midcentury modern Archives - Page 2 of 9

Unicorn Houses and Tight MCM Markets with Adrian Kinney

19 min readIn our latest podcast episode, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with the amazing Adrian Kinney. Adrian has joined me on the pod before. He’s a realtor, mid-century modern (MCM) guru and heads up Mid Mod Colorado. Listen for his insights into what makes mcm homes so special and how to navigate today’s tricky market to find a mid-century gem.

We kicked things off by talking about how Adrian defines his ultimate mcm home—the elusive “unicorn.” For Adrian, the unicorn is an untouched mid-century time capsule that’s stayed true to its origins. A house where every detail, from the kitchen cabinets to the bathroom tiles remains from the 1950s or 60s.

While I share Adrian’s passion for these vintage beauties, I also love rolling up my sleeves and blending the old with the new. We discussed how to go about creating spaces that honor their mid-century roots and keep their retro charm alive while making the home work for modern life.

Mid-Century Hardscapes and Feature Elements with Ginkgo Leaf Studio

24 min readRemember the delightful Jim Drzewiecki from Ginkgo Leaf Studio? We barely scratched the surface of all the listener landscaping questions we received last season. So, naturally, I had to bring him back on the podcast to continue our chat! Today, we’re diving in on hardscaping and adding feature elements to your landscape.

Hardscaping includes any solid surfaces in your yard – think patios, walkways and driveways. These elements aren’t just practical; they set the stage for the entire landscape design. While many folks think landscaping is all about plants, according to Jim it’s actually the hardscape that lays the groundwork for everything else.

An Architect Chat – The secret to planning your Dream Remodel

27 min readWhen you find yourself in a remodeling time crunch, the most frequently skipped step in the process is actually the most essential part of any well planned and executed remodel.

Planning your dream remodel takes time. It takes introspection, at least. There’s no getting around that. But often, time is exactly what you don’t have. Life happens. You might need to move or have sudden changes in your family’s scope and scale. You might have an opportunity to take advantage of that requires fast action.

When you’re in a hurry, do you sometimes skip important steps?

Same!

So … when you find yourself in a remodeling time crunch, watch out for THIS! Because the most frequently skipped step in the planning process is actually the most essential part of any well planned and executed remodel.

How do I un flip my mid-century house?

26 min readStraight outta the DM’s “Do you have an un-flip quick start guide?” If you’re wondering what there might be to salvage about your farmhouse flipped mid-century house, the short answer is there’s plenty.

I encounter many brutal flip examples of mid-century homes through both students and clients. Kitchens that look like a Home Depot display. Vast expanses of gray LVP flooring. So many six panel doors. Like so, so many.

What do you do when someone beat you to the mid-century home of your dreams and stripped the charm right out of it? Can you ever go back? Well, sure you can. And you may even find that the flippers did you a few favors.

One of the things about a flipped house is that it becomes hard to see what is possible. And to hone in on what could change when it isn’t possible to roll the whole thing back.

In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:

How to de-farmhouse your fireplace. (Sadly, you probably won’t be able to unpaint the brick.)
Strategies for deciding which changes to invest in undoing/redoing and which to work around.
Quick changes that will shift you homes’ feel from farmhouse flip to mid mod fab.

Do you have a spreadsheet to help me manage my remodel?

26 min readSpreadsheets are the secret ingredient that takes you from planning a remodel to project managing one. Yours should look like this:

Once you have a Master Plan, how do you get ready to work with contractors? Put another way … how do you transition from the planning phase to the doing phase of your remodel? (The secret is going to be a spreadsheet!)

For some people this means finding a trustworthy organization to handoff your entire project to and go back to your life. But what if you are planning on being a bit more hands on and self-managing? Or even planning to DIY some big chunks of your remodel?

Either way, you need a few tools to help you be the boss your remodel from the planning phase right through until the punch list.

Speedy Strategies to Plan a Remodel You’ll Love (in the time you have)

38 min read30-ish minutes to learn how to plan a remodel in 30 days?

Believe it! You can check off maintenance, meet a deadline and still get a remodel that enhances your home’s MCM charm and suits your life and family!⁠⁠ Listen to my new workshop for all the speedy remodel planning skills.

Can I mix Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style into my ranch? (Part 1)

When you love your mid mod house … but also like Frank Lloyd Wright for his Prairie and Usonian design … how do you choose? The great news is that you don’t have to!

Because here’s the thing: Wright’s Prairie School and later Usonian homes are cool aunts and uncles to modest mid-century ranch houses. You can absolutely dip into Wright design ideas when you plan an upgrade for your mid-century modest home!

What are the best mid-century flooring choices?

31 min readThe best mid-century flooring for your house? It really does depend – on your taste, the size of your pets, the age of your kids and even your tendency to be a little bit of a butterfingers.

What is the best mid-century flooring for your house? I get this question ALL the time and I have a lot of opinions about it. But before I tell you about what I like and what I’d choose … we need to focus on you.

Short version: it depends on what you want

That’s because my answer to you, to my clients, to my students and to everybody who asks me this is …

It depends.

Now, when I answer this way, I’m not hedging or hesitating.

I do have opinions about and experience with many types of flooring in all sorts of applications. And strong personal preferences of my own!

But when people ask “What’s the best mid-century flooring?”, what they actually mean to ask is, “What’s the best mid-century flooring for me and for my house?” And that’s where it really does depend.

How long will my remodel take?

26 min readTL;DR: Your remodel will probably take longer than you hoped, but you can shorten the timeline of the actual work by investing your time in solid planning!

One of the questions I get asked most often (right after how much will my remodel cost) is, hey, how long will my remodel take?

We all want a solid answer to this question before moving forward. But the reality is how long it all takes depends on how much of your house is affected, who does the work, when it starts and HOW DECISIVE YOU ARE ALONG THE WAY!

So … the answer is it depends.

But I’ve got good news for you as well as bad news, here. Because it depends on some factors you can predict and sometimes factors you can control with your own choices!

TL;DR: Your remodel will probably take longer than you hoped, but you can shorten the timeline of the actual work by investing your time in solid planning!

What we CAN learn from HGTV.

25 min readToday we are going a little more positive in our HGTV exploration. Because it is SO FUN to look at other people’s homes.

OK, so I spend a lot of time warning Mid-Century homeowners off of getting their ideas and advice from general shelter media. A lot of it is just not for us. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing we can learn from HGTV.

Home improvement shows (and magazines, and social media) give us lots of chances to look at other peoples homes. And to observe those people looking at lots of different homes. And even have the occasional good Mid-Century design idea. (It happens!)

Let’s talk about what we can learn from HGTV.