by Denise Trowbridge, New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles, September 2005

If you give Jennifer Williams $20 and a can of paint, she can completely redecorate a room and make it look like she spent thousands. Trust me, she’s a figurehead for those of us who love chichi design but have a budget more fit for beer cans than Tiffany lamps.

I’m her best friend, and I can tell you she missed her calling — she should have been an interior designer. Instead, she and her husband, Lee, produce television commercials for Charter Media on the North Shore, which means people like me have to brave the paint chips at the hardware store alone, overwhelmed and scared.

Jenn and Lee, on the other hand, know just what to do. If you don’t believe me, you have to visit their 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom home on Palm Drive in Slidell. Less than a month after they moved in, they had transformed the peach-walled monstrosity into a home fit for a rock star. And they did it for less than $2,000 — including new furniture.

How did they do it? Like a good friend, Jenn didn’t hesitate to outline her four simple rules for inexpensive, effective decorating with maximum impact. First, never spend more than $50 on anything, unless it’s furniture. Second, always keep your eyes peeled for sales. Third, when in doubt, paint. "Paint is the fastest, cheapest and easiest cure all," she says. "If you make a mistake, you can just paint over it."

And finally, be crafty — if you can make it yourself, by all means do, because "it’s a really inexpensive way to personalize your house."

Here is how Jenn and Lee used those rules to deck out their own house. It all started with a set of roman shades from Urban Outfitters. They were on sale, of course, for $18 each, and the shades’ blue and brown diamonds on a white background set the stage for the entire décor.

They’re hanging in the bold orange kitchen and dining room. The color, Behr’s Roasted Eggplant, contrasts with the blue and brown in the shades and makes the simple white kitchen cabinets stand out.

Because the house has an open floor plan and a lot of odd angles, including a loft overlooking a 26-foot-tall wall of windows, they decided to paint the walls basic white then add pockets of bright colors. There’s orange in the kitchen, red on the adjacent stairway, and blue, green and brown in the bedrooms and bathrooms. "I added bits and pieces of color to add pop," Jenn says.

The living room is a study in glamour on a budget. Lee made the birch TV stand for less than $100. The vintage peg table is a thrift store find. The sofa, sideboard, coffee table and gray suede shag rug are from Ikea. Jenn made the abstract wall art by stapling fabric from reprodepot.com to blank artist’s canvases. She also sewed the curtains; she sews all of her curtains because it’s cost effective and she can design them to work with creative curtain rods fashioned from heavy-duty wire and clips.

The guest bathroom has a botanical theme, inspired by the couple’s honeymoon trip down the old Route 66. One of the last stops was the bamboo garden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, an ambience they recaptured with Jungle Thicket green walls, punctuated by a kiwi green shower curtain from Crate and Barrel and framed photographs of split-leaf philodendron and bamboo. Jenn took the photos in her garden. "The best and cheapest art is your own photography," she says. "Takes photos of whatever inspires you and put them in clean line frames."

In the guestroom across the wall, black and white photos of downtown New Orleans hang above the bed, the result of a quick trip around the block with an old Pentax camera. "I started at Canal and Baronne and took shots of the landmarks," she says.

The walls, the same blue as that on the kitchen shade, match the subtle teal striping in the duvet from West Elm. Jenn made the white fun fur pillows, too.

The master bedroom has chocolate brown walls in stark contrast with a birch platform bed and light carpet. "I’d always wanted a room that looked like a giant Hershey’s kiss," Jenn says with a laugh. The art above the headboard is made from two pieces of framed wrapping paper. "I find bits and pieces that I love, then I hold onto them until I can find a way to use them," she says of the paper.

Despite a tiny budget, Jenn and Lee are living the Louisiana high life in their home, which overlooks the water. "It’s hard to have a bad day when you can look outside and see the bayou and the wildlife," Lee says. An amateur ornithologist, he keeps binoculars and an Audubon field guide on the coffee table. "It’s everything we wanted in a house."

Jenn agrees, adding, "We like it because we get to feel richer than we really are."