floor plan Archives - MidMod Midwest

Let’s Review: Discover what’s great about your Mid-Century Home

36 min readI’m taking July off from recording the podcast this summer but that doesn’t mean YOU have to.

Instead, I’ve rounded up the BEST of our back catalog to take you on a journey through Master Planning your remodel. Let’s start with making it fun and easy to learn more about your home!

I want you to become an expert on your home before your remodel.

Note, I did not say that you need to become an expert on remodeling … just on your house.

Why? Because it’s going to smooth every step of your remodel journey!

One good reason to take a few of your own measurements, skim an inspection report, or dig into some MCM history about the original owners by chatting with elderly neighbors, is that these activities will set you up for clever design ideas for your remodel. And they will.

But another super important reason getting familiar with your home is essential to a successful remodel is that the more you feel like an expert in the specifics of your house (not even all of them, just in certain parts of it!) the more you interface confidently with everyone else in the project.

How to measure your house

20 min readMid-century homes aren’t just livable, cute and in style right now. They were actually built in a way that is easier to document, measure and understand. Which means measuring for any remodeling project is (almost) a breeze for a remote design team like Mid Mod Midwest or a homeowner like you!

Before you can come up with an amazing plan to update your mid-century home, you need to know where are you starting from. Today you are going to learn how to measure what you’ve got, so you can start the process of transforming your home to fit your life.

Old school measuring techniques like graph paper and measuring tapes may be the perfect fit for you and your project! If you’re more tech savvy, you can use a tablet to document your house…or a home scanning app might be just the ticket for you.

As you probably know by now, the masterplan method begins with three key elements pre design phase. You need to dream about what you want your life to be in your new home. You need to discover what’s up with the house you’ve got right now. And then you need to distill your personal mid-century style.

So, what’s the best way to measure your house?

The Power of Sketches

22 min readSketching 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.