Master the Mix: Mixing Budgets - Part III
Today is our final look at mixing budgets at the studio. Have you found this series useful in thinking about your own projects?
Invest in Flooring
I’m starting right in with the sticker shock: yup, our fabulous leopard carpet set us back $10K. I almost always sell clients wool carpeting — it looks better, it feels better, and it should last for decades. While it is a hard cost to swallow, if you are in a space long-term you are avoiding replacing it every 5-7 years as you would with nylon. I really weighed this one (versus a sisal for a third of the cost), but once I wrote the check I never thought about it again. Bonus: it is the major style element in our desk area (which adjoins the kitchen), allowing everything else to be simple, not a splurge.
In the kitchenette we went for Marmoleum tiles, which cost more but will stand up much better than a thinner vinyl product.
Repurpose Cabinetry and Rethink Structural Elements
For this light-use kitchen, I saw no good reason to scrap the white cabinets. While the door style is not what I would have chosen, we were planning on white. The lowers used to be black, so we just found the same white cabinets as the existing uppers and picked them up (at Home Depot!) We swapped in simple gold hardware to up the style quotient. Not bad for $40.
To make sense of the pony wall and give it a function (see the before on instagram), we added a walnut herringbone countertop from Ikea. Sometimes a good strategy is to buy the most special item at a budget source. (Most Ikea countertops are under $100 and this one was close to $300; relatively expensive but much less than any fabricated counter option.)
Fill a Big Wall Without Breaking the Bank (part 2)
We tackled one of my favorite strategies in the last post. Here in the kitchen’s eating area we used a large format tapestry to fill the wall. The trick? It’s paper! Digital printing is much more economical than any other production method for art. This one is from Anthropologie. Juniper Print Shop is a great source for large-format digital art on a budget.
Pack a Punch with Vintage
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: for high-impact specialness on a low-impact budget, there’s so substitute for vintage. Vintage means one-of-a-kind finds, and because they literally don’t make ‘em like they used to, the quality to price ratio tends to be much better than on new items.
Spend (a little) More on Special Finishes
In the metal category, chrome tends to be entry-level while the specialty finishes like matte black or luxe gold cost a premium, even on the same item. But the increase (say 20%) can be worth it when the finish feels much more luxe. Here, the combination of gold on the sink faucet, cabinetry hardware, and bar stools, all of which were cheaper in silver, really drives home the color palette and adds some glamour.
Window Treatments are Expensive. Also Worth It!
One of the categories where almost every client is surprised, window treatments are generally necessary, both functionally and often aesthetically. There is no cheap way to do them well, and I generally advise on investing in these for the long term. Like anything else, they don’t last forever (the sun is a cheerful foe and eventually eats away at fabric), but they should last a good long while. In our studio, we chose a vinyl roller shade here in the kitchen and natural woven roman shades in the same tone on the neighboring windows. These are both relatively value choices, but the huge scale of our windows drove the price tag.