Sarah Kathryn Smith owns a matchmaking business, so she knows that first impressions mean a lot. Her first thought when she saw this humble house in Atlanta made entirely of metal? “Disgusting!” Smith remembers. After moving back to Georgia from New York and hunting for an affordable place to live, however, she did her best to keep an open mind—just as she advises clients of “8 at 8,” her low-pressure dinner-dating service. When she looked past the wet carpeting, asbestos tiles, and rusty exterior, Smith saw the charm in this quirky house advertised as a teardown.

Lustron homes—the name comes from “luster on steel”—were supposed to be the next big thing after World War II. These prefabricated structures made of porcelain-enameled steel were sturdy, small, and meant to attract modern families who weren’t interested in much home upkeep. Plus, “They only cost about $7,000 at that time,” Smith notes, adding that the Lustron Corporation went bankrupt in 1950 after manufacturing only a few thousand houses—partly because their weight made transport tricky. While there aren’t many in Atlanta, there are 30 in Illinois, so she made a northward pilgrimage to get some renovating and decorating ideas. She also connected with and found inspiration through a few online groups of fellow Lustron homeowners.

Smith’s family pitched in to remove the rust, pull up nasty carpet, install new flooring, and tackle a long list of other projects. The free labor was partly for budget reasons and partly because it was tough to find a contractor who would deal with the complexities associated with Lustron’s material of choice. “You can’t easily drill into metal, after all,” she says.
Smith lucked out when, by chance, another local Lustron home was being dismantled—snagging doors, mirrored walls, and other unique accessories unavailable at regular building supply stores. Another score: Some friends of her parents were redoing their kitchen and offered their cabinets and stone countertop for free. The reclaimed cabinets were cut down, painted white, and used as lower cabinets. She then added modern black cabinets from IKEA up top. Other good finds in the kitchen: classic (and cheap) black and white linoleum tiles updated the floor, $20 worth of corrugated steel from the scrap yard was added to the front of her island, and an abandoned retro stove (hauled home after finding it on the side of the street) was given a new home. She also sourced chrome lighting fixtures and accessories from antiques stores. “I was going for sort of a British ’60s Mod look, not a kitschy diner,” she says. All in all, Smith estimates that she did the kitchen for about $1,000.

Keeping a coherent look was a necessity since the house totals less than 1,000 square feet. The breakfast room just off the kitchen has a vintage glass and chrome table. “Glass is great because you see through it, which is good for a small house,” Smith says. Silk panels from Target were tweaked to work as curtains in the living room. She combined two of the inexpensive panels, each of which was sold with only a bottom border, so that she’d have a border on both the top and bottom. Decorative beads from a flea market are attached with plastic ties for another sparkly and finishing touch to the windows of the breakfast room.

All of the other furnishings and accessories were either hand-me-downs or flea-market finds. Her vintage master bedroom furniture—from a friend of her mother—has the curved lines and maple wood commonly associated with midcentury design. The vintage fabric used in her bedroom curtains, with their retro graphic design, has even appeared on an episode of Mad Men. The pair of Lucite lamps would be the items to grab if a fire broke out, which is pretty unlikely in a metal house.
The whole process has been a fun—and very unexpected—turn of events for this 30-something. “I’ll admit that at first glance I didn’t get the house, but now I see it as a piece of art,” Smith explains. “It’s definitely been an interesting centerpiece to my life.”

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