the midcentury ranch for a new generation
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!
Continue reading “Can I mix Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style into my ranch? (Part 1)”42 min readLet’s talk mid-century landscaping with a certified expert – Jim Drzewiecki of Ginkgo Leaf Studio.
I get asked about the right landscape design for a mid-century a lot.
And, while I do design outdoor “rooms” and have a landscape at my own house, I am far from the expert on designing beautiful gardens. Seriously…I only just succeeded in not killing (most of) my houseplants in the last couple of years.
So to tackle all your landscaping questions I called up a landscaping expert.
And big giant bonus? An expert who specializes in design for mid-century homes. Jim Drzewiecki, APLD, award-winning principal designer, is the founder and owner of Ginkgo Leaf Studio where he and Hannah Paulson design beautiful landscapes for all kind of homes.
Long story short: The best way to design a landscape to fit your mid-century house is to … listen to the house! Jim so good at doing just that. He’s interested in the shapes and materials on a good MCM house. And not locked into (probably) overgrown and (almost certainly) DIYed plant placements from decades of yore.
Continue reading “How to plan a Mid-century landscape…is that a thing?”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.
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.
Continue reading “What are the best mid-century flooring choices?”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!
Continue reading “How long will my remodel take?”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.
Continue reading “What we CAN learn from HGTV.”21 min readThe culture we live in tells us that we can change our lives by changing our homes. Let’s interrogate this modern urge toward self improvement through remodeling.
According to HGTV, you can never take a house as it is. A change is required. You must remodel it to make it “yours”.
But … (again per HGTV) there’s ONLY one right way to improve your home. And that is whatever is the most current latest and greatest on Pinterest on Instagram on HGTV and in Dwell magazine.
Now, in fact, I actually do believe in the transformative power of a remodel.
Planning them is kind of my bread and butter.
But here’s the thing: real, life changing transformations rarely look the same for every homeowner or home. And very frequently there’s nary a subway tile to be found.
Continue reading “Change your home to change your life.”75 min readTake my remodeling masterclass on the go!
If you listen to the Mid Mod Remodel Podcast regularly, you hear lots about the tips and tools I recommend to help you plan and lead your perfect MCM remodel.
And once or twice a year I boil down the most helpful of those tips and tools into a free masterclass that I offer live. Folks show up on a Saturday for an hour-ish class full of advice and a Q&A where I promise to answer every question.
In the past that session was only available to the folks who signed up and attended the live event, but this year I’m trying something NEW!
We are making the audio of my February 24th session available for a limited time.
Now you can listen on the go! (but just for one week.)
So, if you missed the live session and don’t have time to sit and watch a replay… or if you were there, loved it and just want to hear it all again…grab your headphones!
21 min readA surprise reveal is a mainstay of remodeling TV shows and it’s basically a jumpscare. Your ideal remodel should include few to no surprises.
Nothing about the final outcome of your remodel should surprise you.
Read that twice.
Now, I do hope that as you live in your transformed home that it is a delight for you and your family. Maybe the changes will have an even greater effect on your life than you expected. That’s great. But the remodel itself … should not be a surprise.
Surprise reveals are a mainstay of home and garden media like HGTV because they create drama and suspense.
They allow the designers to build to a big conclusion and show a happy client. Surprises are not good for MCM homeowners in the same way trends are not our friends.
Continue reading “Your remodel should not be a surprise.”23 min readGoogle’s modern mid-century kitchen is slab cabinets, sleek metals, minimalist hardware and simple geometric tile. But YOUR mid-century dream kitchen may differ because your kitchen, your rules.
The modern mid-century dream kitchen isn’t the kitchen that Lucy Arnez or Donna Reed or Carol Brady had. It also isn’t the kitchen you might find in vintage kitchen ads. And it certainly isn’t the kitchen you’ll find in most builder grade ranches.
So what exactly is it then?
According to Google, it’s slab cabinets in warm wood tones, sleek metals, minimalist hardware and tile set in simple, geometric patterns.
According to home and garden media, it’s an open, busy social space.
And both of those descriptions hold up! But YOUR mid-century dream kitchen may differ because your kitchen, your rules.
You are actually the most important element in your mid-century dream kitchen. Your kitchen isn’t just a place to cook; it’s an extension of you! Whether you’re a mid-century purist or someone who loves blending eras, the key is to design a kitchen that works for your life and the way you want to live in your kitchen.
Continue reading “The modern “mid-century” dream kitchen”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!
