Interior Design with Julia Luttrell
Creative ways to furnish your home on a budget
So Martha, you say you have an entire home to furnish but you've blown the budget and still have a home office to complete?
Ah, that moment of truth, when inspiration encounters income. Fear not, right here in downtown Sudbury, lives a wonderfully wacky used office furniture outlet that is a virtual playground of practical possibilities.
Allow me to take you on a designer�s tour...
Over here we have a stack of wooden desk drawers for instance. Each is an 18-inch cube, priced at only $12 apiece.
Envision them bolted together, two or three in a row or else four, forming a square.
Add a foam cushion top, put them on casters and VOILA!, an instant rolling bench, ottoman or upholstered coffee table, with storage no less.
These metal file cabinets are exactly the right height for a table base and over there are a number of tabletops. Find one that is flat at one end and rounded at the over. All we need now is a metal bookcase, OK found one, 36-inches wide, 12-inches deep and 42-inches high,...perfect!
Now, assemble the whole thing in your mind�s eye.
Attach the flat end of the tabletop (using angle irons) to the backside of the bookcase, at desk height. Place the file drawers under the other (rounded) end of the tabletop, to act as a table base.
Sit the whole bolted-together thing in the middle of any 8 X 10-foot room and PRESTO, instant home office, with space left over for wall-mounted shelves!
And here's a trade secret.
Trot the whole creation down to your local auto body shop. Many may be willing to stick it in their spray booth and for a reasonable fee, spray it all - file drawers, desk base and bookcase - practically any colour you like!
Are we having fun yet?
