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Truly Valuable Design Advice
A mother-daughter decorating duo share their strategies for making any home look like a million bucks.
Suzanne (far left) and Lauren McGrath
PHOTOGRAPHS BY (PORTRAIT) LUCAS ALLEN; (LOVE SEAT) LOUPE IMAGES
Four years ago, when Lauren McGrath moved into her first grown-up apartment, she took an unexpected approach to furnishing it. Instead of rebelling against the classic style of her mother, Suzanne— an interior designer in Rye, New York— Lauren asked Mom to help with the place. Their collaboration resulted in a high-low mix of keep-forever antiques and funky flea-market buys; it also spawned a joint career. In addition to partnering on decorating projects for clients of all ages, the McGraths work together on their blog, goodbonesgreatpieces.com. The pair’s latest gig? A new book, Good Bones, Great Pieces ($29.95; Stewart, Tabori & Chang), chock-full of sound wisdom regarding how to get your money’s worth. “It’s not just about cheap finds,” Suzanne says. “It’s about choosing items that are useful, versatile, and timeless enough to earn their price tags.” These shrewd ideas put that philosophy to practice.
¢ 1. The best things often come in small packages. Less expensive than
full-size sofas, settees also function outside the living room—bringing comfort to a foyer, providing seating at the foot of a bed, cozying up to a dining table. So you’re likely to love a love seat long after you’ve kicked a hulking couch to the curb.
2. Give an outdated lamp a topdown makeover. A modest white drum
shade can modernize the fussiest old fixture. And no need to splurge on silk—paper delivers a crisper, more contemporary look.
3. The $2 secret to beautifully stocked bookshelves: Scour thrift stores
for hardbacks, typically a couple of bucks each, then arrange them by color for extra pizzazz.
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Written by Jourdan Crouch
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8. The frugal fix for homely floors? Paint. Refinishing them on your own involves renting a sanding machine, about $75 per day, and buying supplies like polyurethane. As an alternative, simply clean floors and hand-scuff any rough spots; then apply a few coats of a self-priming floor paint (from around $25 a gallon).
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4. Empty frames offer endless potential. It’s easy to score these
5. Group dime-a-dozen accessories for major impact. A lone tag-sale
tchotchke doesn’t say much, but a whole gang of similar ones—now that’s a statement.
6. Furniture goes on sale seasonally, just like clothing, so it
pays to be patient. The world’s largest furnishings trade show takes place every April and October. Over the course of the following months, retailers discount “old” merch to make room for the new. In other words: Shop late spring to early summer and late fall to mid-winter for bargains.
7. Fine art doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Before you settle for posters, check
out zatista.com, which sells original oils, watercolors, and illustrations—not prints— by emerging artists, for as little as $25.
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY (FRAME) LUCAS ALLEN; (BATHROOM) BRENT DARBY / NARRATIVES
castoffs at junk shops for next to nothing. To turn one into a posh bulletin board, cut a piece of foam core to fit and wrap it in burlap. Another possibility: Have a pro cut mirrors to size.
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13. Create handsome storage with hardware-store supplies. Instead of springing for a full-fledged wardrobe or hall
stand, put pretty hats, bags, and scarves to work as a wall display. The notched leather straps shown here came from a flea market, but two vertical rows of hardware-store hooks will do the job.
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9. Expand your seating options.
Even affordable dining-room chairs become exorbitant, fast, once you calculate how many you need to surround a table. The smart solution: a bench or two.
10. Feel free to scrimp on shelving.
Ordinary bracket shelves from Home Depot start at around $10—leaving plenty of dough for filling them with decorative stuff.
of lamps, chairs, and side tables get separated, their prices usually plummet. Take advantage of the opportunity to shake up an overly symmetrical room.
12. Keep it local when deal-hunting online. Winning a $50 wing chair on eBay seems like a coup—until you factor in the cost of shipping it cross-country. Narrow your purview to items you can pick up, with an advanced search that targets sellers inside a certain radius of your zip code (you choose the distance). On Etsy, you can use the “shop local” tab to find goods in your city, state, or zip code.
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY (BENCH) LOUPE IMAGES; (STORAGE) LUCAS ALLEN
11. Why pay a premium for matchy-matchy pieces? When pairs