Customer Reviews

Budget Living Home Cheap Home

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just saw a bunch of 1 star reviews on this book and have to respond. I've loved my copy since I bought it 5 years ago: it's refreshing to see one source that has a range of real interiors created by unique individuals with unique visions. (And please don't burst my bubble by telling me that those were fake personas!!!) I love the red stair-runner carpet that ends in a 'pool of blood' shape, the pink kimono displayed on a peach wall, and the multiple seascape painting arrangement in the pale yellow nautical-themed kitchen. Many contemporary decorating books have a clear decorative vision that permeates every single shot: while it's great if you share exactly the same vision as the stylist, there's something disenchanting about seeing a perfectly constructed world where everything is white, or has the same proportion to it, or a "classic" piece of furniture placed exactly according to the rule of thirds, in every single image.

There are lots of ideas in here that pre-date decorating blog cliches (ie: nautical, lots of frames on one wall): I think the styling in the book was ahead of its time. And something about having these images in your hands, printed, in a book, can be more meaningful than clicking through a kazillion images on a kazilion blogs. Hence my still remembering this book 5 years after buying it! Plus, the book itself is cheap!

That being said, I haven't read Budget Living magazine, so maybe this is why I don't feel disenchanted by the supposed reprinting of material!

An extreme disappointment from a great magazine. I truly expected more from them.

If you read Budget Living magazine, don't buy this book. All the editors did was scrape together rooms and projects they've already published. This is old stuff, and I'm not happy I bought this book.

As a fan of Budget Living, I was super disappointed when I got this. I looked through it and expected new ideas but what I saw were things that have already run in the magazine. I feel cheated and angry. I gave the book to my hairdresser.

This is a ripoff. I see what's budget about it. It was cheap for the magazine to create because it's just a rehash of what they've published before. This is a major disasppointment. Don't buy it.

I'm a huge fan of the magazine Budget Living, so I was thrilled to hear about this book. And it did not disappoint -- the book is GORGEOUS, really high-quality production and design, and the ideas are fabulously fun. There is a bit of overlap from the magazine, but the book goes into greater depth than the magazine is able to ... and it offers a lot of great new ideas, too. Spread the gospel of Budget Living!!

As a subscriber to Budget Living, I would say that a fair amount of this book has already been published in the magazine. I haven't even read all of the issues I've received yet and couldn't help recognizing at least half of the photos and such when flipping through the book. I ordered it sight unseen, which I now regret. If I'd looked at it first, I probably would have passed because so much of the content is recycled. Shame on the editors for milking a good thing for all it's worth!

"Home Cheap Home" is published by Budget Living Magazine (which is one of my new, favorite magazines.) I have purchased three issues of Budget Living, and found many of the decorating ideas already published in the magazine, published again in "Home Cheap Home". This is an annoying redundancy I have noticed a lot in books published by magazines -- note to publishers: We do notice!!! That said, "Home Cheap Home" is a pleasant enough, realistic approach to decorating on a "budget". I do think many books and magazines need a reality check on what the average consumer's idea of "cheap" and "budget" are, since recovering a thrift store sofa for $1,200 would leave many of us gasping for air and eating nothing but Snack Ramen for the next three months. "Home Cheap Home" is REALISTIC budgetwise for those of us who are forced to think of Pottery Barn AS the expensive stuff. The book relies heavily on flea market and thrift store looks and finds, and if this isn't your bag, this isn't the book for you. I did enjoy some of the decorating/craft projects, especially the book-folding thing -- very funky! There were not a lot of new source ideas, Budgeteers already know to shop Target, Ikea, eBay, the fleas, and rumage sales. (If you have shopped for secondhand junk lately, you will have noticed a lot of the prices are less than budget friendly, and the day of the fabulous $10.00 Goodwill sofa has gone the way of drive-in movie theaters.) Still, "Home Cheap Home" offers up a fun approach (if not exactly fresh) to decorating within ones means. Like the magazine "Budget Living", one of the most delightful things about "Home Cheap Home" is that it never takes itself to seriously. And,when your end tables are cardboard boxes covered with sheets, this is a welcome attitude.