“Architect vs Interiors” aside, when it comes to remodeling a mid-century modern home, it’s all about balancing the timeless with the timely! Whether you’re gearing up for a restovation hoping to pack in the original charm or planning to add something fresh that still respects the era, making the right choices can be nerve wracking so having the right pros on your ReMod Squad is a must
Enter Elin Walters of Exactly Designs. As mid mod pros, Elin and I both encourage mid-century homeowners to think about the long-term when making decisions about their homes. Elin’s philosophy is that mid-century design is classic for a reason, and changes should be made with an eye toward how they will age. She believes a guide is to ask yourself, “Would the original designers think this is cool?” If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.
Remodeling a mid-century home is not about creating a museum piece—it’s about making your home a beautiful, functional space that you’ll love living in for years to come. And if you ever feel stuck, just reach out to professionals who share your love for mid-century homes—they’ll help guide you in the right direction.
Elin and I both believe one of the best things about mid-century homes is how they effortlessly blend the indoors with the outdoors. One of Elin’s top recommendations is to keep (or add) as much natural light as possible. Mid-century design is all about bright, airy spaces. If your home doesn’t already have big windows, consider adding them. The more you can bring the outside in, the better.
If you’ve got original wood paneling, cabinetry, or tilework, try to preserve it. These materials are part of what gives mid-century homes their warm, inviting character. Even if they’ve aged, a little TLC can often bring them back to life. Elin shared a story about a client with a stunning yellow tile bathroom that was in great shape. It took some convincing, but the homeowners ultimately decided to keep it—and they’re so glad they did.
Just as we’re moving away from fast fashion in our wardrobes, we should also avoid it in our homes. Mid-century homes were built with quality materials and craftsmanship that can’t easily be replicated today. Before you replace anything, ask yourself if it’s truly necessary. Sometimes a coat of paint, new hardware, or even just a good cleaning can make a world of difference without losing the home’s original charm.
In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:
- How to mix materials like a mid mod master.
- What we’re begging you not to touch.
- Where modern touches are just what the mid mods would have wanted.
Listen Now On
Resources
- Find Elin’s elegant designs on her insta @exactlydesigns and website!
- Mid Mod Midwest and Modern House Numbers collab alert…it’s a Curb Appeal Clinic! Reserve your spot for our lunch and learn clinic on Friday, September 6th at 12 PM (central).
- Grab my Front Door Facelift checklist!
- Get ready to remodel with my free Masterclass, “How to Plan an MCM Remodel to Fit Your Life(…and Budget)” available on demand!
- Get the essential elements of my master plan process in my new mini-course, Master Plan in a Month.
- Want us to master plan for you? Find out all the details with my mini-class, Three Secrets of a Regret-Proof Mid Mod Remodel.
And you can always…
- Join us in the Facebook Community for Mid Mod Remodel
- Find me on Instagram:@midmodmidwest
- Find the podcast on Instagram: @midmodremodelpodcast
Read the Full Episode Transcript
Della Hansmann
If you regularly tune in to mid modern model, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what this architect has to say about the best way to keep or add to mid-century style in your home. But what would someone who specializes in interiors tell you?
Della Hansmann
Well, Elin Walters, of exactly design, is going to walk us through her favorite tips, tricks and philosophies for mid-century remodeling today, plus the flip side, what not to do for a mid-century home if you’re aiming for a good outcome, you know, a timeless, non-trendy one.
Della Hansmann
This is the first time Elin has been on the mid mod remodel podcast, but I’m already sure you are going to love hearing from her. Let’s get into it.
Della Hansmann
Hey there. Welcome back to mid modern 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 1809.
Della Hansmann
You’ll find a transcript of my chat with , plus I’ll be sharing some stunning photos of mid-century interiors that Elin has designed and coordinating construction on. Don’t forget to click through and check them out. You’ll enjoy them.
Della Hansmann
When you live in a mid-century house. You’re always looking for ways to keep what’s mid-century great, or maybe add something else. Today, I wanted to pick your brain about what are your favorite things to add, to keep, to encourage that really enhance or preserve or put back mid-century when you’re working on a design project.
Elin Walters
Okay? Um, nice. Thanks to have for having me. This has been a real treat. I’ve listened to your podcast forever, and love what you do, and it’s an honor to be here. So hello to everybody. Favorite elements? I mean, it’s, it’s so hard. I just love everything that is mid-century. I think it’s the simple design. I think it’s the tenants of like bringing out, you, bringing the outdoors and inside, using light floor to ceiling, windows, just simple design inventiveness. It seems like everything was sort of had a purpose, or was designed with a purpose, but not overdone. And then, you know, lots of color and geometry and natural materials. It’s, I just love everything about it.
Della Hansmann
It’s, it’s such a fun task to take a house that’s already got great details and then try to play off them and work with them, right? I get a bunch of really lovely houses that come with gorgeous mid-century details. And we also work with clients who have houses that are very modest from the mid-century era. And then we’re looking for ways to yeah them up a little bit
Elin Walters
Absolutely.
Della Hansmann
There are things you regularly recommend, or where are you and who comes to you to get help with this? In the title,
Elin Walters
I kind of deal with everybody full. Its’s um, it’s perfectly like kept and we want to maintain everything just as it is to I live in a I mean, I get some really weird ones, like, I live in a colonial house, but we want the entire inside to look mid-century modern. And I’m like, Okay, well, we should do that. So I think it’s things like wood paneling on the walls. I think it’s interesting simple backsplashes. I think it’s adding windows. Anytime you can add more light, it’s trying to meld that outside and the inside as much as you can.
Elin Walters
Yeah, I think those are kind of like some simple some simple ways to bring in mid-century.
Della Hansmann
I think it’s interesting because a lot of people are trying to balance they want a house. They want a house to be brighter, and the sort of HGTV instinct is cover it all in white paint, but I think more daylight, and then you can have darker materials.
Elin Walters
Yes, exactly, interestingly, right, right. Like you can use walnut anywhere, as long as you’ve got the light to sort of balance it out and not make it so dark.
Elin Walters
Yeah. And I think the play of using lighter woods and darker woods together can be interesting. You know, a lot of mid-century homes are the original floors, at least in the Midwest, is red oak or red and white oak, right? And it’s with the thin panels. But then sometimes having beams that are walnut is a nice contrast to, you know, bring using both shades of wood, and making a little bit more interesting, a little more depth.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, when I work with my clients, I encourage them to think about a style guide that has a limited palette of woods, but not everything needs to be the same.
Elin Walters
Exactly that, right, right, and kind of creating that flow. If the beams are walnut, then maybe the kitchen cabinets or walnut, or maybe the pieces of furniture or walnut, and then the rest is Oak. Yeah, there’s ways to play with it.
Della Hansmann
It’s nice. That’s definitely also something. I think people sometimes they want to get creative. I feel like people go in two different directions. They either flinch and they want everything to match, everything to be identical, yeah, you get a very cold design or boring, right? Thing is an interesting, individually selected item that doesn’t relate to the others, right?
Elin Walters
Like too much. Yeah, yeah, something right,
Elin Walters
It’s the simplicity with the with something interesting is the fun with the basic right? It’s, and I think the mid-century style did that so well, right? It’s like, using wood. It’s just sort of normal and not boring, but, like, you know, basic, and then this crazy back or a pink bathroom or yellow bathroom or blue bathroom, right? Like, there’s pops of things that make it have a little bit of flair, but then just some, you know, average elements of wood and brick and balance, right?
Della Hansmann
When you look back at the advertising from that era, they’re not talking about the most expensive, the most luxurious, they’re talking about it’s simple. It’s easy to take care of, right?
Elin Walters
It’s simple, it’s inexpensive, it’s easy to get, right? It’s four by four tiles, right? Basic, right? And you can get four by four tiles and have some fun with them, right?
Della Hansmann
So I think, I think it really does give. If we can get on board with that idea, and most people who like the results of the mid-century design might still well, this is actually interesting question.
Della Hansmann
Do you find that your clients are coming to you saying, Look mid-century, but very luxurious, or that they kind of have that, that brain worm of, like, high end something, I feel like so much expense into a mid-century design.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, right,
Elin Walters
Yeah, but I feel like the mentality is not luxurious, right? Like, like, this era was about good design for the masses, right after the war. So there was mass production, there was, it was, let’s knock them out quickly. And I feel like it was more for that middle class. And I think the middle class mentality has sort of like shifted through to now.
Elin Walters
So I don’t know about your clients, but my clients are very they’re not, they don’t even say the word luxury, but, but like we create luxurious environments that don’t necessarily cost a lot of money, but they look dialed right. They look amazing.
Della Hansmann
They’re cohesive. They match the era. I feel like they end up feeling design can bring so much,
Elin Walters
yep,
Della Hansmann
high quality feeling to a space that you don’t actually need to have the most expensive component.
Elin Walters
I mean, look, look at IKEA, right? IKEA, a great example of amazing design doesn’t cost very much. They have brilliant designers who design simple things, and you and everybody else can go buy it, because it’s not going to break your bank account, you know? I mean, I know I talk about IKEA all the time with my clients, that you don’t want to go there to buy your dresser, necessarily expect that you’re going to keep it for 40 years. It’s not going to happen.
Elin Walters
But a really well constructed kitchen with IKEA cabinets and then doors from another company, you know, semi handmade, or coquina, or modern twig or whatever it is. There’s gazillions of them. Now, can add that, that sophisticated flavor, but not, but again, not break your bank account, which I just Yeah, I love the possibilities of good design, right? And they can be had anywhere.
Della Hansmann
You’re absolutely right. And IKEA, also, I think some people still have that connotation of, oh, no, I got my college furniture there and it did not last but they know I know me. The rule of thumb is, if they’re designing it with a with a faux finish, it’s not so, yeah, the fake the dressers, not a good idea. These, these shelves behind me are grad school IKEA purchase, but they’re the same design IKEA has been making the Ivar shelves since the 60s.
Elin Walters
60s. Yeah.
Della Hansmann
I love the wood. I feel like the pine works. Well, the other pie in my house. I’m going to keep these in my office forever.
Elin Walters
it’s such a good way to, like, mix, you mix it all right? Like, I think in my designs, I tried to get a little vintage, I tried to get a little new, I tried to get a little, you know, like, what’s your investment piece? What? What are you going to spend a lot of money on? And then let’s not spend a lot of money on every single thing, right?
Elin Walters
Let’s go buy it at the garage sale. Let’s go look for it on Etsy. Let’s, you know, let’s curate something that is that has some soul, but also has some like, yeah, I got it off the shelf at Target, and it looks like it belongs there. You know, it doesn’t. There are no rules
Elin Walters
I guess.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, I like that. That actually feels so similar to the larger scale philosophy I have for my clients when we’re thinking about bigger design moves to make. Should we shift a layout should be Elevate, a ceiling should be on somewhere, right? I organize possibilities by the least you could do, up to the most you could do. And I always encourage my clients to think about probably you’re not going to be able to be able to afford doing the biggest idea in every part of the house. So let’s pick the area of the house that’s important to you with the idea that lights you up the most and invest there. And the same is true right down to the scale of the finishes and products. And yeah, eight decorative items you choose that some things you’re really going to put money and emphasis on, and other things can be a found object or a simple tweet, oh,
Elin Walters
you’re going in. Oh, Della,
Della Hansmann
oh no, now you’re frozen.
Elin Walters
Oh, I think we have a loose connection. You went in and out for that whole thing.
Della Hansmann
Oh, no,
Della Hansmann
I love that idea of choosing a couple of pieces that you’re going to really spend money on, and then other pieces can be found objects or Facebook marketing, because it’s the same philosophy we use in our whole house design with our clients, which is in some areas, you’re going to do the big splurging move, you’re going to elevate the ceiling, you’re going to elevate the ceiling, you’re going to create an addition. And in other areas, we might just need to make a little tweak.
Della Hansmann
And when people are choosing which direction to go in they you want to invest more of your money in some spaces so there’s really a sparkle. And then you can save money with smaller, little, sensible design solutions.
Elin Walters
Yeah, you know. And kind of on the heels of that is that I often tell people, kind of at the beginning, like, Let’s shoot for the moon. What would you absolutely love like if you could do everything and you had a million dollars, what would your house look like? And what would you what would you do?
Elin Walters
And then from there, we sort of like, dial it back, or it’s like, okay, let’s design it as if you wanted, you’re going to have all those things. And then I always advise that sometimes it’s better to chip away at it over time than to try to just get your the house in the first year that you live there, right?
Elin Walters
So do what’s really important, but then, and then save your money and then, and then do the next stage, because we’re all in such a rush. But there’s some like, the organic process is also kind of nice, and it’s also you get what you want in the end, instead of cutting corners or cheapening kind of on the front end.
Yeah. And try to think of like, for 15 years from now, did I make the right choice? Right? Yeah, instead of redoing it.
Della Hansmann
And I definitely am also in it for the I would not ideally the same person is living in the house that we’ve worked on this year, I have no desire to make changes to it, right, necessarily. Unless we’re continuing out on the master plan that we created, maybe they make no more changes in the lifetime they live in the house, and hopefully they can age in place in the house. The next person can change it or leave it, hopefully like it too.
Della Hansmann
We don’t need fast fashion in our houses any more than we need it.
Elin Walters
Exactly right, and especially in the day of you know, our environment is fragile, and do we want to keep redoing and throwing away and right, like there’s so many, there’s so many things to consider now.
Della Hansmann
Yeah, and this is part of the reason I work in remodeling, is that I sort of with the waste involved in new construction, and I feel like keep the structure, the location, the existing developed areas of mid-century neighborhoods. And we’re really doing something.
Della Hansmann
for
Elin Walters
Absolutely, absolutely marvelous. And, saving, right? And saving, it’s actually amazing things that already exist, right, that just need to be improved or preserved, or, yeah, beautified. Yeah.
Della Hansmann
And saving. And maybe it feels more richly developed than something that was new build, no matter how much craft.
Elin Walters
Right to build, the quality that these houses are built at and now would cost so much money, which is why all these, yeah, you know, paper houses are built. I like to call them. Like you could blow them over.
Della Hansmann
It’s
Della Hansmann
It’s absolutely true. Yeah, I really feel like the mid-century is from an architect’s point of view, it’s a sweet spot of we have the old world of materials, the old growth, pine and lumber and structure, and we have the old world craft, of like the people who knew how to do plaster, right? As a general thing, there are still people who can do plaster, but they are such rare birds these days.
Della Hansmann
A new energy of, like, of mass produced materials, and a modern layout. And, you know, the kitchen being, yes, a little bit of a separated space, but not a complete second class part of the house. So, right? Right. It’s, it’s that crossover, that makes a wonderful, a wonderful house to pour energy into and to really care.
Elin Walters
Yep, there’s already so much that’s great in these houses. So much.
Della Hansmann
Well, that, yeah, well, this is okay. This has been so much fun. We’re gonna have to do it all over again. And I think next okay, you should maybe, let’s not go negative, but maybe focus on, maybe next time, let’s focus on what not to do for your house.
Elin Walters
Yeah, great, right?
Della Hansmann
We both have opinions about that.
Elin Walters
Oh, very strong opinions.
Della Hansmann
Excellent. All right, well, let’s do it again soon.
Della Hansmann
So when you want to make great choices for your mid-century house, sometimes the best way to think about that is that there are a few things you should just absolutely avoid. Let’s talk about that today. You must have some, some pet peeves, some things you say no to or would not recommend about mid-century updating. What’s the top of your list for that?
Elin Walters
Top of my list is really just wanting to take out something wonderful, wonderful that was, you know, that was already there, that was original. It doesn’t happen very often, because most of the people that call me kind of have a great sense about the century and the preservation, and they’re excited about it, and they just want to make it better, or they want to modernize it.
Elin Walters
But every once in a while, I’ll get somebody who is just not quite in tune with just how special it is, or I had one situation where it was a couple, where the husband was super dialed like understood it, loved it. Wanted to embrace it. Loved the color, I mean, literally, loved everything about it, and wanted to restore everything.
Elin Walters
And the wife, who wasn’t quite convinced she was like, she sort of, she liked parts of it, but she really just wanted something modern and clean, and didn’t and kind of looked at it like, well, that bathroom is old and dirty, right? And so I, I walked into this amazing bathroom, and it was, like, the best yellow tile, the best fixtures, I mean, just gorgeous. And I wouldn’t touch anything.
Elin Walters
Does it? Does it have a little bit of wear? Yeah, but is it so bad that you’re, you can’t live with it? Absolutely not. So it was that balance of, like, it’s, it’s just amazing and breathtaking, and such good quality with, okay, it’s been around for a few years, right? Yeah? Like, it’s not the end of the world.
Elin Walters
And in this situation, I actually said, You know what? I don’t, I can’t touch this bathroom in terms of renovating it. I It looks perfect to me. I’m not sure that I can take those tiles out, because it will, like, just pull my heart out to do it. So I told her that, and she was like, Okay, well, you know, I’ll live with it and I’ll see if, if maybe I can come around. And so that’s what happened. She lived with it, and it’s still there to this day.
Della Hansmann
Oh, great. I was hoping the story had a happy ending.
Elin Walters
It did, it did. It did, but it was a lot of convincing. A lot of like, Are you sure it’s just really great? You know?
Della Hansmann
Well, then that could happen too. I do often find I can’t think of a case quite that dramatic as a couple, one of whom was completely into the mid-century house and the other was like, it looks tired, and I want new.
Della Hansmann
We definitely get, I give my clients a file quiz to figure out sort of where they are on the preserve to upgrade as do I imagine that? Yeah, yeah, right. You have to know. And we often get different results from different halves of the couple.
Della Hansmann
And so makes sense, a little bit a balancing act exactly what’s going to be the right choice. And sometimes it’s sort of on a room by room basis, and sometimes we’re thinking about materiality is going to be really dialed in. And then maybe, yeah.
Elin Walters
And sometimes, right? Sometimes there, I know you find this too, that there are elements that are just magical, that you really, really don’t want to harm. And then are, sometimes there’s a kitchen that could be better, right?
Elin Walters
Like we could. We could renovate that kitchen and make it look like it was from the mid-century, but use, you know, wood that’s not weathered or warped, or a counter that’s actually not Formica that’s, you know, bubbling or, you know, there’s a time and a place for updating. And the mid-century era was so great at using modern materials that I feel like nobody of that in that era would be like scolding us now, like, don’t, don’t touch it, right?
Della Hansmann
I think, they did like to keep things going, but I think, and also I sometimes give new materials that weren’t around in the mid-century, the would they think it was cool test, and usually, pass, it’s like, I love that. They did not have this, but if they’d had it, they absolutely would have thought of, they like it.
Elin Walters
Would they like it? Yeah, concrete. I mean, I guess concrete goes around then, but there’s different ways of using it now that.
Della Hansmann
Right, used differently now. But yeah, that sort of question, I think, comes in, and it’s, it is often when we are deciding in a master plan to preserve something or to change it. This the maintenance status of it matters. You know, is it in great shape? Does it have a, as you say, a little bit of where has it been used for 70 years?
Elin Walters
Yeah
Della Hansmann
They all have. But is it holding up, versus is it failing? And then there’s the question of, like, is it working? But I would also be very hard put to damage a perfect color block bathroom, yeah, even for a layout question.
Elin Walters
Sometimes I understand if, like, the grout is terrible and it’s so stained and you really can’t revive it, I get it. And then, you know, maybe we need to take out all the four by fours and put a new four by fours, maybe, right? But it’s hard when you walk into something that is really untouched and beautiful and you want to take it out. Yeah? That’s hard.
Della Hansmann
Yeah. I get a lot of people who are coming to us with houses where the damage has already been done. So somebody got it and flipped it recently, or somebody went after 80s. And so in those cases, we get the fun of, we can change the layout. Can make modifications, because what’s here is not original. And then we can, we’ve, I’ve had clients perfectly reproduce original color block bathrooms in house, exactly 90s the best.
Elin Walters
It’s the best. When someone says, I want it to look like it did, then exactly right? And you’re like, Okay, that’s not hard.
Della Hansmann
What are your if you had to do that, what would be the most important sort of X factor to give it that?
Elin Walters
Like, I mean, in a bathroom, I say tile, right? Like, it’s really easy to create that same look with, you know, four by four tiles, or that mosaic tile on the floor, and then the cabinetry, you know, just keeping that, that vanity really simple, can be floating or not, but just panel doors, flat panel doors, and it’s easy in a bathroom, I think to, you know, do it to create that mid-century flavor very quickly.
Della Hansmann
Well, that maybe gets us into thinking about what is a cabinet design that rings mid-century versus doesn’t? Might bring us back to our what, what not to do, and what to do is the flat panel, of course,
Elin Walters
Yeah, a slab, right? No shaker. Although once in a while I will get somebody who just loves the Shaker Door, and you can make it work it in some situations, right? Like it’s still simple, it’s still clean. It’s not my favorite, but again, it’s like the couple who one loves mid-century and one doesn’t, and you’re like, Okay, this is the this is the compromise that we could make you really feel that strongly, right? But it doesn’t happen very often. Yeah.
Della Hansmann
Now it’s interesting too. And I think at this point, we both have businesses that have specialized enough that the people who are coming to us generally are already
Elin Walters
Correct.
Della Hansmann
Self-selecting to do the kind of work we love to do. And every now and then, though, I mean, I still schedule my lead calls to figure out, does someone actually live in a mid-century house, and do they like the mid-century of their mid-century house.
Elin Walters
That conversation, and that’s like, the first five minutes, right? It’s like, how did you find me? What were you drawn to? And then we want to make sure this is a good fit, right? Like, you’re interviewing me, but I’m also interviewing you because I don’t, I don’t want to work on a house that I’m not excited about. It won’t be a good result if I’m not excited and I don’t love it. I don’t want to do it, and you don’t want me to do it.
Della Hansmann
Right. Houses are so personal, and I feel like it’s such a responsibility absolutely take on thinking to the design to make someone else’s life better, to make their house more fully realize how they want to live in it with their family themselves.
Della Hansmann
If we don’t have a good connection that’s infinitely hard, or maybe.
Elin Walters
It’s really important, it’s, it’s like, I liken it to, and I tell people, those clients is that I’m, I’m kind of like your therapist, and we have, kind of, not really, you don’t need to tell me all the juicy stuff. But, but it is important that we have a communication and a style agreement, because I don’t do Victorian like and I wouldn’t do it well, because I don’t understand it, but I do understand mid-century, and I am excited about it, and I know how to do it, and I know where to get the resources and the people and right like you want me and you if, if you have mid-century, but, but other than that, see you later.
Elin Walters
Yeah, I’m happy to refer people who call and they just aren’t quite, we’re not quite seeing eye to eye. And I’m like, Oh, I know a couple people in town. I think you’d, they would, they would do a great job for you, yeah.
Della Hansmann
And there’s the therapy aspect of you have to ask someone to trust you with like, how messy Are you really right? Need? Do you have entirely different sleep styles? I’ve definitely designed bedrooms for people who don’t share a bed.
Della Hansmann
Or who have, like, one of them is a night owl who manages a club. One of them is a university professor who likes to go in early. So we had to have a light lock to a dressing room so that they could, like, slip out of bed and go get ready.
Elin Walters
On day one, right? Like morning, what does your day look like? What do you do? Are you tiptoeing out of the bed and taking a shower while your wife is still sleeping? And do we need to, like, take that into account, or are you both up and down in the gym and you know, the house is lit and all those things matter, right?
Della Hansmann
And they can feel personal. I mean, sometimes I feel like I know things about people’s particularly in bedroom situations, but also the kitchens, you know, division of labor and the way that people are sharing child rearing responsibilities. It all matters.
Elin Walters
It does. I mean, our homes are the most one of the most personal things about us, right? So you and I are gonna dig into that personal aspect right with them very quickly. So yeah, it matters if the relationship is a good one, yeah, from the get-go and kind of on the heels of that, this just made me think that even within couples, you have to sort of navigate right, because they’re either they disagree, or they have different design style esthetics.
Elin Walters
Or I joke when I when I can tell that there’s, it’s, you have to read people right at the beginning, and you can tell if there’s going to be a little bit of discord. And so I try to, like, cut through the ice, and I’m like, Well, my undergrad is in psychology, so I joke that I use that degree, sometimes more than anything, because you’re really having to hear people understand people bridge the gap between maybe husband and wife or partner and partner, who don’t always see eye to eye. So you kind of have to wear a few hats, and not just picking out tile, but like listening right listening to both sides.
Della Hansmann
That’s a great background to have. Honestly, I feel like my architecture degree wasn’t specialized in residential. That’s my personal passion. I’ve been involved in ever since I graduated, but I wish that there had been some Honestly, even if you’re working for business, some client counseling classes involved in the design degrees, right?
Elin Walters
Right? Yeah, it’s you’re off to a good start if you’re if you can intuit people and character. If you don’t, yeah, go learn.
Della Hansmann
Exactly. But yeah, no, I think that also is what not to do is don’t keep secrets from the people that you’ve engaged to help you, because houses aren’t generic. We think about that. And they’re marketed as this, sort of like investment, resale, yeah, object. But actually, I think done well, the job of a designer of any stripe is to personalize and to really help a house suit the person.
Elin Walters
150% it’s personal, right? Personalized. We all don’t want cookie cutter houses. That’s not what the mid-century esthetic is. Right?
Della Hansmann
For people who are worried about, what will the next people want? Ideally, your house will be found by someone else who was looking for that. If we’re reducing bedrooms to make more office space, or we’re, you know, creating a really social kitchen or a really closed off.
Elin Walters
Right.
Della Hansmann
I’m an introvert. I’m going to go do my kitchen projects and then come out to the house. You know, those, those questions in the best of possible worlds, the next person that finds your house will choose it for that.
Elin Walters
Correct
Della Hansmann
And love it.
Elin Walters
So market for every house, yeah, you know, turning it into a carousel. You know, every wall is a different color. I mean, there’s that. There’s an audience for that too, I guess.
Della Hansmann
At least there’s an audience for the videos of the Zillow listings of those houses.
Elin Walters
There we go. There we go, right, maybe not real life.
Della Hansmann
Well, actually, to that, and that leads us perfectly to the next topic, which, next time I chat with you, I want to talk about who to gather around you to make the right choices for your house and with different people and with different people and how they can sort of contribute their different designs.
Elin Walters
That’s important, yeah.
Della Hansmann
Well, given everyone
Della Hansmann
some food for thought and to do this again soon.
Elin Walters
I agree. Very fun. Thanks for having me.
Della Hansmann
Okay, find the transcript of this episode and a link to the pretty pictures of Alan’s recent atomic ranch to publish work at the show notes page mid mod, dash midwest.com/ 1809.
Della Hansmann
And don’t forget, sign yourself up for tomorrow’s curb appeal clinic. Be there live, and you can ask me your own most pressing questions about how to make the right choices for your home’s exterior. Specifically. See you there.