How much redecorating can you do with $300?

Today, the NYT Home section deduced that unemployed people need home makeovers to cheer them up…or something. At any rate, they issued a challenge to five interior designers: spend no more than $300 to redecorate one room in the homes of jobless folks.

"It was a tall order, especially for established decorators accustomed to
spending five and sometimes even six figures on a single room. Several pointed
out that even if they found an old set of drapes stashed in a closet, or
scrounged half a can of paint from a client’s neighbor, brackets and hooks and
paintbrushes cost money, and small expenses quickly add up. Of the five
designers who agreed to participate, most wanted special dispensations, like the
right to treat leftover materials lying around their offices as free supplies."

OK, I know paint, furnishings, and accessories add up quickly. But it’s not like they were tackling entire homes; it was one room. And all these apartments seem pretty upscale to begin with, so it couldn’t have been too hard to make them look nice. Guess how many decorators met the budget? One. Last I checked, decorators are supposed to be creative and resourceful. And who are these people spending six figures to decorate one room? What is wrong with this world??

Besides generally pissing me off, this article also prompted me to look up the receipts for our painting extraveganza after we moved. Over four trips to The Home Depot, we spent $177.27 on paint and supplies for two rooms. Honestly, that’s less than I thought we spent, so I’m pretty happy (and we have leftover paint, if anyone needs some). The only other decorating expense we incurred was new curtains. I tried salvaging our old blinds, but they were way too narrow for our new windows. The new curtains and rods for the bedroom, living room, and kitchen cost about $125. Grand total: $302.27. For the entire apartment. I even bet we could have done a lot more with that $300 if we were set on spending no more than that.

A glimpse at what $300 can do for an apartment: