DEFINING YOUR BUDGET

• Written by guest blogger Margaret Jules

Your level of indulgence in luxuries is decided by your budget, and giving a new look to your home could be one of those luxuries. Whether an internal or an external makeover, the project might range from painting the walls of your house, to new flooring, and even buying new furniture for your dining room or living room. So if hiring an interior designer is your splurge of choice, then you must take a closer look at your budget so you can get what you need from your designer. However, there are various factors which could help you define your budget. Here are a few tips that will help you get there.

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A Wall is Born

In my line of work, I'm constantly exposed to new and interesting materials and finishes for the home. There are so many out there it's hard to keep track. One that I've been using in some of my projects with excellent results, and have fallen madly in love with, is this modern embossed three-dimensional wall covering by Inhabit. They're lightweight wall tiles that work together through an automatic pattern repeat to create large-scale dimensional walls of any size and shape. I find it to be a great solution to dress up any dull wall in a home. They automatically, and without much effort, add some character and spark to the room. For the longest time, I've been dying to bring this project home and use it on a brick wall which I've wanted to revamp for a while. It was hard to choose from all the patterns they offer, but since I wanted to somehow maintain the feeling of brick, I chose the Seesaw pattern. So I rolled up my sleeves, and with the help of my best friend Luis, we embarked on the perfect weekend project. The result: a slicker and modern brick wall. What do you think? To me, it's the best example of decorating to your heart's content. You can see how it turned out after the jump. 

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Drab To Fab: Console Table

Part of being an interior designer is always being on the lookout for great finds, whether new or with great potential of becoming something wonderful. On a recent trip to one of my favorite places in the city to spot treasures —and after a couple of rounds through the flea market— I encountered this Country French-inspired console table in need of some love. Of course, I couldn't resist and ended up buying it since I already knew the perfect place in my apartment where to put it

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Living In 500 Sq. Feet • Living Area

Hey guys, I'm back with more behind-the-scenes on our small pad's renovation. On a previous post, I covered the juicy details of our kitchen's transformation so today it's all about the living and dining areas. So here's the scoop. Since the original floor plan of the apartment was very boring simple, we had to get quite creative. After opening up the kitchen we were left with a square canvas to work with. The challenge: create three specific areas in the space, one for living, one for dining and a small home office. The solution: building an L -shaped partition that would not only separate the living from the dining area, but also hold our much needed closets, serve as a bookcase and create a hallway to the open bedroom.

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Living In 500 Sq. Feet • The Kitchen

For the first time last week, our pint-sized one bedroom apartment debuted in YHL. The response was overwhelmingly positive with lots and lots of compliments. People were amazed how we managed to stretch the 500 square-feet we live in, and make the most out every single inch. The questions were many, but what most people asked about was the floor plan to help them visualize the layout. That's when I came up with the idea of this series through which I'll be sharing with you juicy details about how we maximized the space we have — and to prove the point that small living can be beautiful.

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The Brick House Project

What started as a renovation of a 1951 foreclosed brick house
in Hemet, California has turned into a blog, The Brick House, about products, great finds and design inspiration. Morgan Satterfield and her boyfriend Jeremy Chlebik started the remodeling back in 2008 and it's still a work in progress. For Morgan it seems like it'll probably never end — and that's a good thing!. “I'm going to be tweaking the house forever. We do almost everything ourselves with help from family and friends on lucky occasions. I'm typically in charge of the overall design and make all the decisions. I look for inspiration in thrift stores, in movies, books, on other blogs, from friends, etc”, she says.

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Home At Last!

I remember how hard it was moving into a new city and having to start from scratch, especially putting together a new place and making it feel like your own. A dear friend of mine recently moved to New York into an adorable 300 square-feet studio in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is the perfect white canvas with great bones and wonderful natural light, very hard to find in the city. She had asked me to help her figure out a way to transform her new pad into a place she could call home — of course, on a budget.

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DIY: Gorgeous fluffy lamp

Living in a small space, I often find myself moving things around and changing the way things look in my pad. I'm the one who's always coming up with little, or sometimes not so little, projects to do around the house. I especially love those that end up with crazy, amazing results. I recently found a fantastic DIY project here that I went bananas over. Nichole Loiacono-Young, from New York City, was looking to revamp her beautiful dining room by creating a fabulous globe lamp.

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