design Archives - MidMod Midwest

Remodels By, For, and With Women

How did I become so invested in empowering women to be strong leaders in their own home improvement projects?

As a young female architect, I’ve faced skepticism and dismissal from male colleagues and contractors throughout my career. But over many years and many projects I’ve learned to push back confidently and achieve the results I believe in. Not everyone has the luxury of building this confidence over time, especially women homeowners who may only go through one or two remodels in their lifetime.

Better Remodels (For Everyone) with a Master Plan

I created the Master Plan method as a direct response to my experience in residential architecture.

The Power of Sketches

22 min read Sketching is the most important visual thinking tool you can use to plan your remodel. Sketches help you generate ideas quickly, explore alternatives without risk and avoid getting bogged down in the details too soon. And YOU CAN sketch…even if you have kindergarten-level drawing skills.

Sketching is the most important visual thinking tool you can use to plan your remodel. Sketches help you generate ideas quickly, explore alternatives without risk and avoid getting bogged down in the details too soon. And YOU CAN Sketch…even if you have kindergarten-level drawing skills.

Now when you think about a drawing that’s related to your remodel plan you are probably thinking of a blueprint. If you are, there are two things you need to know. One, blueprints haven’t been blue since, oh, before I went to design school. And two, they are the least interesting drawings in your remodel.

They also take months, years or even decades to complete depending on the complexity of the project. A sketch can be done in moments. It’s simple and yet surprisingly effective and evocative.

And here’s why. It’s not just less, it’s centralized. It shows the details that matter and only the details that matter. A sketch is precise to the level that you create it with no expectation of accuracy. It allows us to talk about the shapes and forms of things, the overall relation of length and width.

Easy Summer Projects to Tackle This Weekend

16 min read Easy summer projects can help you kick-off this year’s (mid-century) home improvement season! Here are a few of my favorites.

What feels like the true beginning of summer to you? Memorial Day weekend? Seeing the first lightning bugs? The last day of school? For me, my birthday in early June is the real start of summer!

It kind of feels like we just dived into the middle of summer in the last week or two and I have a feeling you might be in exactly the right headspace to take on some easy summer projects to make your mid-century home a little more your own.

So, grab your lemonade and a lawn chair and listen in for a few fun (and, okay some less fun but more necessary) summer project you can tackle right now to kick off your mid-century home improvement season!

What Happens After the Master Plan?

21 min read We created the Mid-Century Master Plan Package to get you from “I want to remodel” to “let’s call up contractors.” But what if you have a question after the master plan? Here’s how that works.

Psst … Did you want Pass Go and Collect $200 by skipping Architect Office Hours and just asking me a question directly? Submit a question for my upcoming Ask Me Anything episode, coming May 11th.

Our mid-century Master Plan package helps you bridge that crucial gap between, “hey, I think I want to remodel, what do I do next?” and confident calls to contractors to get quotes and start scheduling. Our master plan process includes a clear scope of work for a fixed fee, so you don’t have to worry about hidden costs or how many hours it takes or what you’ll get out of it.

In a lot of cases, a master plan is all that’s needed to connect with a competent contractor, share your vision and make your remodel happen. But sometimes, folks need a little something more.

If you think a master plan is for you, the first step is to reach out to us! We have form on our website with a few short questions about your project and what kind of design help you need. Once we get your form, we’ll meet for a quick chat about your project to make sure we’re a fit.

Then we dig right in!

At Architect Office Hours: how to hang pendants, choose great doors & focus any plans

18 min read Ready to Remodel students have the chance to get questions answered – live – every month during our Architect Office Hours.

Movies love to show architects creating away at a drafting table or sitting picturesquely at a cafe, sketchbook in hand. It’s romantic, this vision of a endlessly creative mind conjuring beautiful buildings from some eternal, internal well. But *SPOILER ALERT* no one uses a drafting table anymore (except throwbacks and nostalgia lovers). In fact, I do all my sketching on a tablet.

There is another major element of architecture that is seldom shown in the movies…

An architect spends A LOT of time answering questions. I answer questions emailed in by my clients. I pick up a few queries from my instagram DMs every week. And once a month I hop into a zoom and hold …

The Style Guide System will save your sanity. (Part 4/4)

21 min read A style guide system is the lever that lets you easily control the way your home looks.

A style guide system is a VIP – Very Important Piece – of your masterplan.

You need a masterplan approach to be able to…a) get started in the first place, b) keep going with a minimum of unpleasant expensive surprises and c) end up with a home that looks and works the way you want and need it to.

Making changes to your home’s layout and flow is how you make sure it is going to work the way you want. Those changes adapt your home to the modern life you and your family are living in it every day. The style guide is the lever by which you can easily control the way your home looks. Your style guide system really is the secret sauce for a simpler remodel. It can both help you get started by simplifying decisions AND is a crucial part of creating a cohesive look.

I’m sure it’s possible to craft a beautiful remodel without one.

But you will do it at a cost of 10 times more decisions to make – questioning yourself, rehashing every choice and adding endless stress to your remodel.

I don’t want that for you. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for any length of time you know the master plan method it’s all about doing it right and doing it more easily.

So make your life easier by using the style guide system to pick every product in your remodel.

Name Your Mid-Century Remodel Era (Part 1/4)

18 min read Quick! Name your favorite Mid-Century remodel era! Do you love 40’s fab or 50’s space-race or earthy late 60’s vibes?

What is your mid-century remodel era?

I know you are here because you love mid century design. I know this because I love mid century design! And we all love to talk about “mid century” style…and then wonder what does that actually mean in terms of hitting that just right tone in an MCM remodel.

What does Mid-Century Even Mean?

Mid Century is a broad term that covers anything from the immediate postwar building boom, up into the late 60s (or even the early 70s!).

When I’m planning a remodel for a design client, I need to know which end of the mid century era really lights them up in order to create a remodel that is right for them.

Your Remodel needs a Master Plan not a Floor Plan

14 min read Too many people skip over essential steps in planning their home remodel … and it shows. With the Master Plan Method, you take the time to plan your remodel right, right from the start.

A great home remodel needs more than a good floor plan. It needs a master plan.

Having a master plan is more than pinning a bunch of things you like. It’s more than having the furnace guy or the roofing guy come out and say, ‘Oh yep. Your home inspector was right. Plan for a remodel.’ And it’s more than having a perfectly tidy, organized blueprint for your house.

Love yourself? Love your home!

3 min read Our 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!

Your Sustainable Mid-century Remodel: Why and How

13 min read Have you ever considered remodeling your mid-century ranch is an act of radical sustainability?

Think about it! There are 15 million of these modestly-sized, well-built houses across America located in walkable neighborhoods close to local businesses and schools. Taking on a sustainable mid-century remodel means helping people occupy them, love them and preserve them. In doing so, you prevent their demolition to build something larger or just building new homes on greenfield land elsewhere, and this is a significant environmental win.

Yes, mid-century modern style is cool and fun, but more than that – coming up with design tools to help 15 percent of US housing stock stay relevant is IMPORTANT WORK.