Home Improvement Projects for the Busy & Broke

Searching for a house or apartment is difficult enough on its own; transforming it into your home is an entirely different story, especially for those who have never lived on their own before. As millenials create their first homes away from home, they are bombarded with constant DIY ideas and articles on social media. Unfortunately, many of the seemingly simple ideas are beyond the average twenty-something’s means.

Home Improvement Projects for the Busy & Broke aims to give you the knowhow and teach you to decorate your home while staying within your budget, all presented in an engaging and approachable way. Each project is accompanied by a list of tools and materials needed, along with step-by-step instructions. Salway uses her wit and playful personality to describe her journey of renovating and redecorating not only her two-bedroom Williamsburg apartment but also the New York farmhouse she and her husband bought as a major fixer-upper. Just like millenials today, she took on these projects while working a full-time job and sticking to a strict budget—the advice is tried and true!

A resource for anyone who is short on time and strapped for cash, Home Improvement Projects for the Busy & Broke will help you turn any space into a unique home you love and are proud to show off.

Christina Salway graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2003 with a degree focused in architecture. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Country Living, the Design Bureau, Better Homes & Gardens, and numerous design blogs. She is one of Zillow’s in-house home improvement experts, was a contestant on NBC’s “American Dream Builders,” made multiple appearances on The Nate Berkus Show, and was also included in Nate Berkus’s latest book, The Things That Matter. Salway is the owner of ElevenTwoEleven Design, an interior design firm named for the zip code of her home and office in “hip and happening” Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband John, their son, and their rescue pit bull.