Going contemporary on a budget

When we moved into our apartment Joe had his heart set on a contemporary/minimalist look — but we knew the designer furniture Joe had in mind would leave us heavily in vanity debt we weren't willing to get involved with.

Then we thought about buying replicas but then found we couldn't bring ourselves to do it — so instead, we just got a little creative.


Nothing beats having your own cafe at home.


The trick to magic barista coffee at home is to grind your own beans. But I digress.


To maximize the space in a small kitchen and utilize a quaint window, go for a high bar table- the height raises the path of the eye so that the room doesn't look cluttered.


Steel against wood works very well. As a rule of thumb, pairing a square table with round chairs (or a rectangular rug with an oval coffee table) looks good and is also a feng-shui principle.


nless you have a large room, avoid prominent bed frames and to achieve minimalism only white bedding will do, and patterns should be symmetrical and geometric (that means no floral).