In the burgeoning vacation home rental market, many investors or second home owners are looking to cash in on the lucrative rates these properties can offer, especially when compared to the unfurnished long-term rental market. A reservation only during Christmas can be equal to the amount entered for a full month for the same unfurnished property. In some areas of the country, such as Palm Springs, California, the abundance of homes built in the middle of the century, usually between the early 1950s and early 1960s, is fueling a stampede of investors to renovate and furnish these homes in the period and publish the listings. on websites like HomeAway or Flipkey. Here are some tips from a homeowner who has just been through the process of renovating and outfitting a mid-century home, as we find what works well and what we would do differently for the next property.

Pick your color theme and stick with it

The mid-century color scheme is largely muted, soft tones. Since that can get a bit boring, interpretations of mid-century modern design often incorporate an accent color that stands out, such as burnt orange or seafoam green. Our choice was burnt orange and we used it in some of the finishes around the house, such as the kitchen subway tile backsplash, decorative pool tiles and front door, and discreetly incorporated it throughout the home furnishings to maintain a sense of continuity. Complicate your color palette and you’ll shake up the flow of the house. This design style is all about clean lines and harmony.

Balance Mid-Century Beauty With Modern Comfort

The biggest mistake I see in the photos and descriptions of properties that compete with ours is that the owner’s furniture choices turned the house into a museum and not a desirable vacation rental. The use of vintage furniture, such as antique Danish wood-frame sofa beds, often elicits the reaction, “Wow, mid-century!” as in not particularly comfortable. Recognizing this stigma, many homeowners choose to use a comfortable modern sofa with clean lines and complement it with a vintage piece like an Isamu Noguchi coffee table. We chose to furnish with a modern white leather sectional along with a low birch coffee table and a vintage Arc lamp. We had several reservations where the guest noted that they chose our home for the perceived level of comfort compared to any of the other mid-century homes. One guest recognized the sectional as the same one she had at her house but in a different color.

Wear Mid-Century Knockoffs and the Used Market, but Beware of IKEA

We quickly determined that if we tried to outfit our homes with all the Design Within Reach furniture… we would spend the budget we set to furnish our 3 bed/2 bath home. Compromises were needed. We found that Overstock, the great online discount company, was an excellent source for mid-century reproductions. Iconic pieces like the Eileen Gray side table, tubular steel Wassily chair, Panton Ess chairs and the modern Louis Ghost armchair can be found here at surprisingly good levels of quality and at a fraction of the cost of the real McCoy. Plus, the $2.99 ​​shipping can’t be beat. On EBay we found some chrome bar chairs with a walnut finish that perfectly matched our kitchen cabinets for $99 each, including shipping. We think these, however, will be the first items to wear out and we’ll probably go in a different direction when it’s time to replace them.

And don’t rule out buying used. While the economy is still trying to recover, consumers are dumping luxury goods at a fraction of what they paid for them for many different reasons. We picked out several great pieces of furniture in the Palm Springs area through Craigslist posts. The leather sectional, as an example, came from another mid-century house and was only 3 months old. The reason the other owner was selling it? The wife was only 5 feet 2 inches tall and they didn’t realize how deep her seats were: she couldn’t bend her legs. We bought this for 1/3 of the retail price plus no state tax. Our U-Haul truck made the delivery. The best find we got was a dark wood king-size platform bed with Italian orange glass as a headboard. The original cost of the plush mattress itself was more than double our budget. The family had used the house as a second home and were moving across the country. They didn’t want to deal with moving the piece. We picked up the bed, mattress, and end tables for less than the cost of a set from IKEA. We also picked up some great modern original art from them for less than 1/5 of what they paid.

Probably our only regret was buying IKEA bedroom sets for the second and third bedrooms. While it’s functional and attractive, the reaction of guests may be, “Oh, IKEA furniture.” One guest even called our house in a review “The beautiful IKEA house.” While the bedroom sets were the only furniture we bought from the big Swedish retailer, the presence of furniture might lead some guests to assume that we bought most of the furniture there and that’s not the message we wanted to get across. If you want to use IKEA and you’re in a community that uses Craigslist a lot, I recommend looking at the end of the month. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where we live, I can buy IKEA furniture for twenty cents on the dollar, since the transient population (college students, renters, relocated tech employees) want to sell their furniture quickly. People are often looking to sell the entire contents of an apartment that was furnished less than a year ago. For the next property, I’ll be looking for some great buys from retailers like West Elm and Room & Board using this month-end buying strategy.

We are in the process of closing on our second property and have already put down a deposit on a beautiful white section that we purchased on Craigslist. The lovely couple selling the piece hold it and other furniture for us while we wait to close. They just moved to the desert and found that the furniture didn’t fit the style of their new home. They are happy to keep as their interior designer must order new furniture with a six week lead time. While buying furniture this way may take more work, we know it’s worth lowering our acquisition costs and creating a mid-century modern setting that a prospective vacation renter will see and immediately imagine themselves in their best living experience. Palm Springs vacation.