I LOVE HOME MAKEOVERS (as long as they don’t involve sick children and Ty Pennington). But few are as thrifty as the one that Brad Ford pulled off at his parents’ guesthouse in Russellville, Arkansas. With just one week and less than $3,500, the New York designer transformed the 1,000-square-foot bungalow from bland to beautiful. In an article in Country Living, Ford relates how he draped a throw across the back of a boring sofa instead of reupholstering it, papered the bathroom with color plates torn from a $22 book, and adorned the walls with framed leaves he picked up in the yard. He swapped out some of the pedestrian furnishings for funky finds he found at rummage sales and antiques shops, and augmented them with new pieces from Pier 1 and Target. In the end, Ford proves that it’s personality–not provenance–that counts. 

Photo: Lucas Allen/Country Living