Blog - Page 24 of 35 - MidMod Midwest

Plan A Doable DIYable Remodel for your MCM Home

3 min readYes, you CAN plan the remodel your family needs right now. Meet challenging times by planning your home update as a Doable DIYable remodel!

You’ve had plenty of time to consider closely how your house is or isn’t meeting your family’s needs right now. It is clear that your home might need a few updates. But there are some new challenges tacked on to the process of a remodel at the moment. Still, I don’t want you to loose hope that you can make the changes you need. This is where the doable DIY remodel comes in.

Your Roadmap Thru a Mid Mod Remodel You Can Love

2 min readI made this for you: a roadmap you can use to plan a remodel that will be flexible through changing circumstances.

I thought about calling calling this weeks episode a guide to get you to your ideal remodel but in actual fact … its much more a roadmap through the remodel process.

Today I want to share with you the steps I see as absolutely essential when you’re planning an update for your mid-century ranch.

Collier Heights: Vintage MCM by and for Black Americans

2 min readWhat Collier Heights, a stunning MCM neighborhood built by and for Black people outside Atlanta Georgia, can teach about racism in America.

Today, let’s chat about the gorgeous mid-century modern neighborhood of Collier Heights in Atlanta, Georgia which was planned for, built by, and lived in by Black Atlantans.

Note: This isn’t a story about a silver lining to the bad situation that is racism. Nor is it any kind of an example of solutions that point the a way forward today. (We will not make America better by building better quality segregated spaces.)

Instead, I see the history of Collier Heights and the dedicated citizens who built it as example of making lemonade out of some pretty sour lemons.

Housing Discrimination and Racism in Mid-Century America

2 min readThere’s a dark side to the MCM era that we love … it was also an era of overt housing discrimination which cut Black Americans out of decades of post war prosperity building. Let’s talk about that today.

This isn’t the episode I was planning to record this week but I hope you’ll stick around to think about how the history of housing discrimination in America affects the mid-century houses we love and the world we all live in.

If your parents or grandparents bought a house in America during the post war boom years … they and you benefited from a system of racial oppression that encouraged white wealth building through home ownership with one hand … and held back black families with the other.

Mine did and I do.

Design Tips to Help you Fight Clutter!

4 min readYour house can’t help you sort what you love from what you don’t – its not a robot. But design can help you fight clutter by creating places the things you love where use use them!

So how has the battle to fight clutter been going at your house lately?

For me, housekeeping isn’t my strongest suit at the best of times but I do know that I feel better about life and myself when I’m not looking at to-do lists (in pile form) all over the dining table.

Some amount of clutter-busting will always be a form of #adulting but we can make the job harder or easier when the house we live in is designed a certain way. How can you design changes into your house that will help you stop clutter before it can start.

Love yourself? Love your home!

3 min readOur homes – where we spend the majority of our hours – profoundly shape our lives. That should inform the way we plan a remodel!

If planning a remodel seems like a superficial thing to be discussing right now, I want to tell you that I believe it is ANYTHING BUT. The space we live in defines our experience of life. Why not help that space be its best so that it can help us in turn. If you love yourself, you should love your home too.

It will love you back!

Basement Transformation for any Budget

2 min readYou don’t need a huge budget for a great basement transformation … all you really need is design skills. So let’s get into how you can create a great finished basement for your MCM home!

Need more space (desperately) but don’t want to plan an addition? What if I told you you’re sitting on top of doubling-your-square-footage right now. No, I’m not a Wizard. I’m just talking about your basement! Pretty much every midwestern house has got one and in a one story ranch they are the same shape as the house up above. Is a basement transformation in your future?

I’ll ask you this … are you making the best use of your basement right now?

Help your Home Multitask by adding Nooks and Alcoves

4 min readRight now, our houses have to do double and triple duty. Help your home multitask by adding in alcoves, nooks, and creating space around your activities!

So … it looks like we may be social distancing for a lot longer than we initially signed up for while we wait for our public health apparatus to catch up with the virus. That means, its time to make sure we have some good systems in place. Here’s how you can make your home multitask for you to fill the functions of office, school, play area, and its regular daily uses, as well!

Plan the Right Remodel for (and with) Your Kids

2 min readDesigning a good home for your family is all about planning for transitions. Learn the secrets of organizing a great remodel for (and with) your kids!

Today, we talk about how to plan for a remodel that can grow with your family. One of the things we can still do while we all #stayhome to flatten the curve is dream about and plan for the future. So let’s get into the details of planning a great remodel for (and with) your kids!

By the way, if you’re here for more practical advice on how to engage your at-home kids in design thinking, check out last week’s episode! That (plus some advice on how to re-arrange your existing spaces to make more room for everyone right now) was geared to the current Covid moment. This week we’re looking a little further ahead to how you may want to adjust your home for the future.

Creative Kid Spaces and Activities for the Stay Home Era

One of the many weird side effects of our collective corona virus precautions is that almost every kid in the country is home from school right now. Families are having to come up with new routines, creative kid spaces, and fresh inspiration to keep everyone active, happy and stimulated (and hang on to parental sanity if possible).