My Favorite Cheap Design Hack.

That somehow doesn't look cheap?

I’ve been doing design work for a long, long time. But I’ve always had a complicated relationship to the design world and design content. Like literally everything else on the internet, it feels like the design world ends up being about class and status more than anything else. If you look at the most popular design accounts, it’s mostly rich people presenting an aspirational life. Houses filled with expensive ass things most people can’t afford. Which is obviously fine, people are allowed to fantasize about what life might be like if they lived in one of the gigantic mansions designed by Studio McGee. But it also doesn’t feel like the most inclusive space. So whenever I find a trick that I think people from many different economic backgrounds will be able to enjoy, I jump on it.

In my current iteration, I occupy an incredibly strange position. I have the material possessions of a well-off person, but I am still struggling to get by month to month. I’m currently trying to figure out how to make $3000 this week to pay my mortgage by the end of the month so I don’t get foreclosed (I’m on a trial period with my lender and if I fail I lose the house). Meanwhile, I’m ordering a $10,000 sofa from a custom sofa company, part of a trade out for marketing materials including video and photography. You can’t pay your mortgage with sofas, though, so while I have all these expensive things, I literally couldn’t afford to buy them.

Before the pandemic, I made about $300,000 a year doing content marketing (designing spaces, campaign concepting, directing construction, styling, coordinating and directing shoots, editing, and so on). This year, I’ve made $7000 from that job. I have had to pivot and pivot and pivot and I haven’t had extra money for a long time. But I still am producing design makeovers for content and I have to keep my house well furnished for Airbnb, so I find myself needing to buy home furnishings still. When I actually have to buy something for my, I usually buy the cheapest thing possible, knowing I can balance it out with styling and accessories/art I’ve collected and made over the years.

I fully understand how lucky I am that brands will send me product in exchange for marketing assets. But I do want to remind you, these things are not free unless you think my time is worthless. If you get compensated for your work, you can understand that I deserve to be compensated for mine. I am producing a product in exchange for these things.

Brands are definitely getting less generous with gifting than they used to be, so pitching is more time consuming than it was before and I find myself having to buy things more often (I know, whah whah whah!). Usually, I take this as an opportunity to do a budget makeover, because I know it’s helpful for people to see that kind of content.

There’s one item I’ve had to buy a few times in the past few years and I’ve found a really cheap solution for it. Today, I’m here to discuss one of my go-to ways to save money on home decor.