The prospect of retirement doesn’t just signal the end of a career; it offers the chance to recalibrate and re-prioritize in life.
8 Tips for Designing on a Budget
March 22, 2015
Living on a budget is a simple fact of life, for most. Who says that should equate to missing out on good, modern design for the home? Not us.
Looking to build a new Kansas City home on a tight, musician’s budget, Sarah Magill reached out to Kem Studio. To cut costs, she kept a short wish list of requests, and she allowed the design team to install maple floors composed of leftover material from other projects, among other repurposed materials. Magill also resisted any urge to splurge on furniture, and instead found inexpensive statement pieces, such as this grey sectional sofa by Gus Design Group for CB2.
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Originally appeared in A Versatile House Fulfills All This Musician's Needs
To some, this Austin, Texas home’s interiors might appear unfinished, but to architect Sean Guess, it’s simply a modern and cost-effective solution. The trick for keeping costs low on the poured-in-place concrete island was finding a subcontractor who wanted this type of job under his belt. Nate Francis of Countertop Creations "didn’t charge an exorbitant amount of money because it was sort of an experiment for him as well," says Guess.
Originally appeared in Inexpensive Materials Pay Off Big
The tight construction budget of this Atlanta, Georgia, homeowner made his dream of building a modern home difficult, until Staffan Svenson of Dencity considered it a welcome challenge. To keep costs low, Svenson chose fiber-reinforced concrete panels, painted red, for the cladding. The total cost for the build: $150 per square foot.
Photo by
Originally appeared in How to Design with Red
If communal living is an option, as it was for the three young architects in this live/work loft, design possibilities can be endless. They used painted oriented strand board (OSB) to build five modern sleeping units that each have a bed, desk and storage space—the project totaled $4,000.
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Originally appeared in Communal Living on a Budget in Brooklyn
Incorporating vintage modern designs, such as this white leather Model 67 couch by Florence Knoll, designed in the 1960s, and the old metal file cabinet, can help save on costs, as evidenced in this Oslo apartment.
Courtesy of
Hans Petter
Originally appeared in Neoclassical Meets Modern in This Nordic Gem
When working on a budget inside an older, traditional structure, small touches of modern design can make a big impact. In this this Brooklyn brownstone, the design firm MADE implemented a black-and-white color scheme and added the Torroia pendant light by David Weeks in the dining room to modernize the space.
Originally appeared in 7 Light Fixtures We Love
Renovating a modern home, let alone buying one, in Los Angeles can be a pricey endeavor. That’s why the new homeowner of this Echo Park beauty studied his way to budget-friendly success. “It sounds silly, but I went to the library and got a bunch of architecture books,” he says. The 2,000-square-foot house cost the lawyer-turned-designer well under $150 per square foot.
Originally appeared in A Modern House on a Budget in Los Angeles
In the case of this Omaha, Nebraska, home, architect and homeowner Randy Brown creatively chose to embrace raw wooden material to create a bedroom just off of the living area. It took a day or two, and inexpensive two-by-four and one-by-two wood slats, to build.
Originally appeared in Slat Happy
Looking to build a new Kansas City home on a tight, musician’s budget, Sarah Magill reached out to Kem Studio. To cut costs, she kept a short wish list of requests, and she allowed the design team to install maple floors composed of leftover material from other projects, among other repurposed materials. Magill also resisted any urge to splurge on furniture, and instead found inexpensive statement pieces, such as this grey sectional sofa by Gus Design Group for CB2.
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