mid century style Archives

INVISIBLE benefits of design thinking: it’s more than tips and tricks

25 min readThat depends on your house. And how you want to live in it.

When I talk about design ideas for mid-century house updates, I’m often sharing aesthetic solutions:

Details for built-ins that shift them from looking to contemporary,
Paint colors and combinations that flatter mcm brick,
Hardware and fixtures that feel timeless,

And, often, I’m also talking about clever layout solutions.

Space planning ideas that connect and multitask. Simple ways to shift a floor plan to make the most of an existing snug footprint. I love focusing on both aesthetics AND problem solving with design.

I’ve been having some real fun lately pulling together a video series of Mid Mod Remodeling case studies that include good aesthetic AND layout problem-solving tips for mid-century homes. You can check those out below!

But as I prepped each case study, I was reminded of something else.

The design process is super valuable, too.

And going through a master plan design yields HUGE benefits for the homeowners I work with. Benefits that go beyond what the final remodel will look like.

AI is NOT Your Mid-Century Design Friend

35 min readYou may already use AI to get input on many areas of your life. And you may feel like the convenience outweigh its many negatives. Maybe. But here where we talk about making right choices for your home, let me assure you, you will not get good advice or even peace of mind about your design options by asking AI.

To paraphrase a meme I saw recently, Hey, y’all don’t ask ChatGPT. Make friends with a nerd.

And I am so, so happy to be your mid-century design and remodeling nerd.

I’ve been irked by AI for a while. It seems like it is over promising and under delivering. And I’m always kind of on the lookout for more information to corroborate my opinion.

The Washington Post recently ran a top of the page headline piece titled something like, “Can AI Do Your Job?” The very first example they gave was, can it do the job of an architect or a designer. And the short answer is, “nope.”

On their very first example they asked it to create a digital floor plan based on a hand drawn floor plan. And it was literally just supposed to recreate a hand drawn sketch as a digital floor plan. The human version was very tidy and annotated with dimensions. The chat version? Just a bunch of rooms labeled. AND with a bizarre relocation of spaces, including a bathroom surrounded on three sides by corridors. Certainly not a useful replica and in no way an improvement.

Why is AI so bad at being a designer? And even worse at helping you plan a remodel for your mid-century home? I have thoughts.

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Apple | Spotify | YouTube

The Mid Modness of a Neo-Mansard Roof with Atom Stevens

35 min readThe neo-mansard roof is as polarizing as an architectural feature can be.

Mansard roofs belong along a street in Paris or maybe on an 80’s vintage Burger King, right?

Yet, a slew of mid-century architects seemed to independently decide to give them a try in residential design during our favorite decades. Why, though? Why?

Today, I’m talking that over with our favorite mid mod house historian, Atom Stevens.

In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:

What exactly IS a neo-mansard roof?
Who made the mansard roof a thing?
Why was there a neo-mansard moment in the mid-century?

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Apple | Spotify | YouTube

University Hill Farms Historic District

27 min readThe University Hill Farms neighborhood is one of my favorite parts of my home town and in today’s episode I’ll be your tour guide!

What’s the best mid-century neighborhood near you?

I don’t just mean the spot with the best mid-century homes.

What’s the best neighborhood?

Now MCM houses all tend to exist near schools, parks, libraries, churches, office buildings and more from the same era.

But while the mid-century years are my absolute favorite for housing design, they weren’t always the best for urban planning.

For one thing, it kicked off our national car-centric planning era, and we’re still in it. But there are some winners.

Today I want to talk about the history and qualities of one of my favorite parts of my hometown, the University Hill Farms neighborhood. If you’re Madison local, it’s the area around Hilldale mall, and it’s great by several measures. It’s even a historic district inventoried in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Mid Mod Remodel Gift Guide

26 min readI have to admit being a reluctant provider of gift guides. So instead of another listicle with vaguely mid-century-ish products, this gift guide takes a slightly different approach.

The “check your inbox”, “must have gift lists” and “buying guides” we are inundated with right now kind of give me the ick. Especially since we’ve just been hounded by all of the “buy right now energy” Black Friday Energy.

Plus, when I put mid-century gift guide into Google to see if I was forgetting anything as I prepped for this episode, what I actually came up with was a whole bunch of listicles with links to modern-ish products with vaguely mid-century styles that I just didn’t really enjoy scrolling through. After all, as mid-century enthusiasts, we tend to be focused on vintage, timeless things, right? Rather than new things that miss the mark on both quality and style.

So instead of another listicle with vaguely mid-century-ish products, this gift guide takes a slightly different approach. Focusing on experiences, design collaboration, and supporting small, quality businesses rather than succumbing to the urgency of sales. Today I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, that you already know you can gift someone more than an object. But sometimes the “what” of it all is the challenge.

In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:

When a movie night might be the perfect mid-century gift.
How to ensure you get your picky mid mod connoisseur the perfect vintage find.
Where to find great mid mod inspired stuff for when gifting stuff is the right move.

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Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Your mid-century house is not up to code

33 min readThe good news? Your home is currently grandfathered into every code statute written and approved after the day it was built.

Let’s get the scary part out of the way first. Your mid-century house, the one you love for its charm and quirks, does not comply with the modern building code.

That’s ok for now. No one is going to knock on your door tomorrow demanding you rewire every outlet in the house.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Where are all my history nerds? Raise your hands. This week is for you. I’m talking historic maps, digitized collections and crowd-sourced cartography projects. I KNOW!

I was so tickled when a Ready to Remodel student showed up to an Office Hours call a few months ago with so much fresh confidence derived from finding the Sanborn maps of her own property.

Her local permitting office was willing to accept the map she found as proof of a grandfather in the structure that meant they were able to carry on with their plans for a WHOLE LOT LESS paperwork!

Plus, turning up a historic resource had helped her feel confident in her interactions with her local building department and advocating for her remodel plan. This is what Discovery is all about!

I was delighted to hear her name check the Sanborn map collection, because it took me right back to my university days.

Nightmare Mid-Century Remodel Scenarios

32 min readIn honor of spooky season, let’s talk nightmare mid-century remodel scenarios.

Can you picture it? Sure you can. We’ve all seen some really scary remodeling choices —on Zillow, on Instagram, or sadly, maybe even in our own homes.

You can file this under schadenfreude if none of it applies to your house. Or it can serve as a what not to do guide to help you avoid mistakes. If you’re already living one of the nightmare mid-century remodel scenarios I’m about to describe, then let’s focus on the fact that you’re far from alone.

AND there’s hope!

I really believe that a good, solid master plan can bring any mid-century house back from the brink of horror.

Winterize your (Mid-Century) Yard: Advice from Ginkgo Leaf Studio

27 min readToday, some more excellent advice on planning the landscape the yard of your mid-century home from Jim Drzewiecki of Ginkgo Leaf Studio.

Winterizing your yard (the right way) actually is more about planning and planting the right way up front than it is about an endless checklist of October landscaping tasks.

A lot of people (me included) tend to believe that an amazing looking yard requires constant effort and care.

Amazing news: that’s just not true.

When you’ve designed your mid-century yard the right way … with a layout that complements the house and a collection of plants that look good in every season, there isn’t that much you must or SHOULD do to get the yard ready for winter!

Surprise, surprise, a little master plan thinking for your yard can keep it looking good and easy to care for all year round!

Let’s talk about how to plant a year round garden with great advice from Jim Drzewiecki (of Ginkgo Leaf Studio).

The Right Siding for Your Mid-Century House

36 min readAre you considering new siding for your mid-century home? Before you call a contractor or pick a sample, let’s talk about what mid-century siding is and how to make good choices for your house.

During the 80s and 90s, when appreciation for MCM was at a low ebb, too many of our sweet ranches were re-wrapped in narrow strip beige vinyl, covering up their original colors and patterns.

If you’ve been dealing with that kind of generic cover-up, or if your siding is simply damaged or in poor repair, you might be considering a replacement.

Before you call a contractor or pick a sample, let’s talk about what mid-century siding is and how to make good siding choices for your home.