One thousand bucks. At face value, it sounds like a pretty good chunk of change.
But, often, when it comes to making a house a home, it doesn’t go far. So if $1,000 fell into your lap–with the caveat that it must be spent on your home–you might think hard on how or what exactly you would spend it on.
Want to know what some of the hottest folks in the design world would do with that windfall? We asked pros from the Chicago area, from around the country and around the world and got some pretty interesting answers that reflect these experts’ lifestyles and attitudes about home.
Chaise longue
“A chaise or club chair for those laid-back times when you want to escape into another world. It can be added to your bedroom or great room in your home. . . . [It] can even be added in your kitchen,” says Chris Casson Madden, the designer/author who hosts “Interiors By Design” on HGTV. She also appears frequently on the “Today” show and “Oprah.”
“Don’t forget about accessories. Floor pillows, decorative pillows that can accent the bed in a style and color and texture and can be used in more than one room,” says Madden.
Flowers for the garden
“Flowers. I would buy plants for my garden–perennials, roses and lilies. I would buy flowering bushes.”
–Alan Palmer, a partner in Pagoda Red stores in Bucktown and Winnetka, which focus on Eastern furnishings
Paint, paint, paint
“You can make a difference with paint. You can create a certain mood. I’m more attracted to subtle shades that have color and represent [a sense of] calm. It [$1,000] can go a long way and make the biggest difference.”
–Thomas O’Brien, who has introduced two furniture collections for Hickory Chair, bathroom fixtures for Waterworks and owns Aero Studios, a sophisticated showroom and interior design firm in New York’s SoHo district
Cleaning service
“I don’t want to say a cleaning service because that’s too mean, but there’s not much you can really do with that [$1,000] in terms of furniture.
“The best thing you can do is to get some paint, and, yes, a good cleaning service, a few flowers and some Febreze [furniture upholstery deodorizer].
“Seriously there’s nothing like cleaning up things and clean paint.
“Yes, accessories, but accessories have to be the right ones.”
–Larry Laslo, New York-based artist and furniture designer
Duvet cover
“One thousand dollars would exactly buy the duvet cover the kitten, now a grown cat, destroyed … I’ve had trepidations on spending the money, but if someone gave me the money, I’d throw it away on another duvet cover. Not very exciting, but if someone gave me a grand out of the blue that is what I would spend it on.”
–Phil Eichler, owner of the Urban Gardener in Lincoln Park
Flatware from France
“I own a tabletop store and I don’t have good flatware. What I have is nothing gross, but nothing special. I would buy flatware from France, with a wooden handle but dishwasher-safe, to finally have a good set, not just weird leftovers–eight spoons, seven knives.”
–Grace Tsao-Wu, owner of Tabula Tua in Lincoln Park
Japanese wooden bath
“I’m at the moment redoing my house in the country quite substantially. I am going to buy a Japanese wooden bath and put it alongside my other bath. In Japan, they have these wonderful baths. They have a normal shower or bath to clean yourself. Then you lie in this bath of water in this wonderful wooden [tub]. The smell of the wood is fantastic. The bath is for relaxation, meditation and general sort of escape. It’s rather like … I smoke cigars. And I go and sit in the greenhouse and smoke a cigar and read a book and have the world sort of dribble out into a black pool out of my toes and fingers.”
–Sir Terence Conran, noble man of design, furniture-maker, retailer, restaurateur. He lives in London during the week and in a country home 60 miles outside of the city on weekends
Bamboo sofa
“I buy for the store, I rarely buy for myself. If I had a $1,000 windfall, what would I buy?
“You know what I’ve been looking for? A 1950s sectional bamboo sofa and tables. I’ve been looking for two years. It’s about a $1,000. Not the stuff you see at Salvation Army, but the nice French bamboo. That’s what I would spend my $1,000 on. I would use it in my den. Although originally it used to be used in a Florida sunroom or on a porch. I might do the cushions in a linen to update them.”
–Ivy Hofstadter, owner of Ancient Echoes, a Lincoln Park boutique
Decorative accessories
“With this amount of money you can make the biggest difference by selecting decorative accessories for the home.
“People today are living in a style of acquired pieces, meaning they have inherited something from a family member. Decorative accessories can unite these acquired pieces with the pieces you already have in your home.
“It could be changing the lamps or adding lamps or changing tables or adding a side table. It could even mean changing the color of the walls for a different look and feel.”
–Joe Ruggiero, who has a namesake furniture collection for Norwalk Furniture. Ruggiero also is host of “Design & Decorating” on HGTV.
Books
“One thousand dollars–that’s not very much. Books. I would buy books. I am not a collector [of objects or art]. I think in a house, if there is one very beautiful painting, that’s nice. With $1,000 you cannot buy much [art]. But you could go and visit a friend who gives you the painting [laughs].”
–Ettore Sottsass, Italian designer and architect; founder of the wild and crazy Memphis design group of the early 1980s. Now, at age 83, Sottsass is working with DuPont Corian to jazz up Corian’s color palette; lives in both Milan and Rome
Bird carving
“Oh, gosh. I’m kind of like the unstoppable collector. I would find some great treasure at a flea market or art fair and put it into my overflowing collections. I love bird carvings, so [it would be] something like that.”
–Carl Hammer, principal of Carl Hammer Gallery, who started many a Chicagoan on their Outsider Art collection
Fine art
“The art you have in your home is all part of furnishing a home. You can mix fine art with original photographs. The art is part of what makes a room come to life.”
–Morlen Sinoway, designer, whose namesake studio and gallery is in Chicago’s Wicker Park
A roaring fire
“I think the thing that people don’t have for various reasons is log fires. If I didn’t have one, that’s what I would spend $1,000 for.
“If you have a nonfunctioning fireplace in your drawing room–if it’s been blocked up–I would have it unblocked and get a stack of logs for the winter, because there is nothing nicer than a roaring fire. It will make your decor look 100 times better.”
–Antony Little, design director and cofounder of Osborne & Little, a British fabric and wallpaper firm. Little has a classical English home in London, an English country lodge near Bath, and is building a post-Modern villa in Cape Town, South Africa. “I rather like these contrasts in my life. Otherwise, you would never know where you were, would you?” (Laughs)
Cappuccino machine
“If I didn’t have a cappuccino machine, I would definitely have an excellent cappuccino machine. … The noise, the smell of the coffee is great. It’s great atmosphere.”
–Tricia Guild, creative force behind Designers Guild, the London-based textiles firm she founded in 1970. Known for her bold use of color, Guild has a city house in London and a country home in Italy.
English mantle
“I would get an 18th Century limestone English mantle. I’d buy a great old fireplace and put it in my garden, as a place in which to build a fire. City folks that live on the Gold Coast are doing this. You could even use it at Christmas. Mighty cool.”
–Mark Steinke, managing director of Salvage One on the Near South Side (until early April, when it moves to its new River North location)
Books & music
“I live in a very small apartment. I have one room. And actually, I don’t spend so much time at home. I think I would buy books and records for 2,000 deutsche marks.
“It’s not the furniture. It’s not the quality of my artificial lighting. It’s not the color on the wall. It’s some other things that make me feel at home or make me want to spend time at home. And I think music that I like and nice books are the things I would invest in.”
–Konstantin Grcic, the young, hot and very cerebral German designer who is known for his cool simplicity and products that almost seem stripped of design. Grcic lives in Munich.
Kitchen tools
“I would buy objects for the kitchen–knives, forks, bowls. That’s what I need. It’s easy to spend 2 million lira [about $1,000 U.S.]. One good knife costs 100,000 lira. I just spent 2 million lira on professional knives. I cook a lot. I cook fast food–I don’t mean hamburger. I mean fast food where I can spend one hour in the kitchen. Part of my family is from Tuscany, so it’s a lot of vegetables, pasta, cheese and meat.”
–Rodolfo Dordoni, Italian architect and designer, who lives in Milan
Plasma screen
“I was thinking of a giant plasma screen. It’s a giant screen you view movies or TV on. I don’t know how much they cost. I don’t think the grand is going to cover it. I just like the name. It’s real flat and it works on the principal of some kind of chemicals inside that respond to electrical stimulation. PPPllllllllaaaasssssmmmmma screen. It’s the title of my next painting.”
–Ed Paschke, Chicago-based artist
Television stand
“I’d put a down payment on a hand-painted television stand by Terry and Doug Phillips, Florida artists. It has animals or people on it, in purple and pink. You can buy them at Chiaroscuro.”
–Lynn Bailey, unstoppable collector and photography curator, who lives in the Ravenswood neighborhood
Fun furniture
“A couple of fun pieces of furniture. It can be two chairs. Yes, something functional, but fun. You also want something that is creative, that stands out and says something about who you are.”
–Hank Vu, furniture designer for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Urbana
