WANT to create a haute-looking home on a beggar’s budget?
Help is on the way, thanks to Meg Braff and Robert K. Lindgren of Meg Braff Interiors.
The Post accompanied the two Manhattan-based designers through the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club’s 28th Annual Decorator Show House.
During our tour of the six-floor, 16-room townhouse, the designing duo suggested several ways for budgeted, non-decorator types to achieve some of the show house’s high-style interior looks without breaking their banks.
ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO
Back-to-back couches help split “The Oval Sitting Room” into two separate ones that can be decorated in slightly different styles.
Though this room’s designer had his back-to-back couch custom- made, the rest of us can do the same thing using two similarly sized couches. A good place to look for show house-quality furniture at low prices is The Decorator’s Secret (at 56th Street and Third Avenue). There, floor samples, decorator returns and overstock normally offered to only to professionals are available to the public at prices 10 to 50 percent below wholesale. (Room by Mario Buatta.)
CARPET MAGIC
Diagonal carpet strips enlarge this long and narrow room by Stingray Hornsby LLC. “They’ve used two different carpets placed at an angle to create the illusion that the room is actually wider than it is,” Lindgren says.
This is an easy trick to pull at home, using strategically cut off-price remnants found, for instance, in the basement of ABC Home & Carpet at 19th Street and Broadway. (Room by Stingray Hornsby, LLC.)
BLIND FAITH
“In a closet this small, you don’t want to have a lot of doors coming out at you,” Lindgren says. Stingray Hornsby’s alternative: Venetian blinds, which can be left down and cranked open for quick viewing of your clothes, or pulled up like a window shade for easy access.
They range from custom-made wooden blinds to inexpensive ones and are readily available at places like Bed, Bath & Beyond. Venetians can also be hung in front of unattractive, open clothing racks in closet-challenged spaces. So instead of staring at your winter coat collection, visitors will think they’re looking at a closed window. (Room by Stingray Hornsby, LLC.)
CEILING DEALINGS
The second-floor kids’ room makes great use of smart lattice work, using it both on the walls and the ceiling.
Though it might require some crafty installation moves, this ais an easy way to camouflage uneven ceilings. The supplies for lattice are super-easy to procure, usually requiring nothing more than a trip to your local hardware store or a Home Depot. (Room by Penny Drue Baird, Dessins, LLC.)
PICTURE THIS
Also in the kid’s room, a fabric wall was crisscrossed with several lengths of thick, decorative ribbon to tuck in special photos and drawings. Pretty ribbons and trims are cheap and readily available at any of the fancy trimmings stores that line the streets of the West 30s around Sixth Avenue. (Room by Penny Drue Baird, Dessins, LLC.)
THE LIGHT STUFF
Dangling crystal bead fringe serves as dazzling eye candy hanging from window treatments. “At a certain time of day, when there’s a lot of light coming in, it’s like rainbow city here,” the room’s designer told us.
Anyone with a sunny room needing a little pick-me-up can benefit from this tip. The crystal trim can be found in any of the dozens of trimming stores located in the West 30s near Sixth Avenue. (Room by Tonin MacCallum, A.S.I.D. Inc.)
BAMBOOZLED
New Yorkers with roof access can get the tropical look featured on the Show House’s sixth-floor roof garden with a simple zip down to Chinatown. There, bamboo mats are readily available for very low prices at home stores like Pearl River Market, at Canal Street and Broadway. The mats look better with age, and can be easily tossed and replaced once they wear beyond repair. (Room by Ani Antreasyan.)
The Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club’s Decorator Show House is located at 1 E. 94th St. It is open to the public tomorrow through May 21, a Sunday. The $20 admission fee includes a design journal and decorator source book. All proceeds benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.