A plan for saving on design elements

As a decorator, it’s my job to find my clients beautiful and unique items for their home. Most often, I am working within a budget. I pull double duty to find great pieces that suit my clients needs and style, but also to find items for the best possible price.

Anyone can go out and spend a pile of money to get a great looking room, but that is way to easy and takes little imagination. I find strikingly similar items which fit the style we are looking for but at a fraction of the price. Usually, these pieces are not of the same quality as the more expensive pieces. That is the trade off with mass produced items, but they look really good for the price and keep to the budget.

The key to pulling off this look is to introduce more expensive items with the lesser ones. If done properly, it should be seamless, meaning, nothing really stands out as the cheaper piece.

In this example, we will use this beautiful Hooker Sanctuary Fretwork Chest as our high-priced piece, and it is substantial at $900. It is a stylish, well-made, heirloom piece and serves beautifully as a functional bedside table. Now, let’s take a look at what else you can get for that same $900.

If we swap the Hooker piece with this less expensive chest found at Tuesday Morning ($199), I can then purchase this beautiful mottled gold/ silver lamp at Briggs and Co. ($125), to put on it. This polished chrome side table (for the man’s side of the bed) at Designer Showroom ($375 on sale) and this cute little chrome nail head chair from Ivan Smith ($200).

That is quite a difference in the amount of items purchased with same amount of money. And they look great. Make no mistake, I love well-crafted, beautifully finished, pricier pieces, and if they are within your budget, then I will buy them. However, if you are more budget minded like myself, you prefer a bigger bang for your buck.

For my money and more importantly yours, I can think of many ways to spend $900 and not a one of them involves “Fretwork.”