It’s a mod mod mod mod world

“Through my design work for school, I started to like more retro things, and then I looked at the furniture from the period and I was like, oh my God, this stuff is awesome!’’ said the Bedford, N.H., resident, who studied graphic design at UMass-Lowell.

Ski and her husband, Al Koury, moved into their current Palm Springs-meets-New England abode a year ago after fruitlessly searching for an affordable mid-century home in areas like Concord and Winchester. Their eventual dream purchase, a large split-level house built in 1952 by Alec Majesky, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, came at a bargain, having languished on the market in part due to its geographic incongruity.

“It was such a weird house,’’ said Ski, 27, a Tewksbury native. “You don’t see it up here.’’

When they moved in, Ski - who creates retro-modern paintings, prints, totes, and cards under her eponymous label - brought almost nothing from her longtime Somerville rental, preferring a decorative fresh start. Her first purchase: two sleek green-gold Room and Board couches to frame two walls of the living room, a move that instantly opened up the space.

Strict budget in hand, Ski then went about sourcing era-appropriate pieces for the house’s biggest room. Though her mother is a committed flea marketer, Ski is all about virtual treasure hunting. “Craigslist, Craigslist, Craigslist!’’ she said. “I just search mid-century, retro, mod. I don’t really look for artists, I look for vintage objects.’’

One of her early C-list finds: a silver Arco floor lamp, a mid-century mainstay, bought for $20. “I think I typed in ‘funky’ that day,’’ said Ski with a laugh. Another steal was the living room’s coffee table, a sleek black Isamu Noguchi knockoff purchased for $80. “The guy who had this table originally didn’t know who made it, so he called it ‘modern black table,’ ’’ said Ski.

Her greatest trash-to-treasure discovery to date, however, might be her red Eero Saarinen womb chair. Ski found the rare mod specimen on Craigslist, described as a “disco chair,’’ and drove an hour and a half to Rochester, N.H., to snap it up - for $80 (an authentic vintage womb chair from the Finnish designer can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars). She eventually plans to reupholster it in a mustardy-gold to complement the couches.

Scattered throughout the room are many retro vases, knick-knacks and sculptures, most of them sourced from another wellspring, Etsy. Ski is a bona fide Etsy scholar, having launched her business on the artisan site in 2007. Among her favorite items is a mid-century Jax table sculpture, which she pounced upon after finding it on the site for $20.

One of the living room’s most striking features is its original elevated fireplace, carved right into one of the living room concrete walls and encased by a folding glass door.

“Doesn’t it look like it’s from the ’80s?’’ asked Ski. “I guess this was supposed to be the house of the future when it was first made.’’ The fireplace proved its mettle during New England’s power-interrupting ice storm last year; Ski and her husband pulled the couches right next to the hearth and even heated a can of soup over the flames. (“It tasted like ash,’’ said Ski.)

Above the fireplace is one of Ski’s original art pieces, a large abstract “pod’’ painting she made specifically for the room. “It looked kind of empty up there, and every time I put something up there it wasn’t big enough,’’ said Ski, who blogs about mid-century design at www.jennskistudio.blogspot.com.

The room’s latest addition is a white shag, which Ski actually sewed together from four smaller Ikea carpets. A natural extension of the room’s aesthetic, the rug also defends against a chilly floor made of travertine, an imported stone often seen in mid-century construction. (In the winter, however, a radiant heating system quickly warms the tiles.)

The overall effect is a little bit “Mad Men,’’ a little bit “Jetsons’’ - the World of Tomorrow imagined by the designers of yesteryear. It’s a style Ski embraces with gusto; touring a visitor through the room, she jokingly pretends to vacuum her rug like a blissed-out ’50s-era housewife.

Clearly, she has found her maison d’etre.