From the Archive: With Just $50 a Month, These Renters DIY’d Their Way to an Ultra Funky Pad

Welcome to From the Archive, a look back at stories from Dwell’s past. This story previously appeared in the March/April 2003 issue.

When Desiree DeLong and Mike Schmidt spot a cool lamp or sofa in an upscale furnishings store, they check it out carefully. And then they figure out how they could make it for a lot less.

Using "crazy-cheap" items scrounged from the broken and returns corner at Ikea and the wood-remnants section of Home Depot, they’ve transformed an innocuous brick box in suburban Chapel Hill, North Carolina, into a temple to stylish living.

The interior exudes retro chic. Walking into the living room is like entering a tunnel—the far wall is covered with convex mirrors that reflect the space as a spherical tube. They created this effect by combining 3o $5 mirrors from Ikea. Facing the front door is a funky mirror with flame-shaped cutouts and glowing light bulbs flying in front, like moths homing in on a flame. "We went to Michaels [a craft store] and found these wedding doves," says Delong. "Then we pulled off their wings and attached them to light bulbs."

For DeLong and Schmidt, it’s thrilling to pull off minimalism for the bare minimum. Scrimping is a necessity for the young couple, who upgraded to this $700-a-month, 1,1oo-square-foot rental in August of last year. An aspiring fashion designer, DeLong, 25, grew up in a relatively poor family and learned to sew her own clothes. "I went to Catholic school and had to wear the same uniform for years," she says, "so I learned how to do alterations and fix the holes in my skirts." Local boutiques have started carrying pieces of her clothing line, Ammunition, which includes a saucy pink vinyl skirt and a dramatic Asian-inspired wrap dress with red sleeves.

Schmidt, 27, spends his days trying to stretch a small budget as the producer of a new TV show called Hip-Hop Nation. According to both of them, he is the sobering influence in the household. "I like my environment to be bright, loud, and colorful, and if I had my way there would be red shag carpet wall to wall," says DeLong. "Mike is more conventionally minimalist—concrete floors and gray walls and stainless-steel furniture." Schmidt adds: "She’ll want something, and I have to think about how it will work, so I can live in the space, too—I can’t live in a purple room."

So far, the pair has built a custom coffee table and a bookcase with doors, and are planning to construct a padded bed frame. "It’s always cooler to have something that comes from your own ingenuity and sweat rather than going out and buying something," says Schmidt. "I think the experience of making something far surpasses going into a store and putting down a credit card. That doesn’t seem an authentic way to go about populating your house with things."

The designing duo has only had one disaster. The purple velvet couch in the living room cost $5o to start, but ended up raising their laundry bills. "It was beige, and we hated the color," says DeLong. "So I was like, ‘Dude, let’s just dye it.’ We used four bottles of Rit dye and sponged it on. But the upholstery was polyester and didn’t soak up the dye, so when it dried, the couch was covered with purple powder. For the first three months, our backs and asses were purple."

Now that the dust has settled, DeLong and Schmidt are thinking about building a new sofa. "The nice thing about making your own stuff is that you have the freedom to modify it or throw it away," says DeLong. "Don’t underestimate yourself and the idea of being a thrifty homemaker. On a budget of 5o bucks a month, you can have a pretty phat house."

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