mid-century Archives - Page 2 of 14

Rolling Back a 90’s Remodel (with recent client Michelle)

37 min readAs a designer, it’s so hard to pick a favorite project, but one I’m talking about today has certainly got to be at the top of my list. I recently covered this house on the YouTube channel, because it’s a perfect case study of getting the 90s out of a perfectly nice mid-century home.

Sometimes you find the house in the perfect spot that completes your future dream checklist … but no one has taken the time to revise the 90’s remodel. So only you can really see it’s potential.

Today I’ve invited homeowner, Michelle Cramton, to talk about how we took a shell of a house and turned it into her dream retirement home as she was literally starting from zero after the Altadena fires last winter. I am so happy to share her story of resettling back into her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, and into her mid-century dream.

Her contractors are still tying up the last loose ends so no “after” shots yet but some of these progress photos are looking pretty SNAPPY!.

Settle in to hear Michelle telling you her story of how we met, how we started thinking about this project together, and how we explored her options in a master plan package.

And then had the opportunity to take it further through a bunch of really fun additional services.

She just let me stick with her from the beginning right through until now! We’re currently working on the last final few details of the house. It has been such a treat to get to follow along closely at every step.

You’ll find some photos of this house below. These are recent progress snaps. We don’t have final photos yet, because work is still underway. In fact, in the conversation you’ll hear just a little bit of banging – outside work being done.

If you’d like to see a bit of the design process, jump to the YouTube case study I just made about this house.

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Apple | Spotify | YouTube

A Conversation with Kerf Design

48 min readAre you familiar with Kerf Design kitchens or bathrooms or wall mounted shelving units? To quote Kerf’s website, “Good joints should be admired. Construction should be simple and honest. We tinker, we improve, and we consider every detail. We love plywood.”
Well, I do too.

If you’re in the market for a Kerf kitchen or just in the mood to learn a lot of interesting background on construction with veneer or plywood materials, you’re in luck.

In this great chat with founder Nathan Hartman, we cover how their designs are manufactured, how the plywood is sourced, different wood grain types, and how this kind of minimalist, sleek, modern cabinet blends in perfectly with the traditions of mid-century history.

I’m also in luck because Nathan perfectly articulated why all of the different members of a design construction team are really valuable.

It works so well for his group to his group to take a project that started with a designer who can handoff to them once the schematic element is well established. Then Kerf’s team take in the project and figure out each detail of kitchen storage and plan for perfect construction before handing off their completed cabinets to a construction team for install.

This conversation is going to give you some insight into built-ins and kitchen design and cabinets generally.

It’s also wonderful insight into the specific process that Kerf uses to create great kitchens that make their homeowners so happy.

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You don’t need to keep a tub for resale value.

27 min readYou don’t need to keep a tub for resale value. In fact, about half of my clients don’t.

So much of the advice out there about home improvements is focused on the bottom line, treating your home as a commodity.

And sure, remodeling always has a cost. There are financial factors involved.

But I firmly believe that return on investment and resale value are the absolute last things you should be thinking about when you plan a change to your home. Hear me out.

If you’re planning on selling your mid-century home soon, leave it alone. Don’t do anything to it.

If you’re planning to stay, you are better off focusing on what will make the house your home.

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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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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

Yes, You Can Use the Holidays to Plan Your Remodel!

27 min readUse the holidays to focus your remodel plans.

I want you to use your holiday prep time to plan your remodel.

Okay, Before you tell me, Della, that’s crazy. I can’t plan a remodel right now. The holidays are when I’m busiest.

You’re right. Of course you can’t. You know me. I wouldn’t ask you to make your life harder when it’s already full. But … what if I told you that you could also use this time to focus your remodel planning and make real progress without spending time picking out tile or making phone calls?

Instead, make your future life easier by harnessing all of the satisfactions (and frustrations) that are part of the celebratory times in your house.

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.