Well, it took a few months worth of Sundays, but the "model room" in the little red house is all finished except for moving the furniture in. I thought it would be nice to take a look back, see some before-and-after photos and discuss the role principles played in our project.
Here's the little red house
It's a cozy Mid-Century modern ranch home in the western suburbs of Chicago that we moved into last September. While we were charmed by it's "Not So Big" qualities, it was definitely in need of a little PrairieMod-ification. What did this mean?
Well, as the "before" photos of the "model room" show above, the little red house generally lacks an overall unified treatment to its color and trim choices. All the original woodwork had been painted over and the walls and ceilings have lots of signs of wear and tear. In short, the home needs a principled design approach taken to both its interior and exterior spaces.
Luckily, these principles are ones that have been identified and used by designers of the past, most notably by artists and architects from the Arts & Crafts Movement and the Prairie School, the original Modernists. It's these ideas, once largely forgotten or ignored, that we have made the foundation of the PrairieMod Lifestyle.
Utilizing these principles as a guide, we undertook a systematic overhaul of one room in the house to serve as our laboratory for how to approach the rest of the house. You can see the results below:
The soothing color of earth tones, the warmth of natural wood trim, brighter ceilings to increase the perception of room size and attention paid to small details make the room clean, simple, fresh and inviting. With eco-friendly and dynamic looking shelves for books, a new paper box light and a new color/design coordinating wool rug in place, the room starts coming together even more.
There are still some details to be finished (like the window treatment, some additional pieces of furniture moved in and some art for the walls, but the "model room" is pretty much completed. All thanks to a little elbow grease, some creativity and a set of 10 Principles to guide the way.
Check back with us to see more finishing touches for the "model room" over the next few weeks. We're getting ready to move on to the next project: Re-configuring the closets for the hall, master and 3rd bedroom. Until we ramp up for that big Spring project, we'll explore a few side topics and maybe do a little woodworking as well. Until next time!
Photos copyright PrairieMod
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