Our 10 Favorite Budget Breakdowns This Year, From $26K to $705K
Building a mood board of midcentury renos, black gables, and Nancy Meyers’s kitchens is one thing—actually cracking open your wallet to pay for your design dreams is another. Which is why we grill architects, designers, and brave DIY renovators regularly for our Budget Breakdown series, which dishes the dirty details behind renovations and new builds we’ve fallen in love with—so that our home improvement fantasies can be firmly, happily rooted in reality.
If you, too, are obsessed with knowing what an HVAC system for a tiny house costs, or exactly how much your favorite designer spent on wallpaper, then you’ve come to the right place. Presenting the year’s very best budget-focused design stories for your number-crunching pleasure—a breakdown of the Breakdowns, if you will.
A Fresh Look for a Lackluster Guesthouse for $54K
Avalon Rossi used reclaimed wood, plaster built-ins, and four sets of French doors—a lucky score—to recast an 800-square-foot San Diego home. The kitchen now has much more counter space, thanks to the new layout, with a quartz slab Rossi found on "super sale." The pantry doors are repurposed, and the backsplash is a terracotta tile that the designer has had in storage since 2017.
Avalon wanted to simplify and add character, so she kept the stone floor in the kitchen and introduced it throughout the home—a decision made easier on the budget when she found a crate of similar stones discounted at a stone yard. "They were completely mismatched and all different sizes," says Avalon, who sorted through them and carefully selected pieces to be used for the new floor.
The 1930s home in London that architect Grant Straghan remodeled for himself and his family is enlivened by blue-green cement tile exterior cladding.
Inspired by David Hockney’s painting A Bigger Splash (1967), Grant outfitted his daughters’ bathroom with dark- and light-pink wall tile. "The girls chose pink, but the tones reference the Hockney painting," the architect says. "The square theme continues throughout."
"One visit over the winter, and we drove up to find four feet of snow covering the driveway and stairs down to the cabin," interior designer Amy Pigliacampo says. "There was no way to even park the truck!" The most expensive part of the renovation was updating the roof and siding, at a total cost of $56,953.
The living room sofa is from Article, and the coffee table is from Burke Decor. The rug is vintage, and the fur chair was found at Urban Outfitters.
Four Minneosta housemates turned their dingy garage into a cozy coworking space by scouring Facebook Marketplace and local salvage centers. By locating such treasures as decades-old Douglas fir flooring from a decommissioned munitions plant, they remade the 600-square-foot space into a homey creative commons.
Around a hearth made of black bricks and a Jøtul stove found on Facebook Marketplace are vintage leather loungers that a friend pulled out of storage and an Iranian rug given to Kyle and his wife, Elsie, by another friend. The light fixtures are vintage finds from Bauer Brothers Salvage.
Drawing on a simple material palette of plywood and corrugated metal, architect Rafe Maclean designs a certified Passive House on a steep, challenging lot in Dunedin. Maclean designed around the existing trees on the property, including a native Kõwhai tree, which is why the house is called the Kõwhai House.
Pine plywood grown in New Zealand covers the interior. "It’s quite economical and also quite warm," says Maclean. "I find the patterns on it quite interesting to look at."
Shin Shin Architecture executed a complete gut renovation and redesign for a 1923 L.A. bungalow, transforming the structure from a single-story, single-family residence into a two-story home with a separate accessory dwelling unit (ADU) that can be rented out for added income. "We needed some sort of passive income stream in order to afford the investment," says Melissa. "We saw that as part of our financial model."
The sunroom in the ADU boasts a clear polycarbonate ceiling with millwork adding storage and concealing the washer-dryer.
Designer and artist Briana Babini decided to turn a neglected Atlanta building into the kind of home she’d always wanted. She subcontracted the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, drywall, roof, and insulation work but took on all the rest herself, which freed up money in the $122,000 budget for choice splurges among more affordable finishes.
Briana restored original details like the gridded windows while upgrading systems and reimagining the interior. In the living/dining area, she removed a header and wing walls to open the space.
Kelli Hix added this 500-square-foot guesthouse to the back of her 1930s bungalow in Nashville, Tennessee. The guesthouse is clad in vertical white vinyl siding, and Kelli had decking constructed out of engineered wood and cedar.
Kelli embraced simple raw materials like marine-grade plywood and let them shine. "I made a design rule for myself for this project: no material should imitate another material. If it’s plywood, let it look like plywood. Let’s celebrate that."
Wayne Turett of The Turett Collaborative designed his own energy-efficient holiday home in Greenport, New York, as an exercise in experimentation. A thorough landscaping package cost roughly $50,000.
The architect’s wife wanted the home to be full of natural light, so glass was used liberally. They spent $55,000 on windows and skylights, plus $14,500 on doors.
Drew Stuart and his ex-wife Kristin never wanted the ease of new construction. When they were searching for a place to raise their son in the Catskills years ago, they were committed to undertaking a renovation. It would be the more difficult route, of course, but considering that Drew is a founding partner of INC Architecture & Design, they were excited about the creative possibilities.
Stuart got the idea to install cork countertops and flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms after visiting friends in the Hamptons.
Read more Budget Breakdown stories here.
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