As any reader of Architectural Digest
or Interior Design
knows, it's easy to make your home look like a million bucks—if you have a million bucks. But for readers whose budgets tend more toward the Ikea level of home decorating, here are "192 pages of proof that you can
live the good life on the cheap." Reminding readers that style is a matter of "attitude, not price," Budget Living
's editors give tips for decorating every room of the home, from living rooms to kitchens to bathrooms to home offices, integrating anecdotes from real people who decorated their own homes without going broke. The editors lay out six tenets of low-cost decorating: think creatively, shop at the big chain stores and make their mass-produced items your own, use common items in uncommon places, make things yourself, splurge if you must and, above all, have fun. The book has a magazine-like feel to it, with sidebars, different sized fonts and chatty prose. This format works well, allowing readers to pick up the book at any point and start learning how to shop for a vintage quilt, grow plants in a tiny bathroom, use two rugs to make a room feel like it has distinct sections, or redo kitchen cabinets for less than $250. Although the editors do have a penchant for vintage items (which they tell readers to hunt for on eBay and at flea markets), they're also fans of such typical outlets as Crate and Barrel, Target, Pier One and Home Depot. (May)
