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How to Choose Mid-century Materials for your Kitchen Remodel · Mid Mod Remodel

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're helping to plan a kitchen remodel that never goes out of style, that might not be possible.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Your best bet though is to make choices for your kitchen and your whole home.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: That connect to the era.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: When the house was built, that bill date will never change.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And so no choice connected back to it can never really be wrong.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Hey, there, welcome back to Midland remodel.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This is the show about updating MTM homes, helping you match them in century house to your modern life.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm your host Dell enhancement architect, and mid-century ranch busiest.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: You're listening to season five, episode five.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Now all season long.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about kitchens and I know you have been waiting for the fun part.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: When do we have to talk about what your new kitchen will look like?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I've been making you wait for a reason, because as an architect, I know that there are so many underlying issues, complexities and connections that make a kitchen remodel really successful.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: But now, today is the day.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: All right, before I get into that as always, I just wanted to remind you that you'll find links to the references I make in the show and an outline of this conversation on my website at mid-March dash midwest.com/five Oh seven.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: We're talking about what to put into your new mid-century style kitchen.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And one of the best ways to think about going forward is to look back first and take stock of what you've got.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It may be that your kitchen has been flipped over several times.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Um, even if you have an original kitchen, you may be changing it up due to layout issues.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: But if we want to think back to the kitchen that your house was originally built with, let's study what that might be.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Often mid-century kitchens were incredibly simple and low budget.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: They were made with craft and skill and from materials that are hard for us to get our hands on these days, even with a large budget, basically old-growth forest timber that they did have in the fifties, then cut down and put in kitchens and we don't have it anymore.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So Hey, think twice before throwing your old kitchen into a dumpster.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: But other than that gorgeous material, these kitchen had simple wooden cabinets built right into the walls.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Typically rather than assembled in a factory and delivered, and then installed as units.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: They had four Mica countertops with built-in backs, splashes that only went up a few inches that sometimes meant there was no actual backsplash, no tile or a simple for Mica or plastic layer that was applied to the wall behind cabinets.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: They also had simple electric appliances, a few basic light fixtures, usually a central surface Mount ceiling light, and a light over the kitchen sink.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Often a strip for us light hidden by a little decorative wouldn't shade and another over the stove.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Faucets would be shiny nickel, bladed, and likely the cabinet poles would also be that material.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: A simple drop-in enamel cast, iron sink would complete the look.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: So making up a kitchen update, we're probably not trying to recreate that exact look unless you are a retro renovation style preservationist, trying to bring your house back to exactly how it looked when it was built.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: If so, more power to you.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: But for most of us, when we say we want to mid-century update, what we're talking about is not a pickup sure.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Of what it looked like in the past, but something that's going to feel friendly.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: What you want to avoid is a discordant kitchen remodel that's either cottage style was shaker details or one that hearkens back to an earlier vintage with carved Ogun or Nate metals.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Well, we're probably talking about when we look at Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration is a simple modernist kitchen with minimal details and beautiful materials.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So we've talked about the past, but I also like to look to the future.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Like I said, our remodel is always going to be most successful.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: If we keep one eye on the era that the house was built, not to copy it, but to make choices that feel compatible with that time period.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: That means that on a certain level, the choices you make today can never go out of style.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: But it's also a great idea to try to future-proof your remodel while we can't know what style will Blair up a die down over the next 70 years, trendy things will come and go.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Certain elements of good style will remain.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You'll likely not be able to make a remodel, truly timeless humans evolved as pattern seekers and just like our eye is drawn to the red Berry in greenery food.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: We easily see and identify style trends of the past.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Uh, one example of this is I like to walk through a neighborhood I've never been to before and identify the date of the last remodel for each house based on sight and color Brown almost always means the eighties, beige nineties, to early two thousands and gray was done in the last five years.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: This coordinates with other details that you can pull from around the house, and it's almost universally true.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: You can do the same thing with kitchens.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Follow the color ways of appliances and walls through the decades, baby pink and powder blue in the 1950s, bolder shades in the sixties, shifting to more earth tones of harvest gold than classic avocado in the 1970s.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And likewise, you can follow the wood grain on the cabinets.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: A seventies kitchen might have fo plank cabinets, a rustic look, an eighties, kitchen feels more Victorian inflicted.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: It has dark stained cabinets with fluted molding and hammered brass poles.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: The nineties dream kitchen was a reaction to that white on white.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And then in the early odds, everything goes back to Oak with stain glass inserts and dark granite countertops.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: And the 20 teens.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: We get the shaker cabinets, please don't put shaker cabinets in your mid century kitchen.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: They just don't match.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: My point is Aerobase styles are inevitable.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: So our best bet is to reach back and do something that feels friendly to the original build era of the house.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Whenever I think about that[inaudible] reality.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I like to return to the concept of a style guide.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I make a customized style guide for each of my master plan design projects, pulling together existing materials and details from the client's home.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: As it stands along with recommendations for each space based on their taste and our vision for the project.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Each room gets its own material palette and a workbook where the owner can fill in details as they are decided to coordinate flooring ceiling and wall finishes, cabinet faces, counter material, fixtures, fittings, and appliances with each other while it's fine to vary the pallet from one room to another, it does help to have some cohesive choices repeat throughout the whole house.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: This is one of the secrets of getting a designer.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Look on a DIY project.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I've actually created a free style guide workbook.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: So you can grab and go through this for yourself.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: If you want to apply these ideas to your kitchen or your whole house remodel, grab that from mid-May dash midwest.com/style guide.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Or if you want to hear a little bit more about those ideas, pop back to episode four Oh seven that's season four, episode seven, to hear why a cohesive style for your house matters.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Now I do encourage you to make choices that are personal for you.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Your kitchen is yours.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Your home is your own.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: It should suit you.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: But one of the most common problems people face and remodel is an overabundance of options.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: So let's narrow it down a little bit.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Here's some basic choices you can make when updating your mid-century kitchen, that will stand the test of time for flooring.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: You're looking for something durable, practical, and is light colored.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: As you feel you can keep clean.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I like Marmol Liam, cork, wood and tile.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: These are all strong choices that depend on your lifestyle for people who drop the dishes, go with cork, which won't break them rather than tile, which will, if you want to have consistent flooring through the entire house, going with either original wood floors or newly installed engineered or solid wood floors is always a good choice for a mid-century house.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Make sure that you don't let someone talk you into a dark stain color.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Uh, basically a clear coat is all you need on an Oak floor for a mid-century house.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: One of the most expensive parts of the kitchen remodel is the cabinet.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: So that's one of the choices that gets made first in this area.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I recommend people opt for slab style doors on European style frameless cabinets.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Now that isn't what homeowners were building within the mid-century era in America, but it aligns well with a modern simplicity of style.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And it's one of the best choices available from most manufacturers and cabinet companies today, the budget friendly option doesn't have them finished in white or a color of your choice.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Go bold if that's for you.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: But my personal preference is for stained wood finish.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And the ideal is a grain matched pattern that continues from one door to another, across a run of cabinets.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: This is a doable way to add beauty and craft to your project.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: And it's available both from custom cabinet makers and even from Ikea door replacement companies like semi handmade.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: This is actually a style that goes right back to the mid century era.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: My own incredibly builder grade cabinets were cut from several single pieces of plywood side by side so that the grain continues both side to side and up and down across each wall.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: It's lovely.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I just stand in the center of the kitchen and follow the patterns with my eye while I wait for the tea water to boil because watching the pot doesn't work for wall and ceiling finish, this is a place to play it safe if you feel so inclined, white is never a bad choice because it's going to bounce light around and make your kitchen feel brighter.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: But this is also a place where you can play with color walls are some of the easiest things to change your mind about.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: You can put on wallpaper or take it down.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: You can go with bold colors and change your mind later for your tile, probably on the backsplash.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: This might be another place to be conservative.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't matter to you, you can never really go wrong with Matt, simple and white, but I'll stand by the advice that if you find a tile, you love go for it, lean in bold choices.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: If they really matter to you, counter surfaces, again are a place where I recommend simplicity.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Nothing looks cleaner than a white counter, and I love solid surface counter.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: So that reason they're inexpensive.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: And if you're being offered a choice of fluted corners, choose the most simple shape.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: You can go for vintage charm with a sparkle, lamb laminate counter, or if you choose white for your cabinets, you might try what counter either a solid slab or a butcher block surface.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Now, when you're thinking about that wood, is it happening in the calendar or the cabinets somewhere in your mid century style kitchen, you need to be seeing woodgrain that might be happening simply in the details.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Several cutting boards scattered around the place.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: It could also happen in exposed shelving wall-mounted shelves.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Instead of closed.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Upper cabinets are a trend that I actually really stand behind because it helps the room feel larger by being able to see all the way to the walls at your eye height, one way or another there you want to coordinate the grains.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Ideally you should be using the same type of wood in the same finish for any wood grain that's happening in your kitchen.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: If not, you want to see samples of the two wood grains together so that you can make sure that they work well, that you aren't getting a green cast to one and a warmer tone to another, but you're going to clash and sit too.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: So just as I encourage you to think about what grain across different areas of the kitchen, I take the same approach for metal, and you're going to have a lot of metal elements in your kitchen and a bunch of places they might show up in handles and hinges door hardware, faucets, and other plumbing, fixtures, appliances, and light fixtures.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: For more detail on this checkout, season four, episode seven, but my general rule of thumb for choosing the metal to go together in what room is to pick two.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Um, you don't have to have everything match itself.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And even in fact, that's actually quite a challenge to grow across brands.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: But if you have just two types of metals, say a brass and a matte black back, or even played a nickel and a bronze, as long as you're consistent with those two choices and they show up in more than one place, you'll have a feeling of cohesiveness.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: One thing I always avoid in a kitchen remodel is brushed nickel.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: That's a choice that screams early two thousands like nothing else, and will instantly date your kitchen reminder, get samples of everything.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: There is a reason that interior design accounts on Instagram are always showing those beautiful flat lay images with a bit of cabinet face, some tile wall paint chips, and a handle.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: The two arranged together with beautiful lighting and a flower.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: They're doing that because it catches your eye.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: They're also doing it because a responsible interior designer will get samples of everything to check side by side before approving them.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: You want to be able to look at these materials together next to each other in the natural light of your own kitchen, and it will make a difference.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: So now they've started to pull together those things and possibly downloaded a style guide and started filling it out for yourself.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about splitting the difference between trendiness and bold choices and conservative choices that go for longevity in a way that works for you.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Thing is it depends on how much you care and how long you plan to be in the house.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Making a strong choice for any material in your house can cut two ways.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It can really personalize the house and make it your own, which is ideal.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: If you're going to be living in this house for a long time, or it could doom the house to an immediate remodel, as soon as you sell it, if that choice is going to be unappealing to someone else, I don't think people should plan for resale value.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: So I always advise people to make the boldest choices where they care the most, but if you're on the fence, make a conservative choice for more permanent finishes like tile, flooring, and cabinets, and be more playful with wall color, plumbing, fixtures, and handles, which can be more easily switched out over time.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Where are you going to find all these exciting ideas?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I've given you some verbal recommendations, but the best way to choose a material is to see it for yourself.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So you're going to be looking on Pinterest on Instagram and even with Google image search, although these days that mostly pops you back to Pinterest, you're going to look for ideas and magazines in homes you visit, yes, we're visiting homes again and anywhere else around you in the real world or media.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: What you want to do is every time you see a great material, pull it together and store it in one place.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: You can save your Instagram posts in Instagram or share them to your Pinterest board.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: You can use a project management software like Trello or a sauna together, links to products, or you can gather them in a spreadsheet or even a ring binder.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And the end.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter how you organize them, just that you stay organized, have a way to catch ideas and often specific product and pricing in a way that you'll be able to refer back to easily.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: For more advice on this, I recommend you check out season two, episode five on organizing our ideas and seven on the power of Pinterest.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: For more planning advice before I go, I just want to remind you that materiality is so important.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Putting beautiful materials onto a simple build.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Their basic layout can transform the way you feel about it.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Likewise, a really ideal functional layout that was chosen just for your family and lifestyle executed poorly with the wrong materials can feel clunky and off in a way.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: That's hard to identify in the end.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: The best advice I can give you for planning an excellent kitchen remodel that will stand the test of time is to keep one eye on the past.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: All you need to have is some beautiful.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Woodgrain a color or two that you love and a few well-executed details to help you pull those together.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Be sure to get your hands on a copy of my free style guide workbook.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You can find that style guide either linked to in the show notes at mid-March dash midwest.com/five Oh five to grab the links I've mentioned.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: See those other episodes I've referred to and here an outline of everything we've just covered, or you can grab it directly at midmark-midwest.com/style guide.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Please help new listeners find the show by adding a rating and review.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your feedback so much.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: That's it for the moment.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: We'll be back next week, talking about pulling together the master plan for your kitchen update.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned.