mid-century brick, stone or concrete block is never the right answer.
Look … I’m going to get straight to the point. The internet is full of advice to “slap a nice fresh coat of paint onto your mid-century ____.” You fill in the blank: stone, brick, block, and woodwork. But in almost every case, white paint is NOT the answer.
Painting over stone (and brick or block) is a trendy, thoughtless, cheap (in a bad way) and very permanent move.
So let’s talk about why you keep getting that advice, and then let’s break down some of the mid-century materials in a mid-century house you should not paint over.
Continue reading “White paint is not the answer: don’t paint your MCM stone (or brick)”21 min readThere are key difference between cottages and mid-century ranch homes. Your ranch is not a cottage, so steer clear of trendy cottage style updates.
Your ranch is not a cottage and it never will be. These are two different types of houses right down to their bones to the floor plan that is, and right up to every little detail that makes each of these different types of houses great.
Modern cottage style (and it’s cousin pure white modern farm house style) are all the rage on social media, shelter magazines and HGTV right now. And there’s nothing at all wrong with those design choices … for houses that started out as cottages, farm houses, or with no style at all because they were built in 1980 or later.
But cottage style choices are just not right for your mid-century home. Let’s talk about why …
Continue reading “A ranch is not a cottage (and it never will be).”
