cost
$20
time
1 hour
difficulty
★★★★
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Estate sales can be great places to pick up inexpensive design items. Blogger Michelle Hinckley of Three Men and a Lady found this $15 gold mirror at an estate sale and brought it home with her for an office project. Michelle removed the mirror from the frame and replaced it with an old corkboard she’d been saving, and secured a piece of burlap fabric to the cork board with spray adhesive and staples. The mirror’s frame got a new coat of white paint, and then the cork and burlap board was reattached. The chic new memo board was then hung from a ribbon in Michelle’s office in Oro Valley, Arizona.
cost
$45
time
2.5 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Headboards are a great way to bring bold color or pattern into your room without too much of a commitment—especially when your headboard is a budget-friendly folding screen! Tuscaloosa, Alabama, artist Brooke Premo won an intricately designed folding screen at an auction she attended. After a little sanding and a coat of bright blue-green paint, Brooke refurbished this auction find into the headboard she had always wanted.
cost
$100
time
8 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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One of my favorite ways to update a piece of furniture is to give it a bright pop of color in an unexpected place. Design*Sponge reader Nicole Haladyna, who specializes in updating older furniture in Austin, Texas, did just that with her desk. After painting the body a sophisticated gray hue, Nicole played up the desk’s dual personality by contrasting the mature exterior with a playful orange interior.
cost
$16
time
2 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Wooden pallets are some of the most versatile and easy-to-find building materials around. Mom-on-the-go Karen Brown, of Malden, Massachusetts, was looking for a way to keep her older daughter’s nicer books out of her toddler’s reach, so she decided to solve her problem with a great afternoon do-it-yourself project. Using a wooden pallet she found on the street, Karen cleaned and dried the frame, sanded the surface, and coated it with a wax polish (Fiddes Wax in Rugger Brown) to give it a modern, beachy feel.
safety note: Wooden pallets are often treated with chemicals for industrial use. For more information about pallet safety, see www.ehow.com/way_5729154_wood-pallet-safety.html.
cost
$2,500 (includes new furniture and supplies)
time
3 months
difficulty
★★★★
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Graphic designer Jenny Enfield Dean and photographer Joe Miller both travel a lot for work. When they moved in together, they collaborated on the interior design of a home that would be a nice haven to come back to. Over the course of three months, they gathered an eclectic mix of furniture, including new and vintage pieces. They both also created original artwork to decorate their space. The result manages to feel modern, with bold and graphic touches, while also conveying an inviting warmth and cozy feeling.
cost
$60
time
16 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Los Angeles–based artist and designer Orlando Dumond Soria’s floors were getting him down, until he decided to swap out the dingy old floors for a chic new striped look. Using only inexpensive black and white self-adhesive linoleum tiles, a box cutter, and a pencil, Orlando cut the tiles by hand to create a striped design that only cost $60. It’s hard to believe that something so stylish could come from linoleum, but Orlando’s project is proof that a high-end look really can come from budget-friendly, low-end materials.
cost
$60
time
15 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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When Lori Dunbar removed the carpet in the sunroom of her Wisconsin home, she decided, both literally and figuratively, to let the sun in. Lori used a customized blend of sunshine yellow Behr porch paint and her own custom-designed template to bring a fresh look to her room. While the carpet had weighed down the space before, Lori’s whimsical new patterned floor gives it a sense of lightness that is right at home on a sunporch.
