domino Real Life Budget - Are We on the Same Page?

The nice people at domino Magazine sent me a copy of their August issue after I wrote about their great decorating tips. This issue was touted to me as budget-conscious and the cover lists it as "high style on a real-life budget." But since my real-life budget tends to differ from the magazine people, I was a bit skeptical. I was actually quite impressed.

They decorated the room below for $1250, which seemed like a lot until I realized that included furniture. I love the idea of using wall fabric - if only I could get my husband on board.

domino also featured a beautiful living room, that I would do in a heartbeat if, again, my husband would go for pale pink furniture and floral accents. I loved the little round tables, which were listed as carved mango wood tables from Z Gallerie. I can't find them on the website though. : (

The dining room page was a much more modern white, black, and red and check out these dramatic placemats and chandelier. I also liked the do-it-yourself stenciled canvas artwork.





My favorite article in domino's August issue was the spread on Thom Filicia's lakeside home. I am completely in lust. I would want a lake home just like this - I'm a woods and lake girl (the ocean is beautiful but too salty for me. And don't get me started on all that sand!). I love the deck and Thom's decorating scheme. It's not exactly my style, but closer than anything else in this issue and very fun. It gave me a lot of good ideas for the future. You can see the slideshow on domino's site here. Check out a video about it here.

Other great finds in domino's August issue:

Corelle Contest - you can dowload files of unadorned Corelle plates and create your own design. Imagine how suprised you will all be when my design wins! See the ad somwhere around page 39.

Garage Storage using the IKEA version of pegboards on page 60. I thought about just using these when I did my kids' room, and actually own one of these, but decided against it after seeing how easily my boys pull out the plastic clips, hooks, and cups. They are genius though - I'm just saving it for a few years.

The COOLEST thing I found on domino's website, a flipbook for the current issue. It features four or five spreads from the mag, but the super-fab part: the animation. You can click and drag and it's exactly like turning the pages of a real magazine - you must try it!

One more domino tip - If you subscribe to their blog, you can see almost all of the cool spreads from the magazine. I found pictures for all of the articles and features I wrote about. Thanks to domino for the pictures! You can subscribe to the blog here.