I believe in traditions. I believe in rituals of hearth and home. I believe in chopping vegetables, wrapping presents, and setting the table.
Call me sentimental.
I miss the days when people got dressed to go on airplanes—or even just for dinner. I miss the time when families sat down to dine together; when people would talk and not just text; when kids would stay outside and ride their bikes until sundown; when our country was less fractured; when common courtesy was, well, common.
My mother, Marilyn, was a social worker. She taught me to send handwritten thank you notes and to make my bed each day. She taught me how to dress and to make a good first impression. She taught me that kindness is free and that a smile is always in style.
My father, Robert, was an entrepreneur; a semi-pro boxer, and a soldier in World War II. He taught me to take the road less traveled. He taught me to take care of my possessions. He taught me to live each day to the fullest, to always keep my car clean, and to approach life as a grand adventure.
I do my best to honor their legacy, and as I look at the work on these pages—my unfolding life’s work—it becomes evident that I am decidedly nostalgic. But I don’t feel that I am nostalgic for a certain architect, a certain form, or a certain chair. Rather, I am nostalgic for that simpler, more gracious time. I think that we as a society have a similar collective yearning.
Perhaps that is why midcentury modern design has had, and continues to have, a hold on the American consciousness. From television shows, to car commercials, to the fashion runway, what many critics have called a “trend” seems to have no indication of slowing down any time soon.
Yet not all of us can live in a pedigreed midcentury modern home. Fear not; the principles of midcentury modern design can be applied to the most unassuming of dwellings. The midcentury modernists were creating a movement that eschewed excess and needless ornament, so if your abode is humble, there is no reason to worry. I choose small and well-appointed over wanton grandeur any day.
This book is intended to help you create a midcentury modern look by offering foolproof tips for introducing modernist design into your home.
This book is also intended to help you make midcentury modern. In all of my interior designs, I strive to incorporate the principles of midcentury modernism in a way that feels fresh, relevant, and current. I never want my clients to feel as if they are living in a museum or time capsule.
Because I believe that nostalgia—and design, for that matter—is much more than skin deep, you will notice that much of my advice is dedicated to the life behind the style.
The celebrated midcentury designers were decidedly forward-thinking. They were using the new technology of the time (plastic, fiberglass, bent wood) and creating shapes that had never been seen before. They were dreamers and futurists. I like to think that if they were alive today, they would be creating “what’s new” and not resting on their sixty-year-old laurels. I feel that the best way to honor the legacy of these masters is to incorporate their pieces into designs that are decidedly of this century.
So, welcome, and enjoy. Design; create; dream. The past is our muse and the future our canvas.
Photography © Grey Crawford.
Photography © Grey Crawford.
Photography © Grey Crawford.
Photography © Lance Gerber
In a nod to my 1970s roots, I topped the room off with a photo mural depicting Joshua Tree National Park.
I tempered the bold geometry of this bedroom with an oversize floral print from Designers Guild.
Photography © Grey Crawford.
