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It’s never too early to unleash your inner interior designer. For those of us who like our rooms to reflect our style, there’s always a way to achieve a preferred aesthetic – especially when you still want to be sustainable. In a recent Portaire report, they found that “through second-hand shopping in vintage markets and collector circles, Gen Z makes purchases that feel aligned with their values. This is particularly felt in the interior design circles, where antiques are sourced from individuals and retailers specialized in pre-owned pieces.” Thrifting — also facilitated through apps like 1stDibs and Antiquesmart — is another way to express your unique style, be it coquette or mid-century modern.
In the world of interior design, being chronically online is a good thing because applications like Tumblr, Pinterest, InDesign, and Canva allow you to curate spaces before committing to a purchase. You wanna lay all your ideas out in one place and also not clutter. YouTube and TikTok are also great for getting tips on color schemes, trends, design history, and even antique shopping.
Even with all these apps and video platforms, it’s still very overwhelming to approach your actual space. So to help you get started, here are some tips for how to design your space on a budget.
Pick a theme and stick to it.
Before Shell Martinez owned Shell’s Loft, her high-end event space business in Brooklyn, she had a love for interior decorating. “I was thinking back to my first apartment,” she says when reminiscing about her first apartment post-college. “I had a roommate, it was my best friend. We lived downtown in the Bay Area in San Francisco. She didn't care very much for design, so really I was like, great, I'll take over. Even from that age, the three things I focused on: unity, cohesiveness of the space, and visual repetition.”
“Keeping it really simple in that first apartment and either picking a color theme or a style meaning like an era that you like, is important. That helps the space feel elevated when you walk in, even if it's a small space, even if it's a shitty box apartment if you walk in and everything is in the same color palette. If everything is in the same era, if everything you're doing is mid-century, it just feels pulled together and elevated and very grown up.”
Martinez started off as a set designer and always carried these principles in her work. When she decided to start her own event space business, she knew that having an open, warm, and inviting space with neutral colors would be the best bet for attracting different types of guests. She also suggests antique shopping to add a little depth to a room.
Be intentional about flea market finds.
“If I was at a flea market or a secondhand store or finding a great warehouse sale, [I would suggest] just stay with the same wood tones. If your sofa base is dark wood, then make sure your coffee tables and side tables are dark wood. It's a really easy sort of measurement that'll keep everything looking cohesive,” Martinez says about vintage furniture.
Vloggers like MaCenna Lee and the Brownstone Boys are great places to see how old pieces can make new favorite items in a home. But in addition to sticking to the same wood color, it’s also important to stick to the same period in time. Yes, you love Art Deco, but mixing it with French Country is chaotic.
“Pick something neutral of the current time and then you throw in whatever era it is that you're loving,” she adds. “So if you're loving the Art Deco, order a basic metal bed frame from Amazon for 200 bucks and put your mattress on it and put great bedding linen on it, and then put these great Art Deco side tables next to it.”
Use online interior design services.
The aforementioned apps like Pinterest and Tumblr are great for curation, but there are also apps specifically made for interior design. Martinez uses Mood Board to visualize furniture or color palettes in a room. “That is one that is really great about pulling furniture from some of the mainstream furniture companies as inspiration,” she says. “They'll have inventory from CB2 and West Elm and those kinds of companies and you can pull fabrics to make yourself a mood board.”
Milanote is another great online interior design service for multiple projects to design for yourself or others. It allows users to drop videos, images, and even gifs that inform the space being worked on.
There’s also the old-school way of just making a corkboard filled with clippings. “Those free samples of all the fabrics that come from the different furniture companies, those are all free, and I get them and I pin them and I do my colors. I go to Lowe's and Home Depot to get my paint colors and I look at it in the light of my apartment. I love a good little tiny quart of paint in a few colors to just really see it on the wall. There's nothing better than actually seeing it in person.” Adding, “Play with your samples, get your fabrics up there. It just gets all your creative juices flowing and you get excited. You start to feel it and see it. The textures in your space.”
Spend money on things you use the most.
Think creatively and there should be no insecurity about the type of furniture you have in your space. With so much access to thrift finds, antiques, interior design apps, and affordable furniture stores your big spend should be on two things: sofa and sheets.
“Don't buy a throwaway sofa,” Martinez says. In her Brooklyn spaces the entrepreneur has Ikea “Soderhamn” sofas that have washable covers. “You're going to use it every day. You're going to take a nap on it, you're going to watch TV on it, you're going to do homework on it. Your life revolves around the sofa. It should be comfortable. It should be the best thing that you can afford as the investment piece, and ideally, something that's going to be sustainable, right, that you're not going to just throw away, that's going to end up in a landfill that you could really use for a long time.”
Having a sofa with removable fabric or finding a company that can make a retrofitted cover is a major key to being sustainable while also enjoying different styles over the years.
In addition to the sofa, your bed is another place that most of us spend the majority of our time. Good rest is vital. So your bed sheets should be comfortable.
Eliminate clutter.
The old saying is true, less is more. An easy way for any space to look chic and also showcase your taste is to declutter. Have only essential pieces of furniture, and limit the tchotchkes. Style with intention.
“Clutter and mess will ruin design the quickest. When you walk in and there's clutter, it adds stress. If you are not using it if it is not something that is in the rotation and in your space and bringing either has a function or you love it, get rid of it. Give it away. Trade it, sell it, swap it. Do whatever you have to do, figure it out.”
Martinez also suggests furniture that has a function with storage space and drawers. “Get amazing dressers that have drawers that you could put things into and then put a big plant or a base or art on top of it. Avoid open shelving because the second you move away from the things on the shelves being beautiful, it's not actually useful. Everyone doesn't need to see your stuff when you come into the house. I don't need to see your folded clothes. I don't need to see every single book and piece of paper you've been working on.”
You could be moving into your first dorm room, or first apartment, or just wanting to redecorate your bedroom — what your space looks and feels like is important. Start with inspiration, make a plan, and focus on the important, classic elements in your space that will make it yours.
