Retro Reno: How to Time Travel With Makeovers

As long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with interior design. From Christopher Lowell of Discovery Channel to Jasmine Roth of HGTV, I’ve spent countless hours watching home makeover shows. There is an adage that says, “when you look good, you feel good’. Although that is usually applied to clothing style, throughout the years people are beginning to understand the same is true, if not truer for one’s home. With the amount of energy and money invested, people homes become an extension of themselves.

When my husband and I purchased our home a decade ago, we felt a sense of accomplishment. That feeling of accomplishment gave way to excitement, as we began to formulate a design plan for our new space. We are both obsessed with mid-century modern, also known as, the mod era. As we began to look at furniture, gather paint swatches, and compare floor samples, we came to understand, turning our 1942 bungalow into a mod haven was going to be an exercise in ingenuity.

The television show, Mad Men, re-introduced a new generation to mid-century modern design. It highlighted the clean lines and quality materials of the era. The decorum in Don Draper’s office, home, and eventual apartment, were a reminder of the effortless beauty of furniture made with real wood (especially teak), steel, and glass. This is important considering many furnishings now are made with particle board, mixed metals, and plastics. To this day, many people reference Don Draper’s New York city pad as a mod masterpiece.

In my world, Darrin Stevens of “Bewitched” is the original Don Draper. There are multiple similarities between the two men. They both had jobs in advertising, stay at home wives, and amazing living spaces. However, when it comes to mid-century modern television decorum, none was better than the set of “I Dream of Jeannie and The Brady Bunch. Depending on when you were born, you might believe mod furniture was preferred by supernatural people and astronauts. As we began surrounding ourselves in 1950s and 60s vibes, we accidentally became collectors. We realized the furniture we were collecting was also similar to that of our parents and grandparents. Nostalgia is something else.

Everyone knows the superstars of mid-century modern design, Herman Miller, Charles and Ray Eames and Frank Lloyd Wright. But once you start going down the rabbit hole, you discover metal work artist like C. Jere and abstract artists like Andy Warhol. The excellence and creativity of the mod age are unmatched. For those who might become interested in the era, just be aware, authentic pieces will be hard to find. Because of supply and demand, a vintage Eames lounge chair with ottoman can cost $5,000 and upward.

Whether you are into mod or French provincial, every makeover begins with figuring out which room to start in. In our case we decided on the living room. The next and most crucial decision to be made was, the color scheme. Once that was settled, things started falling into place. We found a vintage sofa, a teak credenza and two vintage chairs. We got the chairs reupholstered and new carpet. I should mention that my husband knows carpentry. He made a floating table out of a mod headboard (this is currently my favorite piece). I bought four canvasses and made abstract art pieces to match the color scheme. At last, the living room was complete (for now, lol).

The next project we tackled was the bathroom. Our bathroom is not the biggest, but we were creative in the way we applied the mid-century modern feel to it. To make the room look larger, the material from the floor is ran halfway up the walls. We used the main color from the living room as an accent in the bathroom for a look of cohesiveness. We refurbished the medicine cabinet, added lighting, and updated the cabinetry. With the addition of subway tile and a soaker tub, it is like being in a small Zen spa.

According to Japanese philosophy, Zen is a state of inner peace, harmony, and deep understanding of oneself and the world around them. The clean lines and straightforward design of the mid-century era align with the principals of Zen. When the shutdown of 2020 happened, like everyone else we began to feel cooped up. It was then we decided to expand our design style to our backyard and made a mod-–Zen oasis. The superhero I am married to, put up a privacy fence, made a rock garden, built a platform deck, made a park bench, bought a beautiful Buddha sculpture, and put up a hammock. It reminds me of Palm Springs. The capitol of mid-century modern, as far as I’m concerned.

People redecorate for multiple purposes. They do it to improve the function of their homes. They do it to improve the aesthetics. But some do it to add a vibe. For example, my husband and I are nerds. But he is way more serious about his collecting than I am. When it came time to build him a collector’s room, he produced an ingenious plan and built a collector’s wall. This allowed for him to display part of his collection without taking up floor space. I find it ironic that most of the things in his current hobby wall are of characters made in the mod era.

In 1963, America was introduced to the X-Men. Fast forward to 2022, I have 6ft x 3ft shadow box in my basement, filled with the characters Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created almost 60 years ago. In keeping with the theme of our home, our “mini marvel museum” as I like to call it, is clean lined and made with mid-century modern materials like metal, acrylic and wood. I know my spouse feels a sense of relaxation and pride when he looks at it, because I do, and I did not even build it. It’s a whole vibe.

When you get ready to renovate be ready to mentally time travel. You have to evaluate yourself, see how you feel about the current state of your home and how you want it to look and feel in the future. Transforming our home into a 1950s/60s theme took years and resources. Sometimes we had to drive great distances to attain the items we wanted for our space. As a fan of Japanese author and organizing expert, Marie Kondo, I took to heart her advice on only keeping (or having) things in your home that spark joy, and I do.

When you think about it, redecorating is a form of therapy. You have to go through a process to understand your likes and dislikes to decide what’s your style personality. Houses are the places where memories are made, and where people go to feel safe and relaxed. Homes are personal temples. If you are lucky you get to spend years making memories in them and thanking God you have one.