Interior designer Mindi Freng fell in love for this property at a time when her and her husband weren’t actually looking for a house. But although the home’s size and its midcentury bones were big draws, “we knew that for us to be happy in the house, we needed to work hard at making it our own and getting it reflect how we live,” she states.
Freng must work and transformed the home’s 1980s insides into splashy, practical and fun spaces which reflect her love of color and salvaged materials. “Sometimes once you walk into someone’s home, there is a real disconnect between the house and those living in it,” she states. “I’m happy to say that each room in this house has our stamp on it. It is not perfect, but it’s ours.”
at a Glance
Who lives here: Mindi Freng along with her household of 5
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Size: 3,500 square feet
That is interesting: The table is made from a reclaimed rollercoaster.
Mindi Freng Designs
A 12-foot artificial tree — a Craigslist find — is just the ideal scale to the living space. Sheer curtains and windows along an whole wall allow in plenty of natural light. Hopper windows allow in fresh air. Accent walls at a chocolate brown and bright blue celebrate Freng’s love of color. “it is a cheerful room, and the colours are fairly atypical for Michigan,” states Freng. “However, I do not really care. I’m not one to play by the rules.”
Brown Paint: Craft Paper, Sherwin-Williams; blue paint: Caribbean Blue Water, Benjamin Moore; flooring: oak, original to the house
Mindi Freng Designs
Mindi Freng Designs
The star of Freng’s eclectic dining room is also a Craigslist buy: a hefty bowling alley that the designer located for $50 and repurposed to a table. “It is 9 1/2 ft long, so it’s massive, but it’s just the correct scale to the space. I didn’t wish to get a table with a lot of leaves, so it was definitely a good buy,” she states.
Freng learned a lot about how bowling alleys were produced in the process of converting the item to a table. “It weighs a lot, so as my husband always says, it’s never leaving this house,” she states. Plumbing pipes compose the table legs, throwing a industrial touch to the item. Mismatched chairs surround the table, all picked up from antique stores and flea markets in the area.
An accent wall at Benjamin Moore’s Peacock Blue enlivens the space and produces a warm, happy backdrop into the organic wood chunks.
Mindi Freng Designs
The designer glams up the dining area’s chandelier for the holidays with glass decorations and feathers.
Mindi Freng Designs
“I painted my grandma’s buffet a bold orange and stuffed the buffet top with pillars, branches and other holiday accessories,” Freng states.
Mindi Freng Designs
The family room has wall-to-wall carpeting. “We’ve got young kids, and they spend quite a lot of time. It just made sense to have something soft underfoot,” states Freng.
Built-in closets separate the dining room from the family space and allow light in by the rear of the house.
Mindi Freng Designs
The family used oversize paper decorations, framed pictures and typography for the kids’ tree-shape gallery wall.
Mindi Freng Designs
The kitchen shows Freng’s love of walnut. She had her building team wrap the structural beams in reclaimed walnut (formerly used as flooring), providing the distance movement and interest.
“In case you can not tell, I really like walnut. In addition, I feel as it works together with the midcentury structure of the house,” she states. A skylight bathes the distance with light.
Before Photo
BEFORE: Dark cabinetry created the kitchen feel small and gloomy. “I always knew that for us to reside in this house how we wanted to, we really needed the kitchen to feel much more open, bright and light,” states Freng.
Mindi Freng Designs
AFTER: She matched the rear concrete countertops with the shelving unit Branchport Brown stain. The island counter is also concrete but seems a lot like Ceasarstone or even Cambria. Off-white cabinet doors, plus layered lighting in the skylight and recessed fittings, keep the space feeling expansive and bright.
Mindi Freng Designs
For the holidays, vintage decorations and finds share the space with bottles and glasses on the bar’s upper shelves. The more accessible level of this pub showcases more family-friendly cuisine, such as candies and holiday candy.
Before Photo
BEFORE: The old space was stuck in the 1980s.
Mindi Freng Designs
AFTER: The half bathroom is the only room in the house that was remodeled just by Freng along with her husband. They turned an old desk into a vanity that suits the kids’ footstool perfectly.
“We quickly realized just how much work went into just a little renovation job, so we hired a team for the rest of the house — and we are so happy we did,” she states.
Mindi Freng Designs
Their toddler’s room pays homage to all things locomotive. Old traffic signs protect the walls, preloved rims support the bed frame and two repurposed filing cabinets with desktops compose a train table with storage beneath. Freng shows her son’s automobiles on 2-by-4 timber strips that she cut in half, painted and mounted onto the wall.
Mindi Freng Designs
“This playroom was a last-minute job which I shown on Christmas Day. I needed a space for my kids in order to perform anything their imaginations dreamt them up,” states Freng.
The designer bought the shingles and siding by a Habitat for Humanity ReStore for a mere $11. She salvaged the rug squares from a college project’s throw heap. “We did the murals on the wall and left those onto the white wall bare so that the kids could paint paint and fill at work over time,” she states.
Mindi Freng Designs
An adjacent area homes a studying perch, a play kitchen and dollhouses.
Mindi Freng Designs
One of Freng’s favorite customized pieces would be that her daughter’s window box, which Freng stuffed with playground balls and constructed with medium-density fiberboard and Plexiglas. “The balls could be changed outside to anything my kid is into at the moment, so it is going to change with her tastes,” states Freng.
A whiteboard from an office supply outlet gets lots of use once the kids are playing college. “It keeps them occupied for long stretches of time,” she states.
Mindi Freng Designs
Freng updated the kids’ toilet by latching the cabinet doors and drawers. She painted the cabinet doors in Sherwin-Williams’ Argyle, an on-trend green. “I’m quite happy with how it was. We substituted the bathroom and sink but kept the Formica countertops, which are low care,” she states.
Mindi Freng Designs
It has taken years for the husband to trust her style and color choices, she says. “Part of overcoming fear, particularly a fear of color, is the significance of really moving ahead and watching something work. A successful job gives you — and anyone else involved — the confidence to move ahead,” she states.
The entrance hints at the vibrant fun within the home by making an opening statement in Sherwin-Williams’ Jalapeño.
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