You don’t need a mid-century mood board.
There I said it.
Go ahead and feel free to make one, if it feels like fun to you. It’s just not the tool that is going to destress and simplify your remodel decision making. For that, you’re gonna need a style guide.
A mid-century mood board is the precursor to the style sheet that you’ll need, not a replacement for it. With just a mood board to set the vibe, you risk having too vague a vision and making choices that date your remodel.
A style guide boils down all your materials and patterns into a cohesive set of elements that make up your home.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE SUPER-SIMPLE STYLE GUIDE SYSTEM
Today’s post is Part THREE of the Four part series on the Simple Style Guide System. I’m going to walk you through each step of focusing your style. Doing this will make EVERY choice you face while remodeling 100% easier!!
If you haven’t done it yet, go back and check out part one so you can:
- Name your SPECIFIC Mid-Century Remodel Era and Update Style
- Steal Mid-Century Style Ideas to GREAT success!
- See why a Style Guide > than a Mood board for making your plans happen!
- And now …. Learn why a Style Guide will save you all the stress!
Grab my easy Mid-Century Style Guide Workbook to get yourself started on the sort and simplify process!
What’s the difference between a mood board and a Style Guide, Della?
Let’s start by defining our terms.
A mood board is a collage of product images, colors, and other visual elements that help to convey the overall aesthetic or feeling of a project or idea. So if you WANT to make a mood board for your project go ahead.
A mid-century mood board can …
- Set a vibe – Mood boards can help designers to visualize and communicate the look and feel of a project, from branding and marketing materials to interior design and fashion.
- Set your goals – Mood boards can be used as tools for personal inspiration and goal-setting.
- Check your tone – a well designed mood board can facilitate collaboration among team members, allowing everyone to share their ideas and work towards a common vision.
What it can’t do is simplify every decision in your remodel.
That’s what the style guide system is for.
On the other hand, a style guide can …
With a style guide you assemble a set of images that focus on just one design idea, one material, and/or one shape at a time.
Remember, my mission is to save all the mid century ranches from bad remodels.
A style guide helps me … and you … to do that. It will tally up the vital style details you need to save your house from trendiness. And simplify your mental process at the same time.
Your material style sheets will boil down all the materials and patterns – your look book into a look book. Like a packing list for a trip.
By taking your design ideas down to their component parts, you can stop looking at full pictures of other people’s homes and magazine photos with envy. Instead, start collecting the elements you like that add up to the whole home.
How to prepare your Style Sheet
This can be as simple as just zooming in on the specific part of a photo you like Or you can snap a photo of a material sample. Or hunt across the internet for an image of the material you have in mind.
You’ll gather images for all the elements that make up your remodel.
The wood finishes will you choose. The type or types of metal. Colors that will repeat or only be used in a specific areas. The shapes and lines of elements.
Here’s how to keep those mid-century details in your home.
Start your style sheets with some of the materials that already exist in your house and then slowly add in a few more that complement or contrast them.
Your whole mid century style guide is going to be made up of those individual pieces, organized in a way that makes it easy for you to turn to the style guide as decision points arise.
Use the style sheet process to think about materials and shapes rather than actual pictures of products. If you use a picture of a product, think of it as a placeholder, rather than a purchase agreement.
You may start with a metal element as the beginning of a style sheet, then add everything else that works with it. You’ll add colors, textures, wood finishes (both texture and stain color) and the wood type that will be used with the metal element. This can be particularly helpful for people who don’t trust their own style or their own color sense.
What comes next
Eventually you’ll feel pretty solid about the collection of materials you’ve got on your style sheets. Then you can turn to tracking down actual products: appliances, finishes, fixtures and more to make your home a reality.
Hello, to Modern Mid Century Style Lovers!!!
This week, I’m giving some love to mcm lovers who land in the modern camp.
You love the MCM era, but honestly your passion is sometimes more for the modern than the mid‑century. That can actually work out really well! As you create your style guide, focus on minimalism with a dash of fun. Simple square slats in a divider, but in a rich tone.
If you want a house that’s fairly contemporary, but still picks up on the design greatness of mid century era or you have a house built in the mid century era. You want to modernize it the right way.
Here’s the thing to watch out for.
You don’t want to end up sterilizing your house.
And you don’t want to fall into the trap of a trendy remodel that will go back out of date again in a few years.
Your watchword is going to be simplicity.
Some Modern Mid-Century update Ideas to try:
Reach back in time to other types of modernism. Look up art moderne, international modern, De Stijl.
Pull ideas from commercial design from the same era your house was built.
You will always go right by filling in the gaps in your home with original mid-century furniture or reproductions. Turn your attention to the furniture supply houses that license original mid century styles. That would be design within reach, modernica, knoll, etc.
Keep your subscription to Dwell magazine, as well as Atomic Ranch.
In the end, your home is going to look more contemporary than it will mid-century. But you’ll still borrow some of those lovely elements from our favorite era to think about.
To pull this look off well, you’re going to make sure that happens comprehensively. So you’re going to need a style guide.
If you’re pulling from the material palette of the mid century era, it will read as appropriate.
Listen Now On
Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher
Resources for creating your mid-century mood board style guide…
- Snag my Style Guide Workbook to get a jump on de-stressing decisions ahead of next week’s clinic!
- Grab my instagram guide for modern mid-century lovers.
- Sign up for the style guide clinic to learn how to build a style guide that is sure to improve your remodeling mood!
- Check out the book I was picking on – Ranches: Design Ideas for Renovating, Remodeling, and Building
- Learn how to get ready to remodel in 2023. Watch my FREE Masterclass, “How to Plan an MCM Remodel to Fit Your Life(…and Budget)”, ON DEMAND.
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
00:01
Once you’ve got your sources of mid mod inspiration sorted, you need to boil everything you liked down into its component parts. Doing this requires a tool with more finesse than a mid-century mood board. You need a style sheet or a collection of them. Today, I’m going to talk you through how that works.
00:19
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, you’re listening to Episode 1203.
00:34
Okay, here is part three of our four part midcentury style series. Make sure to listen to the first two before popping along to this one.
But to quickly recap, in the first episode, I coached you through identifying what mid century style means to you and pinpointing yourself on the two axis graph by knowing both how interested you are in preserving versus updating your mid century home.
00:55
And what your mid century moment is what year or era in history you’ve got in mind when you really get excited about mid century charm. Last week, I talked to you about what you do once you find what you like. You go find your inspiration.
And since I’ve explained in the past how to simply troll Pinterest (that’s episode 207) or Instagram (605) for great ideas. Last week, we focused on how to find one, or better yet a few, example homes and homeowners to admire and emulate. To steal from but not to copy.
01:26
Today we’re going to talk about how you avoid copying and avoid the remodeling sin of envy, which can lead to either dissatisfaction with your choices, overspending, or both. You can avoid that all with the use of a stylesheet. To help you make that happen. I’m re-sharing my free style guide workbook.
This is going to help you take those cool finished homes and original mid century designs you see in the world and break them down into the component parts you can freely emulate at any scale.
Plus, it will help you cut down on the craziness of the material selection process which will drive anyone bonkers, go grab that directly at midmod-midwest.com/styleguide.
02:04
Or better yet, grab that first and then make sure you’re signed up for next weekend’s design clinic on style guides for two hours (probably a little longer than that) on Saturday, April 15, I am going to walk you through the style guide process directly.
You can watch me put together a style guide in three separate styles in real time and follow along to create your own. This might be the most valuable design clinic I’ve ever given.
And I’m matching it up against the midcentury kitchen clinic where I basically condense five years of design experience into a two hour period.
02:34
Still, I think you need this one even more. It’s going to be amazing. And the early bird price expires at the end of the weekend. So go sign up right now. As always, you’ll find the show notes with links to the references, the transcript and everything else at my website at midmod-midwest.com/1203.
So, today I am going to talk you through how to get from inspiration you see in the world to actual choices you make in your home. Your secret weapon is the material stylesheet collections you’ll make in your style guide.
03:04
And I hear you thinking, “Right. Okay, make a great mid-century mood board.” No, a mid-century mood board is not what I’m talking about here. Although feel free to make one, if it feels like fun to you. It’s just not the tool for this job. Let me backup a minute. Let’s define our terms. A mid-century mood board is a collage of product images, colors and other visual elements to help convey the overall aesthetic or feeling of a project or an idea. They can be used for a variety of purposes.
03:33
In a remodel, it might be used to set a vibe, you could use it to synthesize what you’ve learned about your preferences in terms of preservation style and your most beloved inspiration points. A mood board can help a designer to visualize and communicate the look and feel of a project from branding and marketing materials to any other element. It could also help you communicate within your own decision making group. You could use a mid-century mood board to set your goals. It could be a tool for personal inspiration and goal setting like a vision board for a new rock renovation project.
04:04
You could use it also to set your tone. A well designed mid-century mood board can facilitate collaboration among team members that might be you and me, or between you and your partner allowing everyone to share their ideas and work towards a common vision. Make sure you and everyone in your household agree on the look and feel of the project. So go right ahead and use a mid-century mood board for that.
04:24
Remember, though, that a mid-century mood board is the precursor to the style sheet that you’ll need, not a replacement for it.
And here’s why. The biggest risk for an “update” in a mid century house is that you end up making choices that matter more to today’s moment than they tie back to your home’s origin.
And that’s fine if your interest is only in fast fashion but it also results in a remodel that becomes dated very quickly. I’m going to pick on something that for other reasons I actually admire a lot here.
04:54
I’m going to talk about one of the most useful books for mid century home updaters which is ranches, Design Ideas for renovating, remodeling and updating classic American ranches by Louis Wasserman and Karen Connelly. Now, this is a lovely book. I think it was originally published in the 90s. There’s an edition from 2006. It has a wonderful exploration of the history of mid century homes and some really good ideas for tweaking layouts that allow people to live better in their mid century houses.
05:22
But when you look at the photos of the design example projects shown in the work, it is a body of work of a design team working largely in the 1990s and their mid century home updates are deeply infused with post modernism and other 1990s eras, era ideas.
They ripped off original trim and framed out new areas in white drywall returns, they ended up making a lot of ranches look like new builds from that moment. And I’m sure the homeowners whose houses are featured in this book were delighted with their remodels.
But today, these photos look distinctly dated. I don’t want that for you. And I don’t want that for your home.
05:59
Remember, my mission is to save all the mid century ranches. So while a mid-century mood board can help you set a tone, it isn’t going to tally up the vital style ideal style details you need to save your house from trendiness the way a stylesheet can.
Your style guide, your style sheets will boil down all the materials and patterns, your look book and effect, which will help you stop looking at full pictures of other people’s homes and magazine photos and start looking at the elements you like that add up to the whole home. This is why we use the style guide document in our projects.
06:35
And if you want to see how my team at mid mod Midwest does it. We’ll have a Canva template for how we do it within the style guide workshop that’s coming up next weekend.
Basically, the idea can be as simple as just zooming in on the specific part of a photo you like or you can be a little more generalized by go hunting across the internet for an image of the material, a walnut stained panel, something that makes you smile that seems simple that seems to convey just one design idea at a time one material and one shape.
07:06
It can be a little more than the simple you like walnut as a cabinet door finish, start there and develop outwards. Find elements that coordinate. You might do walnut cabinet doors and built-ins.
But then a warm mid century friendly Amber toned trim, you might choose to play with some of the materials that already exist in your house and then slowly add in a few more that complement or work with them. Your whole mid century style guide is made up of those individual pieces.
07:34
What wood finishes will you choose?
Which type or types of metal?
What colors will you include?
And how are they shaped? Clean lines versus fussy?
Do they have simple or ornate shapes?
An expert can glance at a piece of furniture or a faucet and tell you the exact decade of American or European or world history that inspired or originated that particular style. You don’t have to be that specific. In general, just know that most mid century objects have pretty simple lines.
08:05
But again, your personal style is based on what you like start from the mid century style quiz and then build from there. So you’ll think about the variation within what does a screen wall in a house look like you could draw and floorplan a simple knee wall near the entry with a screen element above it and just label it screen wall. Now two different people with different mid century style types that’s going to mean different things.
08:29
And a vintage mid century style that will probably mean widely spaced divider with sort of squared Knick Knack holders inserted inside of it might be made out of original dimensional framing lumber, or some finished material that was extra around the process of the construction.
The same concept a screen wall divider made of walnut in a mid mod fusion style, might be a densely packed arrangement of vertical slats set at a 45 degree angle to provide view in one direction and privacy from another. And have a bit of a jaunty, “We’re not all right angles here”, mid century flavor.
09:03
For someone who likes a modern mid century style. It will probably be simple square slats evenly spaced possibly with an unexpected rhythm of brass spacers going from side to side. Maybe it’s not a stained wood finish at all, but it’s painted white because a contemporary approach to mid century typically has even more minimalist in its minimalism and its details then mid mod fusion or certainly then vintage mid century.
09:29
I want you to use the stylesheet process to think about materials and shapes rather than actual pictures of products. Or if you use a picture of a product. Think of it as a placeholder, rather than a purchase agreement. When you’re thinking about materials and shapes, not products, you have freedom to tweak your budget. You can source vintage Philippine mahogany panels salvaged from a demolished mid century Frank Lloyd Wright home or you can get nice birch plywood from the local lumberyard and experiment with staining and sanding it until you get quite a lovely finish that resembles the unattainably high end look you loved in a magazine.
10:05
Now of course, I’m not saying that one looks exactly like another, but you can start to achieve the same overall style effect, with very different levels of budget input and energy level depending on what your priorities are. So you don’t need a specific custom made light fixture that you see listed for $1,000. In the latest edition of atomic Ranch, you can hunt the internet for one with a similar shape a similar color and find it at West Elm or even Home Depot and sub that in with competence knowing that it’s not going to damage or diminish your overall style. It’s going to be part of the whole that makes up what your home will look like.
10:43
Now, I want you to try hard to build your stylesheets. First, before you start tracking down those products, you’re going to get excited about this will help you keep your budget under control. Keep your project focused, and just save you the stress of all those individual decisions which can popcorn into total chaos in your brain. There are a couple of exceptions to that though. And here’s where I’m gonna give you permission.
11:07
In two cases, if you want to go track down a product that you saw in someone else’s home, and you must have that product in your home before you’ve put together your whole style guide before you come to the workshop. That’s okay, if one. This is what you need for instant gratification. If you see something inspiring in the world, and you just must track it down. That’s fine. I had an example a student on one of our office hours calls recently, she got inspired by seeing something on an Instagram account of someone she follows and loves actually the Jenny James. And she went out and found that specific product that that worked and purchased it and installed it.
11:43
I’ve spoken so many times about those level one product that can really give you the satisfaction to keep you moving on your home improvement projects. She went out and found a light fixture that she replaced an old light fixture that wasn’t working a new one in the style she loved and suddenly she felt so much better about the exterior of her home, even though she knew she had a long way to go.
So if you want the instant gratification hit of, “I found that product that made me smile, I bought it I installed it on my house and I’m happy.” Go for it. The other exception I will grant you is if you want to build your style guide around one or two pre chosen items feel free.
12:26
Another way to look at it is this can be your cheat sheet. If you have a particular tile you’ve been dreaming about for years for your kitchen backsplash, or a particular art object or piece of furniture that has a couple of elements, it might have upholstery fabric and color it might have wood that is finished with a particular finish. And it might have some metal pins or latch object on it.
Those three things together that color well the combination, the color, the texture of the fabric, the satin or shiny finish of the wood and the stain color and the wood type.
Whatever metal element there is, that’s the beginning of a stylesheet. And everything else can just be added on such that it works for it. This can work particularly well for people who don’t trust their own style or their own color sense.
13:09
If you want to use something like a multicolored throw rug, or a piece of art, use that and pull out the pieces that inspire you and build your whole style guide around it. This is a nice cheat sheet way to do it. But it’s not actually cheating. It’s just good planning. It’s being able to harness the design eye of the person who put that product together or that piece of art and borrow it to be inspired in your home. Again, great artists steal.
13:36
So if you were to construct a style guide entirely yourself, you’d be using a few simple choices you made at the beginning of the project to guide all the other decisions. If you use the aesthetic choices that someone else made for that particular product.
That’s just a shortcut to the same process, their skills composition, and I will guide your choices even before you finish making your style guide. The point is here that you’re going to have to take it beyond the midcentury mood board level. If you really want to simplify the decision making process of your remodel, you can use a mood board to get yourself in the mood.
14:09
But you’re going to need a style guide filled with style sheets, the material palette of your home in order to really focus and concentrate your style and to make sure you avoid the trendy mistakes and errors of past remodel moments. Now I want to talk specifically to those of you who score modern mid century on a mid century style quiz.
Hello to all my modern mid century lovers. I’m talking to you if you really love the design moves of the mid century era, but anything actually vintage reads as dated to you. And granny style builder basic Ranches are a total turnoff. That’s fine, there’s still room for you at the table.
If you want a house that’s fairly contemporary, but still picks up on the design greatness of mid century era or you have a house built in the mid century era. You want to modernize it the right way.
15:00
Here’s the thing to watch out for. You don’t want to end up sterilizing your house. And you don’t want to fall into the trap of a trendy remodel that will go back out of date again in a few years. Your watchword is going to be simplicity, reach back in time to other types of modernism.
Look up art modern, international modern, de stijl. And pull ideas from commercial design from the same era your house was built. You will always go right by filling in the gaps in your home with original mid century furniture or reproductions.
Turn your attention to the furniture supply houses that license original mid century styles. That would be design within reach, modernica, knoll, etc.
Keep your subscription to dwell magazine, you’re fine. And in the end, your home is going to look more contemporary than it will mid-century. But you’ll still borrow some of those lovely elements from our favorite era to think about. The good news is, you can actually very successfully update a house built during the mid century era into a modern mid century style. You can do it much more successfully than someone could turn a wrench into a cottage because that never works.
To pull this look off well, you’re going to make sure that happens comprehensively. So you’re going to need a style guide. This is by the way, a really effective response to a house that’s already been flipped. When someone else has come in and put curly crown molding and 6-panel doors in place of the originals.
And you have to come back and remove a lot of that cottage core HGTV nonsense from the house. You’re going to be making fresh choices. You can choose a comprehensive new modern style and apply it. If you’re pulling from the material palette of the mid century era, it will read as appropriate. I’m going to have a link in the show notes for you of mid century Instagram accounts. Go follow to get great ideas from modern mid century homeowners who share your taste.
16:35
So to recap, you’ve got your sources of inspiration sorted. And now you want to boil down everything you like into its component parts. And doing this requires a tool with more finesse than your mid-century mood board, you need the style sheet. Do not skip this step. No amount of granular or very full Pinterest boards will take the place of setting the material palette for your home plans.
16:56
And a mid-century mood board can’t do it for you either. Ideally, you want a style sheet for every room or space in your house. But they should all tie together in a way that makes the whole house feel comprehensive and cohesive. You can start small with one room or one space and develop it outward. Or you can begin with a general. Then make the most important material choices for the whole house then spin off slight variations for each individual space.
17:20
If you’re excited to get started graduating from your mid-century mood board to a true style guide, go ahead and grab my free style guide workbook. Find it and everything else in the show notes at midmod-midwest.com/ 1203. But here’s the most important thing. Go sign up for the style guide clinic right now. Go do it before you forget because the early bird price expires at the end of the weekend. I want you to be there.
17:43
Next week on the podcast I’m going to walk you through what it means to set a style. And how setting the style guide group layout in your remodel the exact same home the same family with the same lifestyle and the same floor plan can still have vastly different remodels. It depends on the style guide. This can work well in several ways to tune the house to exactly what you want it to be.
18:04
Or it can be a sad thing. The right remodel concept can end up getting dated and diminished. This happens if the unintended style guide is a style guide that was never actually decided on in advance . If it ends up being “whatever my contractor assumed I’d want because the last houses he did were HGTV remodels”. That is not the style guide for your house. You don’t want this to happen to you. And it won’t when you intentionally set a style guide and clearly communicate it to the whole team.
18:31
You could already have signed up and saved your seat and style guide clinic while I was telling you about next week’s episode. Did you? Have you? If not, go do it right now. I’ll wait. I want to see you at that workshop. Later mid mod remodelers!