Our Top Budget Breakdowns of the Year, From $46K to $836K
Every homeowner or designer who shares their project with the world is being wildly brave—after all, they’re putting their most personal spaces out there for all to see. But the bravest of the brave are those who open up not just their doors, but their spreadsheets, divulging the real-life costs that go into each and every architectural detail.
Our Budget Breakdown stories are perhaps the most intimate content we publish—and in 2023 we shared an unflinching look at the finances behind DIY renovations, passive house overhauls, and once-in-a-lifetime new builds. The numbers here can be as inspiring as a photo of a soaring ceiling or artful backsplash, showing just what your dollars can do. As the year wraps up, we’re looking back at the stories that had us dreaming big, even when the budgets were small.
A Live/Work Space Wrapped in Custom Millwork for $219K
Homeowners Tomasz Wagner and Amy Tran are photographers living in Vancouver, Canada. When they moved into this live/work space, they envisioned a cozy, compact home with a creative studio. Design firm &Daughters got to work cladding the home in maple plywood, stained a rich honey tone.
Amy and Tomasz’s desks are tucked away on a rounded platform enclosed by Japanese noren curtains, which provides a semiprivate area to meet clients or host industry-related events. "The office was a splurge," says Amy. "I knew I would be spending a lot of time there, and I wanted our work environment to be cozy. I’m happiest when curled up in a blanket."
The Theresa Passive House is a case study in resilient, health-conscious design techniques. Trey Farmer, an architect at Forge Craft Architecture and Design, and Adrienne Farmer, owner of interior design office Studio Ferme, collaborated with architect Hugh Jefferson Randolph to transform a worn, leaky, and loud 100-year-old house into a resilient haven.
The design team specified durable, easy-to-maintain, nontoxic, recyclable, natural, and regenerative materials. The kitchen island is engineered quartz, and the cabinets are from a local cabinetmaker.
Seeking to preserve what their home had while improving it with a $150,000 budget, Mandy Palasik and Adam Vest were intent on working within the existing footprint and maintaining the structure’s load-bearing walls.
After enduring a scammer contractor, the homeowners of this light-and-airy Los Angeles bungalow decided to finish the project themselves. The result is a fresh, modern space that nods to history (it was built in 1926).
This Yosemite cabin had classic A-frame style with 20-foot-tall windows, a rock wall fireplace, open-beam knotty pine ceilings, and a lofted sleeping area. Homeowners Aria Massoudifar and Sam Salehyan were confident that they could turn it into their dream retreat in the Sierras.
The homeowners spent $125,000 refreshing the ’70s home with finishes and decor that make it feel like a beloved family retreat.
The owners of this Barcelona apartment wanted to give their apartment a fresh, open-concept spin. "With these types of projects, you really have to make two budgets," explains Adrian Elizade of Forma Arquitectura. "The first covers the peeling away of what you don’t want. And the second is—based on what you find underneath—for what you decide to keep, and what needs to be restored or replaced. So in that sense, it’s like archaeology."
The renovation focused on the kitchen, where tile and brickwork play backdrop to considered, bespoke carpentry and microcement to create a minimalist yet warm kitchen area.
Audi Culver and Ivy Siosi had never built a house before, but as the founders of Siosi, a decade-old furniture company known for its use of domestic, sustainably sourced hardwood and simple, Scandinavian-influenced forms, they were up for the challenge. A large parcel a few miles from downtown caught their eye, and when the owner split it into four smaller lots, they snapped one up.
After Audi and Ivy built their workshop, Ivy drew up plans for a simple, 1,450-square-foot house, and the duo decided to act as general contractors, assisted by Loren Wood Builders but doing most of the labor themselves.
Madison and Mark Talley of Tall Architects moved from a camper into their self-designed, self-built space in 2017. The couple and their three-year-old son, George, have happily made the tiny house a home in Vancleave, Mississippi. Madison points out that the pod concept would make it easy to add an extension if necessary. "We see it as a house that can grow with us—and that we can pay for as we go along."
"We didn’t design it as a tiny house. We designed it as a super-efficient house we could pay cash for," explains Mark. "If that makes it tiny, so be it, but it wasn’t a marketing thing—this is all we need, and all we can afford."
Even with multiple structures across their 10-acre property in Maine, Diana Arcadipone and Scott Berk only had one bathroom. This 560-square-foot guesthouse by architect Leslie Benson gives them a second, as well as space for visiting family and friends.
Site restrictions limited the structure’s footprint, so Benson included a loft with the plan. Although the intersecting roof planes give the exterior a contemporary twist, Benson notes that the cladding (a blend of corrugated metal and stained cedar clapboards) keeps the guesthouse not only materially cohesive with the other buildings on-site, but also camouflaged against its arborous setting.
Architect (and homeowner) Danny Lim envisioned the space between the ADU and the house as an informal place to gather. "It creates a sort of courtyard sensibility, which works for our intergenerational family dynamics."
Danny fitted the kitchen into an alcove outfitted with Ikea cabinets and Semihandmade fronts. The refrigerator is by LG. On the jute rug from Armadillo, chairs from Threshold join a table from Inside Weather.
After a decade of working for the military, Amber Schleuning settled down in a 1962 home in Austin’s Riverside neighborhood, where there was a pocket of midcentury builds that had survived recent development. "It felt like an area where time was standing still a little bit," she says.
She kept the front facade intact, as well as the large picture windows in the back and exposed beams at the living room ceiling. But she swapped other hallmarks of the 1960s build, like the too-small galley kitchen, for a bigger footprint, large island, and more storage.
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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