Yes we can afford this!
I admit it. I’m a designer for Trilogy Partners, well known for highest quality design and build, and I just spent the entire day at a nationwide home improvement discount center sourcing product for a remodel project. No, this is not a plug for Home Depot, or any of the big box home improvement centers. But in these days of belt tightening, the major home suppliers are a great place to start if you want to know the answer to the question “how much can I really get done with the money I have?” Here’s an example. I found a beige 18×18 Travertine tile for $1.99 a square foot. With the client’s rather tight budget, it seemed that we’d be restricted to the cheapest (and often nastiest looking) of the ceramic tiles for our two bathroom upgrades. Now I can tell my client, if you want stone tile, we can do that on the cheap and here are some tile patterns and designs you should consider. What else did I check out? Affordable light fixtures that look just like the ones at the specialty lighting store for hundreds less. Energy Star rated appliances that mimic those super high end stainless models. And solid bamboo wood flooring for a fraction of the cost of other solid wood products. Will I be purchasing design materials from the big box guys? Well, I may be mighty loyal to the specialty suppliers that I’ve been doing business with for years. But ultimately, the answer to that question depends on the client. Because I do know this: if you have a constrained budget and your interior designer isn’t looking at all the value options including the Lowes of the world, then no matter how creative they are, they aren’t acting in your best interest.
