How Megan Hopp Stretched Her $25k Design Budget To TRANSFORM Her Three-Story Townhouse (You HAVE To See The Before & Afters)

I last left you with my tale of how I ended up b u y i n g this house in Alexandria VA, and what my plans were to turn this space around in a big way without a super big budget. Working on this new (old) house I had a lot of goals…

To fully finish the common spaces, kitchen, and bedrooms (bathrooms I would leave for another day).
To turn these rooms around as quickly as possible! With a newborn baby and all the changes happening in life, now was not the time to dilly-dally.
To use as much of the house “as is” without compromising my overall satisfaction with the design.
To work with as many of my favorite vendors as possible on collaborations so as to represent the pieces and materials I love and use often in work. And to keep it real, help out with the overall budget.
To round out furnishing and decorating the space with as many second-hand or outlet pieces as possible – if you’ve ever read or seen a drop about me, you know I am a second-hand, previously owned, thrifting gal about town. Not only was this element of working on my home ESSENTIAL to actually finishing the scope in budget, but it’s also just fundamentally who I am. I adore fancy furniture, but at this time in my life purchasing a fifteen thousand dollar sofa is not in the cards.

With that-welcome to my home! I live in this three-bedroom, three-story brick townhouse with my husband and 18-month-old son. Join me as I take you through the house and design journey that unfolded as I built each room balancing style, budget, and practicality every step of the way!

The Entry/Stairwell

Scope: Wallpaper, Retile Floor, New Lighting, Furniture & Decor

Wallpaper | Door Paint Color | Woven Pendant | Mirror | Marble Hex Tile

This space started off so dark, and nondescript with a black floor and door, and a teeny tiny light fixture. The goal here was clear, go big and go BRIGHT. Blue and white stripes are my go-to pattern/color combination and I knew I wanted one of the more dramatic prints used to be in the entry and stairwell as the first impression. I fell in LOVE with a print by Wallshoppe called Roman Holiday Grid (in grasscloth), and boy oh boy does it make a statement in the best way. The particular shade of blue strikes just the right tone, and the pattern proves super classic, with a tiny twist of vertical and horizontal lines, making it feel fresh and interesting. If you’ve ever encountered grasscloth, you know it completely elevates a room, changing the physical feel of the environment dramatically. After making my wallpaper selection, I knew I wanted to update my existing front door to a shiny blue, so I turned to Clare Paint (who makes paint shopping the absolute easiest), and selected the color Frozen. A big design mistake I see people make is matching colors too literally. I didn’t want an identical match in shade between the door and wallpaper, but rather to strike a complement of hues in the same universe to create a monochromatic harmony.

For the floor, I opted for a low price point classic Carrara 2” hex tile that I picked up myself at the local Floor and Decor for $13/sq ft. (now $15-inflation!). It’s not the tile of my dreams by any means, but the white marble added a much-needed light reflective surface, and the texture of the natural stone packs a punch design-wise higher than its actual cost. I used a dark gray grout to contrast the white in the tile and make it pop that much more, darker grout is also a more practical selection for a high-traffic area like an entry space. I am a big believer in big lighting, and so my personal rule is if you’re over 6’2”, you may need to duck. I don’t have high ceilings in this space, but opted for a rattan cone pendant that was just about as tall as I could manage to fit. What is an entry space without a superstar mirror right? I was lucky to partner with Shades of Light who have a great selection of mirrors, and for the entry I went with an ultra sculptural white textured option that holds its own as a real centerpiece. I rounded out the space with a slim simple console I’ve had for years prior from CB2.

Floor Length Mirror

Kitchen

Scope: Wallpaper, Moving Lighting/New Fixtures, Painting Cabinets, New Hardware, Custom Range Hood, Furniture & Decor

Flush Mount

Taking a sharp left into the kitchen, this was a space where I really felt a challenge ahead of me. I myself am not super into modern kitchen design. My dream kitchen was probably built circa 1930, has original cabinets, tile countertops, a vintage stove, and quirky built-ins galore. I also like a kitchen that feels light, clean, and neutral, like the window is always open with a summer breeze blowing through…BUT I don’t want a boring white-on-white design. The kitchen was my greatest challenge budget-wise because I was going to be doing what I call “heavy decorating” (this is a term I would actually use to describe the nature of the work throughout the entire house), but I really wanted to make this space feel different. The kitchen had some modern updates (granite countertops, gray backsplash, and a stainless steel/glass hood) that felt really disjointed to me with the older features like the original cabinetry. I knew for better or worse we were keeping the counters and backsplash, so the task ahead was to adjust everything around them to make the entire space feel less…gray.

Cabinet Paint Color | Knobs | Tea Kettle | Sparkling Water Maker

The biggest splurge in here was a professional paint job on cabinets, which ran us about $5,000. Luxor Improvements (my go-to contractor in the DC area) did a wonderful job removing all the doors and hardware, sanding everything down (there were so many layers of paint on these cabinets they said each front took at least 20 min), and spraying the cabinets both off and on-site in Benjamin Moore’s French Canvas. I opted to keep the original brass hinges, but swapped in low price point knobs at less than $3 a piece. While there are certainly $30 knobs out there that I dream to have – blowing my budget on knobs was not the move in this time or place.

Wallpaper

Onto the wallpaper, originally I would have told you I was committed to some sort of large-scale vintage floral in this space However, given my above sentiment on color pairings, with the counter and backsplash the right shades were crucial in this selection. When I saw Thibaut’s classic gingham print Saybrook Check, I immediately knew it was the perfect solution. The overlapping neutrals were the perfect color combination to tie in and warm up those gray counters, making them feel less stark, less modern, and more like a causal stone counter that’s just doing its thing. I also definitely had the ah-ha moment of “of course I should do a classic gingham…obviously”.

Another money-saving “hack” I came up with was to remove the glass arc from the existing hood, and build a custom decorative wood covering around it, so as to match and integrate with the cabinetry. This way I was able to keep the existing functionality of the hood as is, as opposed to starting from scratch, a huge win. Luxor was able to take some of my rough sketches and inspiration images and build something off the cuff on-site in a single day (I was so delighted, I kept saying your tagline should be “a hood in a day”).

Woven Shades

I finalized the space by moving some lighting around and swapping in some classic schoolhouse-style fixtures, as well as replacing the window treatments with my all-star favorite bamboo roman shades that I have used for years. The furniture is all second-hand – the table is a vintage enamel top gem I scored on FB marketplace for $40 and the chairs from Goodwill for $10.

Living & Dining Room

Scope: Wallpaper Walls & Ceiling, Eliminate Recessed Lighting, Add Flush Mount Lighting, Replace Chandelier, Furniture & Decor

Whether you know me or not, it takes nothing more than a quick glance at my work to gauge my passion and dedication to wallpaper. It’s the core of my design work and personal style, and it’s where I begin in crafting a space every single time. The living room is the center of the home, and therefore the center of a design, and as such this entire process began in selecting what wall treatments I would do in this room. I knew I wanted to paper both the walls and the ceilings, I knew I wanted blue and white on the walls, I had a hunch I wanted a block print of some sort…and so the search for the perfect print began. I ended up being lucky enough to partner with one of my tried and true favorite vendors, Thibuat, and they were generous enough to send me one million samples. While I like to review everything in the world, I am also the fastest decision-maker ever, so when I saw their Julian print it was “DING DING DING, selected and pressing on.” For the ceiling, I wanted to get something super textured up there to add an architectural quality and bring a real warmth to the room. I landed on a chunky woven grasscloth that ended up being one of the most special elements of the house.

Bench | Natural Rug | Top Rug (Vintage)

I always say that Alexandria reminds me of a mix of Charleston and Beacon Hill in Boston…which is a little like, “duh it’s geographically right in between”. Much like its place on the map, my goal with this design was to layer a mix of styles that struck that middle ground. I wanted the home to feel playful and color-forward without being a southern pastel Disneyland, as well as revolutionary chic, all while not ending up an uptight antique shop. As the furnishing theme continues, nearly every piece of furniture in the space was purchased second-hand, or from an outlet or thrift shop. The sofa is Restoration Hardware that I found on FB marketplace for one thousand bucks, the coffee table and bar cabinet I got at my local Crate & Barrel outlet at a super steep discount. The dining table is from Chairish and the Curio Cabinet I found at a Salvation Army for $250 (a nightmare to move but worth it). One thing I really splurged on in this design was lighting. There are light fixtures I have used in client spaces time and time again and kept in my heart for YEARS. This go around I finally got to implement some of these fixtures into my own space, the two brass Visual Comfort and Co Clark flush mounts being top of my list.

The last element to come together in this space were the window treatments (and when I say last I mean I hung them myself at 11 pm the night before we shot the room…and dropped a curtain rod on my eye sending me glasses to Mars). Real talk here…custom window treatments can cost you more than a car, they are just that expensive no matter how you slice it. I know this, I live this, and I just kept hemming and hawing over how to get substantial draperies into this room without spending ten thousand dollars, truly without spending one thousand dollars. Pepper Home to the rescue! These curtains were made to order so I could get the perfect length and style without having to alter some off the shelf panels myself. With their pinch pleat detailing, velvet border tape, and 100’ width per panel they transformed my living room in the most dramatic fashion!

Primary Bedroom

Scope: Wallpaper, Built-in Removal, Replace Light Fixture, Furniture & Decor

Desk | Chair | Chunky Knit Rug

The bedrooms required a lot less work than the common spaces and consisted mostly of wallcoverings, new lighting, furniture, and decor. In the primary bedroom, I ripped out an old built-in that spanned one side of the room. While built-ins can be such a luxury, this one wasn’t particularly practical or attractive. I could have spruced it up but it ultimately felt like a mistake to put any money into something that just wasn’t working from the start. Instead, I opted to eliminate it entirely creating a nook for the BIGGEST dresser I could fit. Casegoods are one category of furniture where cost and quality are directly correlated, but I obviously wasn’t going to shell out thousands for a new piece, so I took to the second-hand market. After a bit of a search, I came across a Restoration Hardware eleven-drawer piece on the second-hand site KAIYO, and was able to procure the dresser for a true fraction of the original retail price.

Mirror | Dresser (Thrifted) | Rug

Having come from NYC, you live a life where you never have enough drawers, and every time you open the ones you have, they are stuffed to the brim and the experience is miserable. This dresser is what suburban dreams are made of. I tend to lean towards lighter softer colors in a bedroom out of personal preference, but I didn’t want the room to feel sterile or even worse boring. I built the room around another Thibaut textured wallpaper in a sage green herringbone. The pattern and color are subtle enough to create a somewhat neutral base for the space but interesting enough to make a statement. If you are going to use textured paper anywhere in your home, prioritize the bedrooms. My favorite quality about a textured wallcovering is how it dampens the sound, creating an instant cozy factor.

Chair (Vintage) | Nightstand | Table Lamp

Another special find in this space was the silk striped armchair in the corner. I didn’t quite know what I was looking for with this piece but recognized the chair on FB marketplace as being from the home of another designer in the area whom I follow on Instagram. I immediately loved it and shot her a note to see if I could call dibs! The bed I wanted to keep bright, light, and neutral, and worked with Serena & Lily to dress it in all my favorite go-to linens and pillows. I’m not someone who subscribes to the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mentality. No time to waste, I’d prefer to do so now.

Nursery

Scope: Wallpaper Walls And Ceiling, Replace Light Fixture, Furniture & Decor

The nursery was the first space I designed in this house, and to be honest, I really designed it well before we found the house, or even getting pregnant. After having worked on countless nurseries for clients, I slowly was building the nursery I would want in the back of my head over the years. Boy or girl, I knew I wanted neutral stripes and blue florals, and so that’s what I did. Serena and Lily worked with me on this space, and I was able to bring it to life with some of my favorite pieces from their line. Stripes are my number one pattern in the universe, and while I love color, I also like the flexibility a neutral pattern can offer while still adding fun visual interest. I also knew I wanted to run the stripes across the ceiling to create a circus tent atmosphere, which is always the physical place I really want to be.

Pendant

Crib | Bedding | Basket

The wallpaper, crib, bedding, mirror, and baskets are all from Serena & Lily. The dresser I have had since my solo lady days back in my first Brooklyn apartment and was really thrilled to be able to repurpose it here. The rug was an excellent second-hand find (from say it with me, FB marketplace), a one of kind embroidered Kellogg rug.

The daybed frame I scored for $75 bucks with the seller claiming it was a vintage piece from a Parisian flea market – who knows but we’ll go with that story. My nature as a designer is to go all in on a colorway in a space, but in this room, the choice to lean more neutral was also very budget motivated. For starters, this child will age and the look of the space will need to grow and adapt with him, and financially speaking I will not be changing this wallpaper in 5 years.

There is also a potential we may do some room swapping/reconfiguring in the future and if the current nursery ever becomes the primary bedroom I wanted a base that would work in either scenario.

The one piece of furniture in my house that I TRULY splurged on is the glider. I bought it new and it arrived one week before I gave birth – I plan to sit in it every day until I die.

Guest Room

Scope: Wallpaper, Carpet, Furniture & Decor

Console | Mirror (Similar) | Shades | Rug (Vintage from Old New House Rugs) | Bench

I’ve obviously never had a guest room before and was really excited to create a cozy little space for family and friends to feel comfortable and welcome when they visit. In addition to my excitement about this space, it was also my last priority in terms of budget. As such, much of this room consists of repurposed pieces from previous homes and spaces. The only new piece of furniture in this room is the vintage cane seat side chair which I got at a Goodwill for $2.99, everything else I had previously. I love using furniture you’ve had one way forever in a new environment where it suddenly feels like it has a new lease on life, such a rush! The wallpaper was of course a new addition, also from Thibaut. I have a bit of an obsession with using red and blue in combination with one another, but I always feel a hesitancy in taking it too far with an end result that reads “patriotic lunatic”. This felt like a safe space to lean in on the red and blue while layering an eclectic combination of patterns and textures on top.

Den/Office

Scope: Wallpaper, Carpet, Paint Fireplace & Wall Paneling White, Replace Light Fixture, Replace Sliding Door With French Doors, Furniture & Decor

Lastly, we come to our final destination on the tour, the hybrid den and office space, arguably the most transformed room in the house. Much of the house has very traditional finishes, crown moldings, etc. The lower level however was architecturally much simpler, and much more cookie-cutter as a starting point. My husband is a mid-century modern design lover and given that I didn’t really inject much of that anywhere else in the home, this felt like the moment to lean in. I wanted to do a fresh take on a classic mid-century wood-paneled basement, all while taking the original space from dark and heavy to light and airy.

Brown Velvet Pillow | Tiger Lumbar Pillow | Wall-to-Wall Carpet

The wallcovering in this space is the absolute star of the show, a geometric wood veneer covering from Thibaut that brought this room alive in the most electric way. This wallcovering was actually one of the first samples I ever ordered from Thibaut years ago, I kept it in a drawer just waiting for the right space to use it in-not knowing it would be my own! We ripped out the old carpet and covered the entire downstairs in a soft textured ivory wall-to-wall selection. It’s so nice to have at least one space in the house kids can roll around on and get cozy.

White Paint

Desk | Bookcases | Chair | White Bins

Other updates included a fresh coat of white paint on the wall paneling and fireplace, updating the overhead lighting, replacing the old sliding door with a modern french door set, and new window treatments and furniture (the large ottoman from Shades of Light being my favorite piece to throw your toddler body on with zero risk). The room works out great as a workspace during the day that shifts into a place to relax on nights and weekends. While this is technically the least colorful room in the home, I’d hardly characterize it as neutral!

Until Next Time

In hindsight, the timing of buying a house weeks after having a baby, and jumping into a full transformation soon after didn’t make for the most relaxing year – like anything worthwhile, the journey to get there is hard and taxing. I can say being on the other side of this project is really a sigh of relief to come home every day, and not think about what I need to do next in the space, but rather enjoy it. The moral of the story and what I hope to leave everyone with is to cut yourself a break when it comes to interior design. You aren’t crazy for wanting a picture-perfect space, everyone does, but nothing is as easy as it may seem or as one might say. I transform spaces for a living every day of my life, and even with the skill sets I have under my belt, the access to discounted product, and knowledge of how to stretch a budget as far as humanly possible…it’s a challenge. A challenge I enjoy more than anything and think about incessantly, but I never want to leave you with an unrealistic picture of what it takes. My best advice is to take your time (within reason of course – love a fast decision put into action!) and don’t let the pressure of the price tags defeat you altogether. Little by little the projects, progress, and great finds add up, and with each new improvement you’ll be on your way to that perfectly made space for you.

*Design by Megan Hopp
**Photos by Kelsey Ann Rose

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