Is Mid-Century Modern on Its Way Out?

[Anonymous]

I don't know that it is on the way out as much as evolving. I agree with the pp who said look first to the architecture of the house. Among the major house styles there will be a few different design styles that will work. For example, I have a traditional white Victorian with black shutters. The floor plan resembles a colonial and it has the markings of an old house: Thick molding, French doors, transoms above some doors, wood floors, plaster walls in some rooms. The house can absorb a variety of traditional, transitional, grandmillenial, cottage, preppy and sort of 80's style. (My dining room is pink). It sings with color, symmetry, layers of some pattern (like in curtains). I could make it streamlined and use more modern furniture and paint it white. But it does better with color.

[Anonymous]

Poster above....so a ranch or more modern home will for example do well with MCM furniture but it can probably also respond well with a bit of contemporary (in color schemes) transitional, (maybe in the lighting and furniture) boho (for texture and warmth). In other words, there are sister styles that often can be merged so the design is not just "one thing" which I think can fall flat. (Though some people love that). I love traditional but not traditional wall colors like red, green. So I use lighter colors in my traditional house (coastal blues, pink, mustard). Yes it can look like Easter, but I do it in a way where it is grounded by wood floors, English line, pattern, neutral white couches, etc. It's light in other words because I like that. See if you can integrate MCM with your own twist in other words. Start to expose your eye.

[Anonymous]

*English pine

[Anonymous]

What if the house was built in the 80s…the 1980s? How do you decorate your house if you aren’t into Memphis Style?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

[Anonymous]

we just bought a 1970s house. While I'm decorating/renovation to keep within the general style, the 70s was not the height of good design. The mauve bathroom is definitely not staying.

I am trying to stick with the general lines of the house, and not to do fussy. I think my favorite furniture/period is art deco, but I can only do that in a limited way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if the house was built in the 80s…the 1980s? How do you decorate your house if you aren’t into Memphis Style?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

Many homes built in the 80s reference another period architecturally. Is this the case with your home, or is it an 80s style? If it is 80s, and since you mentioned that you don’t care for 80s design, then I would pivot to Art Deco. Much of 80s style was Art Deco inspired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to not make your house look “dated” is to start with the house itself. What does it look like? What is the architectural style? You certainly don’t need to “match” that or make it a period home but if your house IS a mid-century modern house, that style will continue to look at home there.

Imo the most “timeless” style is Rich People Vaguely English Country which is “timeless” mostly because a lot of those English houses stay the same for many decades and because rich Americans never tire of imitating them. So it’s more about staying power than “timelessness.” And because to do it well, you’re going to have antiques and such from several periods and so things are “dated” to many periods and you have a nice mix. Whether the Chippendale is from Great-grandmother or last week at Christie’s. Southerners do the more fun version of this but I think Connecticut has the best ones.

I highly recommend NOT looking at design blogs and sites. They’re often terrible. People make fun of the haughty magazine editor stereotype but those betches were saving us from ourselves. So look at magazines, old magazines.

Agreed on all accounts. Rich People Vaguely English Country is a much more flexible style than many think. It can age gracefully and be updated for each generation. It can be formal and informal, often in the same room.

I have respect for MCM and admire aspects of it, but it's hard to argue that it's timeless given that before, say, 2005, it was considered very ugly and dated and old fashioned. No one was talking MCM in the 1980s and 1990s. No one. I repeat, no one. However, many of its simple pieces are almost classical in form and will have a place in the future.

My grandparents had the same mid century modern pieces that they’d had for forty years and I loved it throughout the 80s and 90s. It was timeless. Some people just had no taste to appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we just bought a 1970s house. While I'm decorating/renovation to keep within the general style, the 70s was not the height of good design. The mauve bathroom is definitely not staying.

I am trying to stick with the general lines of the house, and not to do fussy. I think my favorite furniture/period is art deco, but I can only do that in a limited way.

I have a mod 1970s house (it’s not mid century mod, but it’s definitely more mod than traditional) and I have tried to crack that nut. The 1970s were also heavily inspired by the 1940s, and another type of style that works well in our age of home is upscale modern from the 60s and 70s. Billy Haines’s work https://www.williamhaines.com/ Betty and Gerald Ford’s Palm Springs house was built in 1973; this is the updated version so you can see how to incorporate elements of the 1970s. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/home-decor/a27547641/inside-gerald-ford-betty-ford-house/

(Keep the mauve bathroom, at least elements of it!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to not make your house look “dated” is to start with the house itself. What does it look like? What is the architectural style? You certainly don’t need to “match” that or make it a period home but if your house IS a mid-century modern house, that style will continue to look at home there.

Imo the most “timeless” style is Rich People Vaguely English Country which is “timeless” mostly because a lot of those English houses stay the same for many decades and because rich Americans never tire of imitating them. So it’s more about staying power than “timelessness.” And because to do it well, you’re going to have antiques and such from several periods and so things are “dated” to many periods and you have a nice mix. Whether the Chippendale is from Great-grandmother or last week at Christie’s. Southerners do the more fun version of this but I think Connecticut has the best ones.

I highly recommend NOT looking at design blogs and sites. They’re often terrible. People make fun of the haughty magazine editor stereotype but those betches were saving us from ourselves. So look at magazines, old magazines.

Agreed on all accounts. Rich People Vaguely English Country is a much more flexible style than many think. It can age gracefully and be updated for each generation. It can be formal and informal, often in the same room.

I have respect for MCM and admire aspects of it, but it's hard to argue that it's timeless given that before, say, 2005, it was considered very ugly and dated and old fashioned. No one was talking MCM in the 1980s and 1990s. No one. I repeat, no one. However, many of its simple pieces are almost classical in form and will have a place in the future.

Agree that MCM was “out” for a long time, but your time line is incorrect (why is it that the people who are the most adamant are usually wrong?). I have a very design-conscious family member who was collecting MCM in the 90’s. They lived in a city in “flyover” country, though. Even at that time, there were dealers that specialized in MCM there, and prices were already going up. Interior fashion trends do not start on the East Coast. The people are too conservative.

When I moved to DC, I was struck by how homogeneous the design choices were. I remember talking to antique dealers who were thrilled to meet someone who would consider something other than Early American or Georgian furniture. They usually had more interesting things stashed in their storage rooms that they couldn’t resist buying, but that they knew wouldn’t sell. Obviously, the predominant style has changed, over time, but DC still tends to be “conservative” with regard to interior design. Go look at the real estate page. Any house that shows flashes of personality and doesn’t have the bog-standard “accepted” interior design is excoriated. So, I don’t blame OP for wanting to crowdsource to find out what the DC interior design standard is these days.

What individuals may have done doesn't matter. In the design world, MCM wasn't being talked about and carried little weight till about 20 years ago around the beginning of the millennium. The 1990s was dominated by the various traditional looks, whether rich people's English country, or American country, or Arts&Crafts/Mission/Craftsman, or Shaker. Contemporary was limited although there were some. But the 1950s-60s MCM wasn't really being featured in design magazines.

MCM revival is too ubiquitous and identikit that it's lost its novelty. I do get the sense people are moving on from it and looking for something more distinctive.

[Anonymous]

This is from a 2017 article on MCM and I think it's still useful. I think the pics shown are all pretty sophisticated and it would be challenging for an average person to get this eclectic mix but it makes the point that it can be done.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-new-way-to-do-mid-century-modern-241154%3famp=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is from a 2017 article on MCM and I think it's still useful. I think the pics shown are all pretty sophisticated and it would be challenging for an average person to get this eclectic mix but it makes the point that it can be done.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-new-way-to-do-mid-century-modern-241154%3famp=1

I really don’t like any of those photos. They just stuck MCM furniture next to totally unrelated, ornate furniture. It’s great to mix eras but there needs to be some through line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like skinny jeans and all-white kitchens, that ubiquitous MCM look is now dated.

Doesn't mean you can't get some MCM pieces, but that Joybird/Article/Mad Men look has given way to some softer lines.

It's been heading "out" for a couple of years, as I understand

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/is-mid-century-modern-over-36670131

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/mid-century-modern-design-still-popular-263750

https://www.ebohemians.com/hate-mid-century-modern-furniture/

The last link is vapid, nonsensical and poorly-written. MCM is not my personal favorite, but almost all of this person's objections could apply to anything currently in style, some of them are completely irrelevant to MCM, and others are repeats of previous objections. A mess.

I wasn't saying it's a well written piece, but that for several years some websites and people have been saying MCM is out - I don't care what anyone decorates their house with! MCM is great - we have lots of it, especially the tropical/tiki type pieces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to not make your house look “dated” is to start with the house itself. What does it look like? What is the architectural style? You certainly don’t need to “match” that or make it a period home but if your house IS a mid-century modern house, that style will continue to look at home there.

Imo the most “timeless” style is Rich People Vaguely English Country which is “timeless” mostly because a lot of those English houses stay the same for many decades and because rich Americans never tire of imitating them. So it’s more about staying power than “timelessness.” And because to do it well, you’re going to have antiques and such from several periods and so things are “dated” to many periods and you have a nice mix. Whether the Chippendale is from Great-grandmother or last week at Christie’s. Southerners do the more fun version of this but I think Connecticut has the best ones.

I highly recommend NOT looking at design blogs and sites. They’re often terrible. People make fun of the haughty magazine editor stereotype but those betches were saving us from ourselves. So look at magazines, old magazines.

Agreed on all accounts. Rich People Vaguely English Country is a much more flexible style than many think. It can age gracefully and be updated for each generation. It can be formal and informal, often in the same room.

I have respect for MCM and admire aspects of it, but it's hard to argue that it's timeless given that before, say, 2005, it was considered very ugly and dated and old fashioned. No one was talking MCM in the 1980s and 1990s. No one. I repeat, no one. However, many of its simple pieces are almost classical in form and will have a place in the future.

Agree that MCM was “out” for a long time, but your time line is incorrect (why is it that the people who are the most adamant are usually wrong?). I have a very design-conscious family member who was collecting MCM in the 90’s. They lived in a city in “flyover” country, though. Even at that time, there were dealers that specialized in MCM there, and prices were already going up. Interior fashion trends do not start on the East Coast. The people are too conservative.

When I moved to DC, I was struck by how homogeneous the design choices were. I remember talking to antique dealers who were thrilled to meet someone who would consider something other than Early American or Georgian furniture. They usually had more interesting things stashed in their storage rooms that they couldn’t resist buying, but that they knew wouldn’t sell. Obviously, the predominant style has changed, over time, but DC still tends to be “conservative” with regard to interior design. Go look at the real estate page. Any house that shows flashes of personality and doesn’t have the bog-standard “accepted” interior design is excoriated. So, I don’t blame OP for wanting to crowdsource to find out what the DC interior design standard is these days.

What individuals may have done doesn't matter. In the design world, MCM wasn't being talked about and carried little weight till about 20 years ago around the beginning of the millennium. The 1990s was dominated by the various traditional looks, whether rich people's English country, or American country, or Arts&Crafts/Mission/Craftsman, or Shaker. Contemporary was limited although there were some. But the 1950s-60s MCM wasn't really being featured in design magazines.

MCM revival is too ubiquitous and identikit that it's lost its novelty. I do get the sense people are moving on from it and looking for something more distinctive.

Well, if that’s your standard, sure. But if something is being featured in design magazines, then it is already, by definition, mainstream, and soon to be on its way out. No matter how they bill themselves, those magazines are in the business of selling advertising to high end brands, and are inherently conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to not make your house look “dated” is to start with the house itself. What does it look like? What is the architectural style? You certainly don’t need to “match” that or make it a period home but if your house IS a mid-century modern house, that style will continue to look at home there.

Imo the most “timeless” style is Rich People Vaguely English Country which is “timeless” mostly because a lot of those English houses stay the same for many decades and because rich Americans never tire of imitating them. So it’s more about staying power than “timelessness.” And because to do it well, you’re going to have antiques and such from several periods and so things are “dated” to many periods and you have a nice mix. Whether the Chippendale is from Great-grandmother or last week at Christie’s. Southerners do the more fun version of this but I think Connecticut has the best ones.

I highly recommend NOT looking at design blogs and sites. They’re often terrible. People make fun of the haughty magazine editor stereotype but those betches were saving us from ourselves. So look at magazines, old magazines.

Agreed on all accounts. Rich People Vaguely English Country is a much more flexible style than many think. It can age gracefully and be updated for each generation. It can be formal and informal, often in the same room.

I have respect for MCM and admire aspects of it, but it's hard to argue that it's timeless given that before, say, 2005, it was considered very ugly and dated and old fashioned. No one was talking MCM in the 1980s and 1990s. No one. I repeat, no one. However, many of its simple pieces are almost classical in form and will have a place in the future.

Agree that MCM was “out” for a long time, but your time line is incorrect (why is it that the people who are the most adamant are usually wrong?). I have a very design-conscious family member who was collecting MCM in the 90’s. They lived in a city in “flyover” country, though. Even at that time, there were dealers that specialized in MCM there, and prices were already going up. Interior fashion trends do not start on the East Coast. The people are too conservative.

When I moved to DC, I was struck by how homogeneous the design choices were. I remember talking to antique dealers who were thrilled to meet someone who would consider something other than Early American or Georgian furniture. They usually had more interesting things stashed in their storage rooms that they couldn’t resist buying, but that they knew wouldn’t sell. Obviously, the predominant style has changed, over time, but DC still tends to be “conservative” with regard to interior design. Go look at the real estate page. Any house that shows flashes of personality and doesn’t have the bog-standard “accepted” interior design is excoriated. So, I don’t blame OP for wanting to crowdsource to find out what the DC interior design standard is these days.

What individuals may have done doesn't matter. In the design world, MCM wasn't being talked about and carried little weight till about 20 years ago around the beginning of the millennium. The 1990s was dominated by the various traditional looks, whether rich people's English country, or American country, or Arts&Crafts/Mission/Craftsman, or Shaker. Contemporary was limited although there were some. But the 1950s-60s MCM wasn't really being featured in design magazines.

MCM revival is too ubiquitous and identikit that it's lost its novelty. I do get the sense people are moving on from it and looking for something more distinctive.

Well, if that’s your standard, sure. But if something is being featured in design magazines, then it is already, by definition, mainstream, and soon to be on its way out. No matter how they bill themselves, those magazines are in the business of selling advertising to high end brands, and are inherently conservative.

Well yeah, there are early adopters, there’s the lagging mainstream crest, there are hangers on…but OP asked about trends and all this nit picking the hype-cycle just makes the point: MCM was a trend in the MC, it was a trend more recently, it is in fact on it’s way out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to not make your house look “dated” is to start with the house itself. What does it look like? What is the architectural style? You certainly don’t need to “match” that or make it a period home but if your house IS a mid-century modern house, that style will continue to look at home there.

Imo the most “timeless” style is Rich People Vaguely English Country which is “timeless” mostly because a lot of those English houses stay the same for many decades and because rich Americans never tire of imitating them. So it’s more about staying power than “timelessness.” And because to do it well, you’re going to have antiques and such from several periods and so things are “dated” to many periods and you have a nice mix. Whether the Chippendale is from Great-grandmother or last week at Christie’s. Southerners do the more fun version of this but I think Connecticut has the best ones.

I highly recommend NOT looking at design blogs and sites. They’re often terrible. People make fun of the haughty magazine editor stereotype but those betches were saving us from ourselves. So look at magazines, old magazines.

Agreed on all accounts. Rich People Vaguely English Country is a much more flexible style than many think. It can age gracefully and be updated for each generation. It can be formal and informal, often in the same room.

I have respect for MCM and admire aspects of it, but it's hard to argue that it's timeless given that before, say, 2005, it was considered very ugly and dated and old fashioned. No one was talking MCM in the 1980s and 1990s. No one. I repeat, no one. However, many of its simple pieces are almost classical in form and will have a place in the future.

Agree that MCM was “out” for a long time, but your time line is incorrect (why is it that the people who are the most adamant are usually wrong?). I have a very design-conscious family member who was collecting MCM in the 90’s. They lived in a city in “flyover” country, though. Even at that time, there were dealers that specialized in MCM there, and prices were already going up. Interior fashion trends do not start on the East Coast. The people are too conservative.

When I moved to DC, I was struck by how homogeneous the design choices were. I remember talking to antique dealers who were thrilled to meet someone who would consider something other than Early American or Georgian furniture. They usually had more interesting things stashed in their storage rooms that they couldn’t resist buying, but that they knew wouldn’t sell. Obviously, the predominant style has changed, over time, but DC still tends to be “conservative” with regard to interior design. Go look at the real estate page. Any house that shows flashes of personality and doesn’t have the bog-standard “accepted” interior design is excoriated. So, I don’t blame OP for wanting to crowdsource to find out what the DC interior design standard is these days.

What individuals may have done doesn't matter. In the design world, MCM wasn't being talked about and carried little weight till about 20 years ago around the beginning of the millennium. The 1990s was dominated by the various traditional looks, whether rich people's English country, or American country, or Arts&Crafts/Mission/Craftsman, or Shaker. Contemporary was limited although there were some. But the 1950s-60s MCM wasn't really being featured in design magazines.

MCM revival is too ubiquitous and identikit that it's lost its novelty. I do get the sense people are moving on from it and looking for something more distinctive.

Well, if that’s your standard, sure. But if something is being featured in design magazines, then it is already, by definition, mainstream, and soon to be on its way out. No matter how they bill themselves, those magazines are in the business of selling advertising to high end brands, and are inherently conservative.

Well yeah, there are early adopters, there’s the lagging mainstream crest, there are hangers on…but OP asked about trends and all this nit picking the hype-cycle just makes the point: MCM was a trend in the MC, it was a trend more recently, it is in fact on it’s way out.

So what is on its way in? Art Deco? Modern farmhouse? I knew MCM was on its way out when every single house was pretty much staged with cheap versions of it.