In the chat you’ve all been waiting for…Susan Halla of Make It Mid-Century and Della dish on mid-century design.
You might already know her from her delightful instagram account where she mixes fun examples of her mid-century design kits with history lessons – sharing famous and less well known mcm buildings and design history you can youse.
You MIGHT already be on her mailing list. She sends out a FANTASTIC first-of-the-month email that rounds up what’s new in the MCM community, shares deals, museum exhibits to check out, history lessons in detail, homeowner profiles and is generally always worth a read and a re-read.
OR you may have purchased one of her door kits – or some sparkle lam – thelp make your home a little more mid-century.
Basically … if you somehow DON’T know her yet … then hooray. You are in for a Treat!
But even if you do know her … you might learn a few things, today!
Listen in as the creator of the Master Plan Method meets the creator of Sparkle Lam to talk about architecture, how to listen to your house and why you should NEVER PAINT YOUR BRICK. It’s a meeting of two mid-century loving minds full of great advice, retro and modern resources, and holiday gift ideas.
In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:
- About the crime lab/mid-century kitchen connection…du-du-dun.
- How to deck out your door for all seasons!
- Sources for great gifts for the mid-century stans in your life. (Yes, that includes yourself!)
Listen Now On
Resources you need to make your remodel mid-century
- Sign up for Susan’s monthly Make It Mid-Century Newsletter.
- Grab my list of the best Mid-Century Resources.
- Learn how to get ready to remodel by watching my FREE Masterclass, “How to Plan an MCM Remodel to Fit Your Life(…and Budget)”, ON DEMAND.
- Want us to master plan for you? Find out all the details with my mini-class, Three Secrets of a Regret-Proof Mid Mod Remodel.
Resources for a Merry Mid-Century Holiday
- Visit Make It Mid-Century for the perfect mid-century products to make your holiday (or any day) sparkle.
- Check out Mid Mod Midwest and Modern Christmas Trees talking modern holiday design and decor over on Instagram!
- Our friends at Modern House Numbers have us covered for holiday shopping:
- Use the code “MIDMODHOLIDAY” for 10% off all made-to-order products.
- Valid Nov 1 through midnight MST on Dec 1, 2023.
- Excludes QuickShip products
- Want more great holiday gift and decor ideas? Pop over to our shopping guide.
And you can always…
- Join us in the Facebook Community for Mid Mod Remodel
- Find me on Instagram:@midmodmidwest
- Find the podcast on Instagram: @midmodremodelpodcast
Read the Full Episode Transcript
Della Hansmann 00:00
The clock on the wall behind me was gifted to me from your holiday shop.
Susan Halla – she/her 00:04
I wondered about that when I saw it in the background like that looks a lot like our clock.
Della Hansmann 00:09
In fact it is. My mom knows how much I like your stuff. So that was a great Christmas gift.
Susan Halla – she/her 00:16
Thanks, Mom.
Della Hansmann 00:19
Hey there welcome back to mid mod remodel. This is a show about updating MCM homes and helping you match a mid-century home to your modern life. I’m your host Della Hansmann architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast, you’re listening to Episode 1411.
Della Hansmann 00:32
So today, I am super excited to share my conversation with Susan Halla of MyKad mid-century. You may already know her from her delightful Instagram account, where she mixes fun examples of her mid-century design kids with useful history lessons, sharing famous and less well known mid-century buildings and design tips, history and facts you can use.
Della Hansmann 00:54
You might already also be on her mailing list, she sends out a truly fantastic first of the month, every month email that rounds up what’s new in the mid-century community shares deals, museum exhibits to check out history lessons, homeowner profiles, and it’s just generally always worth the read and reread.
Della Hansmann 01:11
Or you may have purchased one of her kits, door or garage door decoration kit or some sparkle lamb counter laminate to help make your home a little more mid-century. If you’re not already on her email list, go and sign up for it. But right now today, we’re going to chat about mid-century houses and history.
Della Hansmann 01:29
You’ll learn how she got here, and you’ll hear me meet another woman who made it all the way through design school and then escaped the world of traditional architecture firms to create a new kind of business. I feel like we should start a club. It’s a great conversation.
Della Hansmann 01:43
Speaking of starting a club, I want to direct your attention to several great mid-century businesses that you might want to support this November, should you find yourself getting sucked into the joyful noise of pre-holiday advertising. This time last year, we put together a mid-century Holiday Gift Guide for the mid mod excessive in your life. Or to give yourself some of this goodness, you can find the whole thing at midmod-midwest.com/1007.
Della Hansmann 02:09
But I’ll just give you a quick rundown right now if all you really need is a verbal reminder to go find some of these folks. And look, buying from small businesses. It’s about more than just making yourself feel good about yourself to support small businesses is to keep jobs and dollars local, plus it straight up fun. It comes with real benefits to building your community of design resources.
Della Hansmann 02:28
So while you’re out hunting for great reproductions from modern craftsmen who care or amazing vintage places that come with a story, the support you get out of those purchases is becoming part of the greater community of mid-century obsessives. Check out some of my favorite mid mod small businesses to seek out great pieces and details for your mid-century home update.
Della Hansmann 02:47
I love Mod Box Mailboxes for super zippy mailboxes, modern house numbers for modern house numbers. And by the way, don’t forget to use discount code mid mod holiday all one word to get 10% of modern house numbers all this month. I love hip haven for lights, planters and more mid-century goodness, atomic foundry for fun Starburst and Tiki doorbell cover plates.
Della Hansmann 03:11
Plus, check in today’s interview with Make It Mid-Century. They put together a sweet holiday pop up shop every year for a fun little details like wall lamps which if you’ve ever watched a video of me talking to you from my office you can see behind me there pop up shop goes live on November 25.
Della Hansmann 03:27
That’s a big date for us, too. keep your eye on your inbox to find out about some super savings around the holiday weekend on mid mod remodels, educational products will be discounting all of our courses and programs just after Thanksgiving for a very limited time. Don’t miss it!
Della Hansmann 03:41
Per usual, find the transcript of today’s episode plus other relevant info like how and where to sign up for Susan’s monthly email at the show notes page at mid ma dash midwest.com/ 1411.
Della Hansmann 03:54
Well, this conversation I feel like has been a long time coming because I’ve been a fan of this person and their whole work since I got excited about mid-century which now is not as long ago as the mid-century but feels like forever ago to me so I’m so excited today to be talking to Susan Halla of Make It Mid-Century about everything that she does. So, Susan, hi.
Susan Halla – she/her 04:21
I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time too. So I’m excited to talk to you.
Della Hansmann 04:25
That is so sweet. Well, it’s I feel like mid-century in general is such a great interlinked community. I have not had very many bad experiences. I can’t think of one actually everyone I meet in the mid-century world has been a new friend and simpatico and excited about all these exciting things that are fun. So it’s great to have you on the podcast and I know that people who listen to this are kind of your ideal. Extended Venn diagram overlap of they’re excited about making changes to their home. They love the mid-century features they have they wish their house had more mid-century features So hopefully we’ll talk a little bit about the practical how to aspects. But I wanted to start with how did you trip and fall into mid-century? Or have you always loved it? What was your entry point?
Susan Halla – she/her 05:09
That’s a really great question. And I’ll try to make it not super long, because I could probably go like all half an hour on this. But so when I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be an architect for a pretty long time. And we were driving down this street in St. Louis, where I’m from that house all these beautiful old houses, and I said something about them, my mom said, You should be an architect. So that’s what I started with.
Susan Halla – she/her 05:34
I have a degree in architecture, but then I realized, like, two thirds of the way through my architecture degree that that wasn’t quite enough for me. And then I was really interested in more kind of like the history and like being able to redo buildings that needed some love. And so I went and got my master’s in historic preservation on top of that, but it was somewhat of a recession when I finished school. And so I came home, and the only job that I could find that wasn’t just going to pay me and ramen was for just a standard general practice architecture firm, where we did a lot of like, I think we did health care that my very first job out of college was healthcare stuff.
Susan Halla – she/her 06:13
And I just kind of went from there to the point that I was, I became, I moved a couple jobs a couple times, but I was still just doing general practice architecture. And I ended up in a firm where I became one of the principals. And we did laboratory design, and my specialty was crime labs and medical examiner facilities. So I would say I’ve seen more drugs and more dead bodies than most people ever will. And so while it was really cool, and I actually became quite an expert at that, and like, if you Google my name, you probably will find out find some of the articles I’ve written on that particular genre.
Susan Halla – she/her 06:53
But this love that I had still from grad school that I’d never been able to realize, like one of the, one of the articles or whatever the paper research papers I wrote in college was all about mobile homes and their implication on the historical landscape. I mean, I’m just very nerdy that way. So I just love that I love the air. I love the design features. I love how people were coming out of classical architecture, and really trying to think new, even though mid-century still also encompasses things like colonial revival and kind of things that we think of as being more classical. Just even some houses like my house is what I would call, like, I’m trying to think like mid-century, like small mid-century, like on the outside, it doesn’t have like, it has a couple of hallmarks that are like, Oh, that’s the century and then it has some classical looks to it.
Susan Halla – she/her 07:51
But then you come inside, and there’s some things that are like Roman brick fireplace and like metal cabinets, and things like that, that are like yeah, this is a mid-century house. So that’s like I said, I could talk about that forever.
Della Hansmann 08:06
So when did you make the switch from crime lab design to working in mid-century?
Susan Halla – she/her 08:13
I should know what year that was.
Della Hansmann 08:16
lo these many years ago now
Susan Halla – she/her 08:18
2015, I believe is when I actually incorporated the business well, or L LLC, the business. I had started work on it a little bit before then I got disillusioned with my architecture firm when, as we were talking about off air, I found out that I was paid $30,000 a year less than the next lowest paid. person in my like in my stature of in the architecture firm. And when I asked them about a raise, they got angry, and told me that they felt like I was trying to rob them blind like they’ve given me the keys to the candy store. And I was like, I’m in here for 12 years, I have made you so much money. Guess I’m not making you any money any longer. So.
Della Hansmann 09:09
It’s pretty wild. Yeah, we were. I think a lot of women in design find themselves taking a sidestep from traditional firm life, which is not, I wouldn’t want to start everyone with the same brush. But there’s definitely some old boy network baked in to the practice of architecture. And
Susan Halla – she/her 09:29
definitely,
Della Hansmann 09:30
I actually just recorded a podcast episode that went live a couple of weeks ago. Well, now when this goes live, it’ll open up a month or two ago. But yeah, it’s there are so many women in the world. There’s so many women who are interested in design, but they don’t get to have their voices heard as much in the practice of architecture. And that’s one of the reasons why I’ve found so many interesting women who have started in architecture school and ended up doing something that’s not really what they ever expected to do, but it’s really fun and satisfying.
Della Hansmann 09:56
So hopefully it’s a happy ending, but it’s a little frustrating that it doesn’t get to go, you want to be a thing, you go to school to be a thing, you do that thing and happily ever after.
Susan Halla – she/her 10:06
It rarely happens that way. And I think that’s what I’ve been telling my kids too.
Della Hansmann 10:10
So yeah, well, life is twisty. So you wisely said enough of that and decided to do something else? How did you immediately strike on the business the way that it is now? Or did you thought did you think it would be something else and then it kind of, again, circuitously became what it is now?
Susan Halla – she/her 10:29
No, pretty much I stuck on how it is now because I don’t know if the your listeners will remember. But there was another place out there. And now I’m going to forget the name of it, Gosh, darn it, they made, they originally came out, they made mid-century door kits, I’m sure that I can picture their logo, but I can’t think of the name you all out there will know who I’m talking about. And they were offering door kits. And I actually bought a couple of them one for an interior door and one for my front door and love them.
Susan Halla – she/her 11:00
And they were all the rage around the internet. And then they came out with full doors. And they were obviously really expensive. And the door kits were still relatively cheap. And then all of a sudden, their prices started going up. And then all of a sudden they dropped having door kits all together. And everybody was like what happened. And then they just disappeared. So I ended up talking to somebody kind of after.
Susan Halla – she/her 11:28
So I’m like, well, I could do that I could fill that void that they left in this door kit community. And I have so many more ideas. They just have like, very basic, here’s three squares and your door. And I’m just like, there’s so many more styles out there. And they’re styles from different areas of the country.
Susan Halla – she/her 11:48
Yeah, like there’s different areas in Chicago is there are say in Indianapolis or New York than there are in Dallas or San Diego. So I wanted to be able to offer a lot of different designs. So that’s really where that came from. And from there. My next product was our sparkle lamb. And was something where I’m a big reader of Pam Kueber from retro renovation.com. And she was a great influence on me as well.
Susan Halla – she/her 12:19
And one of the things she would do a list kind of I don’t know if it was annually or just kind of every once in a while of like, what are the biggest things that we wish that they would bring back for mid-century homes and one of those big ones was glitter laminate, and I was like, I wonder if I could figure that out. So I just having been an architect, I have some contacts in like the plastic laminate manufacturing world. And I reached out to some of those and they were interested and Bob’s your uncle, here I am. And that’s really probably remains to be the most popular product that we still offer.
Della Hansmann 12:54
So that’s so fun. And it is it’s really something we lose, I spend a lot of time when I’m thinking about how we’re going to update with people if the House has already been remodeled, remodeled, lost a lot of his mid-century charm, we have a blank slate, we kind of start where we are. But if the House has some of its original features intact, but the layout is really problematic for the client, we have to debate like, if we change the kitchen layout, we’re gonna lose the counters, which sometimes people don’t appreciate it and that’s fine.
Della Hansmann 13:26
Or sometimes the laminates are in poor shape and it’s not worth salvaging. But every now and then it’s great it’s working except the layout doesn’t work on the lose it in the layout change. And it’s just a sad trade off. But you can bring it back or for people who have you know, someone came in and put in beige tile in the 90s. But they kept the original cabinets, maybe painted them maybe changed out the handles, so you can come back and time capsule, your house if you strip the paint, and put in a glitter lamp counter and get back the original handle type.
Della Hansmann 13:56
And then you’ve got all of the ingredients were there, if you have access to it. So it’s really fun. It’s one of my one of my favorite things to scope out on your website, when I’m just sort of dreaming up pretty things and looking at like the prettiness of images. I’m thinking about those colors and the glitter behind them. I love it. You know, it’s been really interesting, actually about the door kits that it had been pretty standardized in the previous incarnation.
Della Hansmann 14:22
But how much do you? Do you look when you’re still if you’re traveling around? Are you looking for keeping door styles to different places? Or do you try to connect people with the door styles from their places or just trying to get as many ideas in pot as possible? Up in the air? And then people can obviously people have the freedom to choose whatever door cat they want. But do people come to you because they want to match their neighbor’s door kit or do they come and pick the coolest thing on the website?
Susan Halla – she/her 14:48
That’s a really good question. I don’t you know, that’s one thing we could certainly do on our website is like say kind of where this particular style comes from and I hadn’t really thought about it until now that that was a possibility. to do, but I think people just pick the thing that resonates with them the most. But I haven’t really surveyed anybody to find out. But I don’t know, is it? Are they resonating with it? Because it’s something that they’ve seen around their neighborhood? Or how are they coming to that decision? That’s a great question to just maybe that’s a survey in my next newsletter.
Della Hansmann 15:20
I’d love to answer that question. Because I, I wonder, I know what I would say, I’m definitely drawn to. Sometimes I’m drawn to the coolest extreme, the sharp shape things, but I also like the idea of my door, picking up the patterns that are in my area. So I probably be drawn, I have my original dog, it’s not in fantastic shape. Honestly, it’s, it’s on the list. But if I was ever going to change it, I would probably be drawn to a pattern that already exists in neighborhood. Right, you’re that kindred?
Susan Halla – she/her 15:50
I think there’s people also that pick patterns that tend to pick up on other patterns on their house. And I’ve had a number of questions of people wanting to, like match their door in their garage door, things like that. So that’s something that we can work on with people too. We do do custom things. It’s not as easy for us to be that mobile, it kind of all depends on how busy we are, as to how if we can do that, but we have worked with other people in making like custom garage door kits to match a door or things like that.
Della Hansmann 16:21
Oh, that’s really fun. Because I think in a lot of the design your original mid-century houses, there were those little repetitions where the garage door spoke to the you know, wrought iron around the porch support and the front door and those things tied together. That’s really fun.
Della Hansmann 16:37
So I think one question, I bet a lot of the getting started listeners that we have here, people who haven’t really taken any action on their house, but they’re thinking about what they could do is what would you say to someone about how customizable you can think about the details on your house might be a good first project for someone who was a little handy, but hadn’t really taken any steps to make their house their own?
Susan Halla – she/her 17:00
Well, the first thing I’m going to say is maybe not the popular thing to do. But you see, like, everything’s been HGT advised, right? HGTV revised, I don’t even know how to say that. But you know what I mean, and that is that people buy houses, and immediately they go in and they like knock down everything, knock down the walls, change the bathroom, do everything. And my first thing for people is live in your house, live in your house for a year, because you don’t know how you’ll really use it.
Susan Halla – she/her 17:30
And you might realize, hey, I kind of like the separation between the kitchen and the living room. Because otherwise, they’d see all my messy dishes, because I’m not really good at doing the dishes. Yeah, sort of thing. But the other like, the thing that I think is the easiest thing for people to do is get paint. Because if you don’t like it, you can paint over it. It’s one of the cheapest things to do to and whether that’s painting your front door or really cool poppy color, or it’s painting one wall in your living room or something.
Susan Halla – she/her 18:06
I mean, there’s really cool things that you can do with paint. I mean, you can do you could go and make a whole out mural. Murals were a thing especially in like basement bar areas do you could do things like a tone on tone pattern or things like that. There’s all kinds of great things you can do with paint, not as cheap as it used to be when a gallon was like 15 bucks, but still one of your cheaper things to do.
Della Hansmann 18:33
It’s one of the cheaper things do and one of I mean, everything gets more expensive for different reasons. But paint has also gotten cheaper because it’s like, even flow easier and covers better and gotten less cheap either. So yeah, it’s gotten more user friendly as it’s gotten a slight bit more expensive. I agree. I think with the caveat that it’s an original mid-century unpainted, something maybe hesitate before you paint it right away. But yeah, it was throw paint on your
Della Hansmann 18:56
walls or yeah,
Della Hansmann 19:00
go Yeah, I think it’s such a great way to put your stamp on something and it’s so replaceable, you know, you can paint it one color one day then you can paint it another color the other day I watched my actually my across the street neighbor painted her front door five times to get the right color for her. I actually liked color three better than color five, but that’s me.
Della Hansmann 19:20
But I love that I love watching her do that because it was so satisfying. And it was right after she moved into the house. She has since become incredibly handy, but it’s her first house. And one of the first thing she did to it was repaint and repaint and repaint the front door until she got it exactly how she wanted it. And it’s great. It’s very well
Susan Halla – she/her 19:37
you and I will agree on one very important thing though. Do not paint brick.
Della Hansmann 19:43
Ah, yes. Absolutely. Yeah, well what give me give everybody your pitch for when not to paint brick because they have heard my song but I love to hear it again.
Susan Halla – she/her 19:55
There’s two different things that I always say about One You can’t unpainted brick. Because if you’re trying to unpaid brick you are going especially on a house. That is I’d say 1958 or younger, you’re going to have a very soft mortar in there. And so if you try to remove that paint, you’re going to remove the mortar, and you’re going to end up having to restock point your entire house. And that is not cheap. Yeah.
Susan Halla – she/her 20:01
But then the second thing is that paint, especially modern paints, they seal in any issues that you might have in your house. And in an older house, the walls were meant to breathe. They weren’t meant to be like completely hermetically sealed, like houses are today. And if you seal that outside face at your house, you’re more likely to get mold growing in places you will never see but your body may understand. So it’s dangerous, it can be incredibly dangerous to paint brick, actually.
Della Hansmann 20:54
Not a good idea. Yeah, it’s my I feel the same way about vinyl siding. Honestly, it’s not quite as one to one. But I feel like anytime you’re changing the moisture permeability of your house. When you’re sealing it in when you’re coding it in the layer of paint, which is almost plastic these days, when you’re wrapping your house in plastic, you are asking for moisture problems that you’re like, Well, why would my house I’ve moisture problems at 70 years old? Well, you just changed it. Right 70 year old system that worked. Now no longer works differently, and probably not better. Well, thank you for that. And never tell her when enough.
Susan Halla – she/her 21:29
That’s right. We’ll keep singing.
Della Hansmann 21:32
Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s important, but there are so many things you can change and you can change back. Your gifts make it so possible. So you have your front door, the garage door kits, what else do you facilitate people making changes? Right? Oh, and also of course, the sparkle lam, right?
Susan Halla – she/her 21:52
We have we also have decorative tile that we can use. So we talked about for people that want to just kind of like put little decorations around and a backsplash or in a shower. We’ve had people use them like for a band, or we’ve had people use them for like the edge of the backsplash or things like that those tile are just really great and fun for that. And we’ve gone to now where we have put kind of yours on them.
Susan Halla – she/her 22:25
So we have patterns that really spread the gamut. And mid-century from like, kind of 1940s patterns all the way up now to like 19, early 1970s patterns. So that’s something that we absolutely love, too. We have some interior door kits, too, that we’ve had people either put on their doors, if they aren’t, they are not authentic mid-century, you would not have seen this, this is something that if you live in a house, but you want to give it some mid-century, this is a great opportunity. We’ve had people take them and apply them on walls to just for like artwork. So there’s all of those things.
Susan Halla – she/her 23:02
And we had for quite some time we were carrying a line of solid color tile, and that manufacturer and they were the only manufacturer, okay, there’s only one other manufacturer I know that still has the mid-century pastels. And they’re so backlogged, it’s insane. So we were going gangbusters on that, that tile, but the manufacturer we wrapped decided they were no longer going to make it. So we’re still searching for what to do. We’ve got we’ve had a couple of opportunities have some kind of 21st century ideas for how to make pastel shaded tile. So out of standard white tile. So we’re still looking into that. But it’s just it’s rough. It’s rough out there.
Della Hansmann 23:46
It’s frustrating, because from my point of view, there’s an ever growing desire for more mid-century details and materials and people want it and the more they learn about it, the more they do want it but it just feels like sometimes it’s really hard to connect that with the builders and the suppliers that exactly, maybe I’m wrong, maybe we’re maybe we’re so niche. It’s not worth serving us, but I just don’t feel like that’s my experience.
Della Hansmann 24:11
And yet that seems to be how suppliers look at the mid-century oriented design. With the exception of you know, there’s obviously a way of popularity in terms of your West End style, mid-century, is furniture, etc. And everything is branded mid-century if you look at it on Jeffrey Bezos, this website, but is it Yeah, anyway, it’s frustrating and hard to find some of those authentic things. And sometimes the best bet really is to find what’s being salvaged out of another original house. Right rescue that into your house in terms of hardware or light fixtures or bath appliances, anything.
Susan Halla – she/her 24:52
And I have people asking me all the time because we did carry the tile. Do you know where it can find this? Like I need five tiles where they had to I change the spigot on my bathtub or whatever. So I do have two places that I will send people to all the time. But, you know, it’s kind of a crapshoot. But so if you see it, pick it up.
Della Hansmann 25:13
Yeah, grab it, it’s worth.
Susan Halla – she/her 25:14
Other people. If you are redoing your house, you talked about this earlier, Della like people that might have to remove countertops, because they no longer fit in in a kitchen that they’re re kind of reconfiguring the kitchen. If they are like coveted sparkle laminate, or some kind of a star pattern or back boomerang or whatever, you can sell those old fixtures or old toilet sinks, whatever, they have a great value to people, please do not, do not do what HGTV does and just go in with a sledgehammer and take it out because one you’re adding you’re contributing to the landfill, but to there are people who want that and will buy it from you.
Della Hansmann 26:00
I know I know, every time I see. Basically contractors, trucks pull up in my neighborhood, I think, Oh God, are they gonna get a dumpster what’s gonna happen and then sometimes I have the time and insanity level to go like salvage out of what people put by the curb. And I have stacks, I have stacks of like, other people’s basement shelves in my basement, that I’m like, I have to do something with it. It can’t be trash. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I had to go like carry it home while I was walking Roxy in the neighborhood. I know it seems insane. And other times I can’t I don’t have the capacity to do it. It just makes me so sad. But at the very least dropping it off in your local restore. But Facebook is a thing.
Susan Halla – she/her 26:40
We have the five chairs in my living room were all things that I scavenged out of the alleys. And whenever I see a contractor like a skip, or whatever you want to call it up, like outside the house, I almost always look in it to see if there’s anything good. So it’s, I have a problem. I do admit it. But yeah, do what you gotta do to save these things.
Della Hansmann 27:04
I have a broken chair problem. Absolutely. Some of them are in my living space. Some have warning signs, my family members know not to sit on the chair in the corner because it wobbles but I will not get rid of it. And then there’s projects that are not acceptable for living space yet that are stacked in space in the garage. I have too much space. And it’s dangerous for me, because I fill it with future projects I don’t have time for you may be familiar.
Susan Halla – she/her 27:29
I’ve already filled. And that’s why I have like 6, 5-6 just chairs in my living room. So because they just keep finding me. I can’t say no.
Della Hansmann 27:40
I know. That’s a process. And it’s like maybe it’s an Etsy business or something to restore them and put them back out into the world. But that’s we’re both doing other things right now.
Susan Halla – she/her 27:50
Right? I have a lot of ideas. But there’s only one me.
Della Hansmann 27:54
Right? Well, that was actually my next question is if you could add one more layer to what it is you already do, realistically or unrealistically? What do you wish it was that you could help people with their mid-century whatnot, or, or something else?
Susan Halla – she/her 28:08
Well, one thing that I actually just, I mean, I took the tentative little baby steps of this is we don’t have any flooring. And the goal of this business was to have all kinds of mid-century materials that you would need to restore your house. And so I’ve reached out to a cork company and also a linoleum company about potentially being able to represent their products on our website and be able to offer those up to the people that buy from us. So the nice thing about that is, is it we become the middleman which doesn’t make us sound great. But we have to survive somehow, right? I mean, I can’t do this for free.
Della Hansmann 28:52
People find you because they need your expertise. And they need you to validate things for them. So Right.
Susan Halla – she/her 28:58
So like the only things that I would be repping would be things that I would put in a mid-century home as an architect. So that’s where I think it would be really helpful for that. So those are two things that we’re looking into the cork may not be financially feasible, still looking into the linoleum, but stay tuned. We don’t do anything fast around here, though. Sorry.
Della Hansmann 29:25
Probably wise, you got to scope it out, make sure you actually do believe in it, and then get everything up and running. So you can do it smoothly. But it’s exciting. I definitely get questions from people all the time about what’s the appropriate choice, where can I find something authentic? I definitely get people who are committed to that question of what’s the authentic choice for my house?
Della Hansmann 29:47
And the answer is sometimes you can’t and sometimes it’s the possibilities are many. And I tend to take a little bit of an attitude of some things weren’t around in the mid-century but if they had been Those folks would have been wild about this. So I give it a pass. But we work with, we work with a range of folks who are either interested in really being as time capsule specific as they can, or who just want to make sure that they’re referencing the era of their house and their update. While they make some, certainly some more contemporary choices, or compromises, or, or intentional moves, but I think it’s really fun to have the possibility to know that you can go to someone, and they can give you a range of things and endorse them.
Della Hansmann 30:28
And you have done so much the research, by the way, your newsletter is amazing comes out on the first of the month, every month. Yep, I always bookmark it so that I can like sit down and read it in detail when I have time. Have you been doing that since the beginning?
Susan Halla – she/her 30:44
I can’t remember exactly when I started, it probably wasn’t as every first of the month, every month as it is now. But it’s been years though, since I’ve been doing it first of the month, every month kind of thing. And I keep thinking, I’m gonna run out of ideas, but somehow I always pull it off at the end. And yeah, we get lots of compliments about the newsletter. And it’s, it’s just a great way to connect with my people. Because I do hear from people that just email back and say, I love this month’s newsletter, oh, I always wonder what that thing was, or whatever. And it’s, then we can kind of commiserate or whatever about that I, you know, I email him back and we have a little chit chat about it. So it’s great.
Della Hansmann 31:28
That’s marvelous. And you get to use your architecture, school research skills to bring in the history.
Susan Halla – she/her 31:34
Exactly.
Della Hansmann 31:36
That’s fun. So do you feel like you get to bring your design eye into what you do? Does it feel like you’re still stretching those muscles in this? Or does it feel a little bit more like you’re doing other things, you’re still in the mid-century, still in the design of it all, but not necessarily, not necessarily the way you were trained to?
Susan Halla – she/her 31:56
I don’t think there’s as much design in it as I would like, because being a sole proprietor, it’s like, I’m the marketer, I put my hats on. I’m the manufacturer, I’m the when things go wrong person. I’m like, like everything. So there isn’t as much time for design as I would like. However, I’m trying to kind of like, arrange things so that I’m not like for our laminate, we’re now accepting orders up to the 15th of the month. And then we process all those orders in one big batch. And that means that I don’t have to like, be setting up and tearing down every time I need to make the paper for our laminate. And it gives me a little bit more spare time for that sort of thing.
Della Hansmann 32:46
Yeah, having a process is essential when you’re, when you’re trying to do everything at once. You can’t do everything every day, you have to do,
Susan Halla – she/her 32:54
right, trying to work smarter, not harder. Yeah.
Della Hansmann 32:59
That’s the goal. It’s not always possible when you’re working at a small scale, but it’s necessary for sanity. So that’s, that’s a very rational thing. And so for anyone who’s thinking of putting in laminate order, make sure you get it in the first half of the month.
Susan Halla – she/her 33:12
That’s right, exactly.
Della Hansmann 33:15
That’s, that’s really fun. Yeah, I’ve been I’ve been so inspired by some of the things you do some great features on your Instagram to have historical projects and different materials, finishes hardware of the mid-century era. So it feels like a fun little history class, as well as a place to go to get things. And that’s, I mean, it’s marketing. Sure. But it’s also just the love we all share for this era and how cool it was, and what fun sort of lifestyle shifting ideas they had and style they had, which is really great.
Susan Halla – she/her 33:49
Right? Well, I know, I gain inspiration from seeing what other people have done. So a lot of what our social media is, is other projects that other people have done and I get crap all the time from people going you need to push your products more. I’m like I do when we have a new product or there’s a cool photo I can share or whatever. But like day to day, like here’s a picture of me sitting in a chair writing a newsletter. I mean, that’s not really interesting. So if it’s something that I think is cool, and I like to read then I feel like we’re kind of a curation for that so
Della Hansmann 34:27
well, that’s a service in itself, which probably deserve some sideways compensation, but that’s not really what if only four. Um, marvelous, well, what do you wish more people did for their houses that they could be doing or that they can’t do right now that you wish there was a way for them to do to keep them more mid-century or to make them make it more mid-century?
Susan Halla – she/her 34:51
I see what you did there. What I think about the first thing that comes to mind, I think when you ask that quote Question is more that. Don’t try to follow trends. Like if you put a waterfall edge on your countertop, it’s going to say, that’s 2010s in about 10 years, or the tile that looks like wood that’s like, I don’t know what it is 12 by 18, or whatever that oblong, it’s gonna scream to 1000s. And whereas if you try to, you don’t have to be a purist, I am a purist. And I completely understand that I want my materials in my home to look like they were always there. But you want all of your materials to at least hearken to the era. Otherwise, you’re gonna be doing it again in 10 years. And unless you like to do that, and you have all the money in the world, you know, just try to listen to your house. Listen to your house.
Della Hansmann 35:58
I just have to say, I did not ask you to say that, um, that that was organic. Thank you for that. I couldn’t agree more. And I think that it’s really the goal of everything that I try to put out into the world is to get it. Yeah, exactly. I love purists and I, I’m not as much of a purist in my own personal taste as I could be, but I appreciate it. And we work with clients who are but wherever you are on that spectrum of perfect museum preservation up to an update of a house, the more you can listen to that original house and avoid those trends, the less often, you’re gonna have to do it all over again, and pay for it all over again in it. What you did before ends up in a landfill. It’s so frustrating. So that’s marvelous. Well, grand.
Susan Halla – she/her 36:42
We’re of two minds, aren’t we? But we’re of one in a way.
Della Hansmann 36:46
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that all I can say is, it’s great to think about bringing some more mid-century style back to your house. And you should definitely think about a door kit for makeup mid-century. Or if you are wondering, what’s the perfect countertop material for a mid-century kitchen? Sparkle Lam is an answer. That’s a good one. What did I actually have some questions about that? Is it scary to think about a DIY install of that? Or how do you find a person who can put it on for you?
Susan Halla – she/her 37:19
It is so not scary to do it yourself. And in fact, the countertops when I first started working from home, and I had to make a home office, I didn’t use my I didn’t have my own lamp and at the time, so I didn’t use my laminate. But I was like, Well, how hard can this be? And it was so not hard at all to do. And then I just recently, I’ve been redoing our shop where we manufacture like our door kits and stuff. And so I just put in all sparkle laptops in my shop, one to show people that it’s easy to do and to show people that it’s quite durable, actually, that I feel comfortable having it in my shop.
Susan Halla – she/her 37:56
It’s really easy to do, you certainly want a couple other people with you. But if you have kind of basic DIY skills, if you can use a circular saw or a router, that’s great, but like it’s other than that, it’s really easy. And it’s so easy though that finding somebody if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, I always say your next step is to find, do you have a dad or a brother or a friend who you can ply with pizza and beer? countertop, that’s your next cheapest option.
Susan Halla – she/her 38:31
But then even if you can find a handyman, or someone who’s a carpenter that you could hire, that would be kind of the next step up. So we’re going to step up and step up in in price. And then you’re kind of your, well, I guess your next step after that is somebody who is a cabinet builder, they probably know. And then if you really don’t know anybody, if you walk into a kitchens and baths store and say I’m looking for somebody to make this for me, do you have any recommendations, they probably do too. But they’ll probably be the priciest of all those. But there’s a lot of different ways that you can do that. So.
Della Hansmann 39:06
well, it’s amazing. And I have my original kitchen, partly out of apathy and partly out of busyness and partly out of I would change the layout but I just love my suite cabinet so much. But also when I moved in I was again this is live with it for a year when I moved in, I was not wild about the countertops, they’re a little off white and the kitchen needs more lighting in it.
Della Hansmann 39:26
I’m working on that. And so sometimes it can seem dingy, but also I have learned they are absolutely bomb proof. And you can’t scratch them with a knife and you can set hot things on them and they have this beautiful curvature to them. They sort of like are molded over the front and then they go back up and from a backsplash. They’re great. And now I’m like well I can’t change the layout of my kitchen because I’m never going to replace these counters. I might replace the drop in sink. I might do a new faucet. I might even like add more built ins but I’m never going to remove the built ins that I have because I’m never gonna that countertop I’m gonna be here until doomsday as far as I can tell. So Ray for limits and how classy and adorable they can be. That’s really fun. Hopefully, we get inspired someone,
Susan Halla – she/her 40:12
you may be able to cut on your countertop, but I don’t suggest that on laminate recommended.
Della Hansmann 40:17
Yeah, I like a cutting board. But I just I, I have not been able to do anything bad to these counters. And I haven’t been that careful with them. Because when I moved in, I thought, not long for this world. But I was wrong. They’re here to stay. That’s fun. Oh, well. Great. Anything else you really want people to know before we have to wrap up this podcast episode.
Susan Halla – she/her 40:41
Well, I will say that since this is coming out in November, we will be doing a last year we did this and we’re doing it again this year and kind of in a little bit bigger way. We’re doing a holiday shopping extravaganza; we’re doing one we’re doing it in person. So one of my good friends is she was the proprietor of Atomic Kiki and she has now it’s now going to be called Orange pop where she does some design work with clients in the St. Louis area.
Susan Halla – she/her 41:11
But she has a storefront, we’re actually going to sell our products in the storefront. But we’re also going to sell them on our website. So look for that the opening day for that will be the Saturday after Thanksgiving that is opening day of shops small or Small Business Saturday. That’s the word I’m looking for. And we’ll have a bunch of things that we don’t normally carry on our website. They’re just things that you could give as gifts. So we’re looking at some of the things we had last year some like pet dishes, we had have some pillows, we have some candelabras we’re also going to look into doing some glassware with like, some cool like designs of breezeblock on them and perhaps some light fixtures a couple of different things to add to the mix.
Susan Halla – she/her 42:00
But still things that are fun for you if you want to gift them to yourself or if you need to like make your house pop before the holidays and you have people over there stuff for you. And then there’s also things that would be great gifty items to send other people.
Della Hansmann 42:13
right gifts for yourself links you can send to your family members that know you like mid mod but don’t know what you mean by that, or things for your mid mod friends. That’s perfect. Well, on that note, I am going to mention a couple of other great mid-century organizations we should all be supporting on Small Business Saturday, but I should just say that actually I believe that the clock on the wall behind me was gifted to me from your holiday shop.
Susan Halla – she/her 42:40
I wondered about that when I saw it in the back. And I’m like this looks a lot like our clock.
Della Hansmann 42:44
In fact it is my mom knows how much I like your stuff. So that was a great Christmas gift.
Susan Halla – she/her 42:50
Oh, that’s so nice. Thanks, Mom.
Della Hansmann 42:53
So maybe that is also motivated people so we want people to play with paint, but not on the brick. We want people to buy sparkle lam, and we want people to think about great mid-century gifts for this holiday season and beyond.
Susan Halla – she/her 43:07
That’s right.
Della Hansmann 43:09
Well, that was so much fun. So go check out make it mid-century immediately and add a little more atomic era sparkle to your life. Find handy links to their stuff and more admin dot dash midwest.com/ 1411.
Della Hansmann 43:24
Next week on the podcast will be actual American Thanksgiving when the episode drops on a Thursday, I will have a best of episode for you to listen to while you prep your turkey or just prep yourself for family and friends get together.
Della Hansmann 43:36
And I’ll be back with some fresh thoughts a week after more advice on how to cut down the chaos in your life by designing with the cyclical nature of your life in mind. Happy Holidays, my friend.