Fix a flat Issue #23

A Chicago couple transforms an old tavern into a rental dreamland

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 11:59am

For Chicagoan Michelle Rigot, decorating on a budget is more than a necessity — it’s a philosophy. In April 2004, she and her husband Jonny Drexler turned their East Village apartment from a run-of-the-mill place to a decorated-on-the-cheap nest for two. While they didn’t have a fortune to work with, they were able to create a cool, musician-friendly space thanks to creativity and a little elbow grease. We caught up with Rigot to talk about what it took to make it all happen.

What did the apartment look like when you moved in?
When we first checked it out, the place was completely open and huge. The walls were mostly white, with the exception of some dark mint-green color on one kitchen wall and the inside front door. The place definitely wasn't non-descript, though. It had once been a tavern. It had lots of unique features: a near-perfect tin ceiling, a bedroom loft area someone had built out, a small bar area whose flooring is made out of old basketball-court parts, a large antique stove, and a nearly 10-foot [tall] mirror.

What prompted you to create changes in your home?
I, for one, was sick of living in white-walled apartments, so the first chance I wanted to take on was adding color. It's understandable in most cases that when you're renting you usually can't manipulate a space too much, nor do you want to pour money into something that's just temporary. But given that we weren't ready to buy a place, we wanted to see if we could at least find a situation where the landlord would let us make the place unique to us.

How did you approach your landlord with the idea of customizing your home?
As trite as it sounds, it was just all about communication. We were upfront with [the landlord] the minute we met about Jonny being a musician. We didn’t want to waste our time — or theirs — if that wouldn’t jive with someone. Before we signed the lease, we talked with them about our interest in painting the place. We basically just made sure that we were all on the same page.

Thankfully, this place has seen a number of transitions over the years, and so I think our landlords were uniquely open to letting us do our thing. … I don’t think it’d be an overstatement to say that a fair amount of trust was built up on both sides. The landlord-tenant relationship is usually so limited, and oftentimes uncomfortable, so I’m not sure how we lucked out like this.

Why was it important for you to stay on a budget? Is there a philosophy behind that?
I’m all about the budget for a number of reasons. First and foremost, when money’s an issue, it’s amazing the things you can think of to do that you might not come up with if it’s all just handed to you. Sure, every once in a while we might make a calculated splurge on something, but we try to do the majority of our decorating as creatively as possible — at times, even using our beat-up truck to help someone move, for a nice bookshelf or two in exchange.

Aside from that, staying on a budget’s important to me in my pursuit of becoming financially free. It’s not a bunch of financial-planner hoo-ha, either — it’s the real deal, if you ask me. So, yeah, staying on a budget is not only important to us, it’s a necessity, as I imagine it is for most people.

Sure, there’s lots of trendy stuff we’d love to get our hands on, or lots of trips we’d rather be spending our money on right now — but the sooner we can get out of debt, the sooner we can do those things. And while it’s important to me to have a place I really enjoy coming home to, I’m not willing to sell myself out for it.