Over at the Architectural Digest website, there's a series of interviews with designer Laura Hunt. She apparently took a challenge offered by Architectural Digest to renovate an apartment for $5000. She decided to do her son's apartment in Dallas....
It's seems pretty clear that a budget of $5000 would be considered impossibly small to a designer of Laura's caliber (and also keeping in mind this is from Architectural Digest). Being a lowly common man who lives in suburban Orange County, I couldn't help but be a little amused at some of her comments and reactions regarding shopping online and going into stores she "never thought she'd go into..." (I hope she knows that Target isn't really supposed to be pronounced "tar-jay") She decided to pay homage to the building, which was built in the 60s. She went for a "mid century modern" vibe, which surprisingly, she says she previously wasn't very familiar with. However, she fully embraced the challenge and I think the results are quite stunning and successful. I love how she did the entry, and I want to just hang out on that patio! There's definitely some great inspiration that us mo' po' folk can gain. She does make the point that I think many of us AT readers have always known - you can achieve a great look within a budget, you "just have to train your eye..." I thought the end bit with her commenting to her son to keep the house clean was cute. Check out all three videos and let us know what you think!
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Comments (13)
Kind of a stretch to say she did it for $5k when most of the livingroom furniture came out of her parents storage...
That's quite a necklace she is sporting.
Three Philip Stark Ghost chairs!? That's a $1500 chunk of her budget right there!!!
Yeah…that $5000.00 budget is pretty loosely interpreted.
Kathryn's comment made me laugh! Nevermind the furniture or the apartment, let's dish on the jewellery! And let's not forget the color palette in the photo -- beige, beige, beige, even Laura's clothes. Yawn.
Looks extremely beige judging from this cover photo... and not in a good way.
Yikes. Tough friggin' crowd in here today.
Half empty, much?
the place is quite lovely in a serene kind of way but if this is a challenge by AD on how to renovate a place for $5000, it's also a huge fat joke. Granted she did make use of K-Mart, Target, Ebay but all key pieces came from her "storage." The luxurious bedspread similarly was a "christmas gift." I'm wondering if she would have done just as much for another person not her son (or related or known to her). I also noticed she kept referring to Target in pseudo french style with the soft j and absent t. In my family we do this as a joke but do you think she actually knows Target is pronounced with a hard g? I get the feeling she doesn't. Overall I found this to be a very patronizing, condescending trio of videos. Laura Hunt makes Martha look warm and cuddly.
Like others, I noticed that the designer seemed to match the condo: monochromatic, old school, and tasteful.
Though Laura did get a lot of stuff from the storage unit, and she admitted the beautiful midcentury desk in the bedroom was an expensive gift from her to her son, the results of just $5000 are still impressive. I'm tickled she finally discovered eBay and Tar-jay.
I think she did an especially good job with the large-scale art pieces - the map in the foyer was the highlight for me.
Also-
Though I think her fudging of the budget undermined the point of the exercise, using items from the storage unit shows resourcefulness, and being resourceful is always a good thing. Especially if you have access to a storage unit that just happens to have beautiful furniture in it.
Another thing I learned: don't include shipping in the $5000. If the grandparents live in NY, and the son lives in TX, even moving the furniture with a U-Haul would have really dug into the budget.
5K is an exceptionally small budget for an entire apartment even with existing furniture. A decorator friend told me that paper/paint upolstery, curtain projects at her firm started at 10k, before any new furniture or rugs were purchased and that was about 7 years ago...
I sort of wish she'd indicated what the prices were on the pieces she didnt' get out of storage, other than the faux seude stools from Target she is proud of and the wall art. The actual budget was, I'm sure more than double the 5K if she added in the items out of storage and Christmas gift and didn't "fit" in the 5K desk and the labor costs I'm guessing it was over 10K. Still, quite a deal for the results.