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Why are mid-century kitchens?

19 min readAspirational mid-century kitchens inspired the kitchens we live in and love today.

In all seriousness … why ARE mid-century kitchens? We’ve chatted before about the history and socioeconomic drivers of the era. And about the default layout of an MCM kitchen and why it doesn’t work for our modern lives so well. But what were those mid-century modern folks really … going for? One thing that made them what they are was …

The TV kitchens that served as backdrops for our favorite mid-century TV families! These show kitchens often included features missing for the builder basic kitchens of the time (and still missing in many of our ranches!) 

After all, an average mid-century ranch, the kitchen was seen as a one-person space. A kind of a home office for a homemaker. In a TV show kitchen, it had to be a place where two people could hold a conversation! That’s something we like in a kitchen today!

So let’s dig into how aspirational mid-century kitchens influenced – and didn’t – the kitchens we live in and love today.

Psst !!! Before we dig into some SPIFFY and fun MCM kitchens of TV history … quick shout out for your best resource for updating your own mid-century kitchen to mid-century or modern glory. Don’t forget to save your seat for the Mid-Century Kitchen Clinic!

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Easy Summer Projects to Tackle This Weekend

16 min readEasy 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!

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Plan your remodel like your last perfect vacation.

16 min readHow is a remodel like a vacation? Well, if you’ve ever planned a vacation that was truly perfect for you, then you already know how to plan your remodel.

I’m often asked, “What does it cost to remodel a kitchen right now?”

Wow! That depends on so many factors. 

I might as well ask you, “What does it cost to go on vacation?”

Well, you might tell me that depends. Are you planning a sort of staycation to visit a few museums from an Airbnb in a nearby city? Or are you backpacking across South America? Or touring the luxe cities of the Mediterranean? Is it a package cruise or a DIY adventure? 

There are as many types of home remodels, as there are different ways to travel away from home!

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

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

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. 

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 …

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Modern Mudroom Updates for Mid-Century Homes

19 min readMost mid century homes lack a modern mudroom…or any practical dedicated entry/exit space designed to catch those things that belong to the outside edge of your life.
Fortunately, solving this problem doesn’t have to be that complicated!

Is your mid century home missing a modern mudroom … or any practical dedicated entry/exit space designed to catch those things that belong to the outside edge of your life?

If you are wishing for a little more storage at your doors … you’re not alone!

The typical mid century ranch house in the Midwest and the typical Eichler-style semi-custom home in the west are similar in that you come and to through the front door … right into the living area.

There is typically no more storage than a coat closet; a little two foot wide swing door framed closet that has a hanging rack and a single shelf.

Where did those original mid century moderns keep their outside things?

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