Skip to content

Inside the Joyful—and Mini—World of Mid-Century Modern Design

by Lisa Gauthier Mitchison

The inside of a miniature house with mini living room furniture including an L-shaped couch, bookshelf, and artworks
Cyd Raduchel’s creations reflect the patience and skill required to shrink objects while maintaining their detail and integrity.

For Cyd Raduchel, designing and decorating dollhouses started as a hobby until her niche style brought an online following and a full-time job.

In 2011, Cyd Raduchel had just finished renovating her house when she took on a slightly smaller project—a dollhouse.

“I thought it would be fun … and then I can just redecorate it whenever I want,” says the Indianapolis resident, who graduated with degrees in fashion merchandizing and interior design. “And little, tiny things just bring people joy. Everything is cuter when it’s tiny.”

A miniature A-frame style house with miniature furniture and design details
Photo Credit: Cyd Raduchel
“One of the cool things with mid-century is nostalgia. So many people say, ‘Oh, I grew up with that,’ or ‘That looks like my grandmother’s house,’” says Raduchel.

She designed and decorated modern and mid-century modern dollhouses and documented her work on a blog.

Through trial and error, video workshops, and even some reverse engineering (and lots of practice, Raduchel says), she refined her techniques until each object she created was a scaled-down piece of art. 

Mid-century modern—sometimes referred to as MCM—is an architectural and design movement that focuses on clean lines, geometric shapes, minimal decor, and open floor plans.

“Then, [my work] just sort of exploded. It started as a hobby … Then I just really got into the community of miniaturists. They are so much fun and everybody’s so creative,” she says.

Creating miniatures requires many artistic skills—painting, construction, and sewing—as well as painstaking fine-motor control to use the small tools required to get the finer details and finish. 

 

A person of light skin tone with a short bob hair style wearing a dark top.
Cyd Raduchel
A hand holding up a tiny wooden cabinet furniture with a life-size one of it in view in the background
Photo Credit: Cyd Raduchel
The mid-century modern movement gained momentum in the 1940-70s, saw a resurgence in the 1990s, and continues to be popular today.
A close up of miniature cigarette box and lighter on a table. Next to it a push pin to show the scale of how tiny the objects are
Raduchel’s work has been part of visual art exhibits, pops up in commercials and magazines, and has been shipped world-wide to customers eager for hard-to-find pieces. “I love the delicate buttons and simple tapered legs on her silk Mid-century sofas. You can see her sense of humor coming through in her miniature smoking accessories and atomic pillows,” says Margie Criner, a fellow artist and one of Raduchel’s customers.
The inside of a miniature dollhouse featuring a bar-like space with high stools and other furniture
One of the best parts of making intimate art—the kind of art people directly interact with –is consumers’ reactions. “You see their eyes light up and how happy they are about it, and knowing that nobody else can make this,” Raduchel says.
A miniature two-story house with a modern design
Jonathan Adler and The Novogratz are two of Raduchel’s favorite designers, both of whom feature bright colors and funky design.

A Miniature Maker’s Niche

While attending the Tom Bishop International Miniature Show—the largest of its kind in the world—Raduchel found that her favorite styles (modern and mid-century modern) were woefully underrepresented. 

“It’s sort of like a niche within a niche … I would say, 98 percent of miniaturists do things that are very traditional or things that are ornate,” says Raduchel. “There’s almost no Shaker or mid-century or modern, and there are only a handful of people that do it.” 

So, ModPod Miniatures was born in 2012. 

“I would share tips and tricks and things that I did [online]. I made some really amazing friends, like through blogging. And then when I got into Instagram, it was so much fun because you’re conversing with people, sharing ideas,” says Raduchel. Miniatures became her full-time job.

“Cyd has such a strong understanding of color. Her choices are never garish. She has a deep understanding of texture and knows how to combine it with great furniture design,” says Margie Criner, a fellow artist and miniatures enthusiast, and one of her customers. “If someone showed me work without telling me she made it, I would know in a second that she was the artist behind it.”

The inside of a miniature dollhouse featuring a kitchen with colorful cabinets, a stove and refrigerator
Last April, Raduchel sold much of her work and supplies at the international miniature show. However, her Etsy shop is still open for business, and she’s also offering 3D and laser-cutting services.

There’s a backstory for every room she creates. Raduchel is working on one right now. She imagines that it’s for a couple. “She’s kind of a punk rock girl, and he’s more of a businessman. But their place is really funky and has lots of art, and the bathroom is all retro spaceships,” she shares. 

In 2024, Raduchel decided to pull back from doing miniatures full time. “The hardest part about being an artist is you’re alone a lot,” she says. Raduchel is a social person, and so much isolation wasn’t a good fit. 

“The part I love about it, the design part, I’m still going to do it for myself because I have so many unfinished projects,” she says. Miniatures will continue to be a big part of Raduchel’s life.