Thrifty & Thriving

23 ● NYC ● Interior Design Inspiration on a Budget

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Designer Decor Dupes

I have expensive taste when it comes to interior design, while dealing with the budget of an unpaid intern, college student. This is a struggle for me when it comes to decorating my space as you can imagine, as I have so many pieces saved to my camera roll that I dream of buying one day, but I know that is simply unattainable right now. This being said, I don’t want to just wait around for the day I can afford these high ticket items, and instead have begun the search for the perfect ‘designer decor dupes.” First on my list is one of my favorite designers of furniture, decor, and art: Johnathan Adler. 

Johnathan Adler:

Johnathan Adler’s bright, pop art inspired pieces with fun and whimsical designs bring me so much joy, but their high price tag does not. One of my favorite places to find inexpensive home decor pieces is Etsy. I love Etsy because not only are the pieces more attainable, but you are also supporting a small business with your purchase rather than spending your money at a large corporation like Amazon or Target. Below is one of the pieces I found for my apartment on Etsy that has a similar style and vibe to Johnathan Adler, without the designer price.

Pillows:

One of my favorite pieces from Johnathan Adler is his iconic lip pillows. The first photo shows his pillows, which retail for $165 each. Instead of spending $330 on decorative pillows for my bed, I purchased the second pillows from Etsy for $75 and absolutely love them, and they’ve also received so many compliments!

Johnathan Adler Pillows:

Etsy Pillows:

Pillow 1

Pillow 2

A photo of the pillows on my bed:

Overall I would highly recommend these pillows, the quality is amazing especially for the price and I love the fact that my money is supporting a small business! Follow along for more tips and inspiration!

[thriftyandthrivingnyc]

Welcome!

For this assignment, I chose to create a blog documenting the process of decorating my East Village apartment. My roommate and I moved into this apartment back in September, but have been slow to decorate as we have decided not to rush finding specific, quality pieces to fill our home that will last. We are trying to curate a space that we love and are proud of without breaking the bank, which has been a process but definitely worth it.

We have taken advantage of outlets like thrift stores, flea markets, Facebook Marketplace and more to find furniture and decoration, and wanted to use this space as inspiration for others in the NYC area or beyond in a similar circumstance to us. Additionally I thought it would be interesting to share moldboards and photos I’ve found and used as inspiration that others may be interested in emulating as well.

I think this story is extremely relatable to many other’s in our age group that are either currently in college or recently finished college and are furnishing and decorating their first apartment on a budget. While we are specifically living in NYC, many of the posts will be applicable to other cities and places across the world as I plan to diversify my content pertaining to in-person shopping as well as digitally.

I will be utilizing keywords as hashtags in each post in order to take advantage of SEO results, particularly so that other users on Tumblr with similar interests are able to easily find and follow my blog. Additionally I will use original images as well as other images I find online (with credit of course) that will direct traffic to my page from like-minded individuals. I am hoping that a combination of both will drive traffic from individuals going through a similar process that will follow my page for more helpful tips when decorating their apartment on a budget.