When interior designer Dona Rosene picked up a call by a number she didn’t understand at 5 p.m. on a Monday, she didn’t have any clue how busy her week had been about to become. A single guy named Jared Husch out of Miami had found her via . He had been going to Dallas that weekend, and he desired his new apartment completely equipped by the time he came.
Bringing just his clothing, his dog and a juicer, the 27-year-old Husch requested Rosene to produce the area clean and manly. While she had a lot of freedom in the plan, everything she chose had to be readily available and delivered by that Friday, four days off. Husch gave a $10,000 budget for furniture and accessories. Here’s how she did it.
at a Glance
Who lives here: Jared Husch and his dog, Dakota
Location: Uptown Dallas
Size: 900 square feet; 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Before Photo
Dona Rosene Interiors
Monday day: The predict. After the initial phone call at 5 p.m., Rosene and Husch emailed back and forth; he sent her pictures of his new empty apartment in addition to the floor plans and styles he liked. The modern apartment had dark hardwood flooring, white walls and exposed concrete.
“I worked on some budget amounts to see if I could do it,” she says. “I was not completely convinced that he was serious” that first night.
The apartment enjoys great views from the 20th floor of a building in Dallas’ Uptown area, an artsy enclave.
Dona Rosene Interiors
Tuesday: Rosene strikes the ground running. She quickly learned she can pick up bits from stores such as Z Gallerie, West Elm and Crate & Barrel when they were in inventory or on clearance. She struck neighborhood Dallas storeWeir’s Furniture and found the couch for $1,299, deciding such an important part was worth the big dent in her budget. She also found the press cabinet, bar stools, nightstands, bed and mattress there.
Table lamp: Target; side table: Crate & Barrel
Dona Rosene Interiors
From that point she struck up West Elm and Pier 1 Imports and shot photographs to get an idea of her choices and how to pull everything together. She snatched up a striped lumbar pillow at Pier 1, deciding it would offer her bedroom color palette, and put the swivel chair and ottoman on hold. The pillow gave her a cool manly mixture of teals, grays and browns to use.
She found the mattress at Weir’s for $300 and spent $1,000 on a good mattress and box spring, consulting Husch by phone about his mattress firmness preference.
A late night visit to Bed, Bath & Beyond scored her bedding. “The rectangular quilting maintained the manly and clean lines,” she says. Bleary-eyed, she left it into the checkout area with seconds to spare before closing time, also picking sheets, bed pillows and other essentials.
(She included a few added pillows for the photo shoot; a lot of men don’t want to fuss with so many cushions)
Sculpture, turquoise shams: Crate & Barrel
Dona Rosene Interiors
Wednesday: Rosene does a few recon and labels home base. “I did a little shopping on the internet before I went to Jared’s apartment to look at the area in individual — to see what else I needed and to confirm I had been headed in the right direction,” Rosene says. She’d scoped out the art that breaks up the long entryway wall Z Gallerie online before buying it, but the large score was the painting over the couch; she found it at discount chain Tuesday Morning for under $200. This provided her with the color palette inspiration to your space.
A trip to Target scored her the occasional seat (on sale for $120), accessories and also among the bedroom lamps. Next she led around to Robert Lawrence for planters and plants which could stand up to the apartment’s high ceilings without blocking the views or passageways.
Last she scooped up towels and accessories at Home Goods and World Market until final time again. “It’s a good thing that these stores are open until 9 or 10 at night, I would not have finished this job,” Rosene says.
Side table (abandoned): Pier 1 imports
Dona Rosene Interiors
Thursday: The final push. Needing some crucial bits for the primary living area, Rosene circled back into West Elm, where she scooped up the coffee table, also to Crate & Barrel, where she found a floor lamp which was in inventory.
Locating a rug which will lighten up the dark hardwood flooring was a large challenge. Over at the clearance — which is, in-stock — section, Rosene found a so-so plaid rug rolled up. Plagued with doubts concerning it, she went to see it hanging on the wall at the showroom area. Luckily for her, she ran into a workers taking down the rug you visit here to schlep into the clearance section at that very moment.
She snatched it up until they can make a step toward the clearance area. “This was one of many miracles that happened in putting this place together,” she says.
Striped pillow cloth: Boulevard, Vervain
Before Photo
Dona Rosene Interiors
Rosene recognized a king-size mattress would overwhelm the bedroom and talked Husch into making use of a queen.
Dona Rosene Interiors
Rosene returned into Pier 1 for this swivel chair and ottoman as well as the entrance table and an end table at the primary living area. She completed the afternoon before the show with a two-cart visit to a different Target store, finding a lamp to match the other bedroom lamp, more accessories and requirements like kitchen gear and toilet paper. “The guy helping me get both carts to my car didn’t believe I would fit all of it in my SUV, but that I did, without an inch to spare,” says Rosene. She got home with midnight quickly approaching, ready to grab a couple of hours of sleep before the big moment.
Before Photo
Dona Rosene Interiors
Friday: Installation and the big show. Two advocates with big vehicles and Rosene stuffed up the items out of her garage, then unloaded everything at the apartment. Then one went to Pier 1 for the larger items and you went on to Target to get things such as extension cords, lightbulbs, a kitchen trash can and a silverware caddy as well as a few lunch. A third moving guy brought each of the things from Weir’s.
Dona Rosene Interiors
Rosene completely outfitted the toilet, right down to the toilet paper. A dotted towel from Home Goods proceeds the bedroom’s teal and gray color scheme. She picked up the shower curtain at West Elm and the cart at Cost Plus World Market.
Bath mat: Home Goods
Friday day: All done. When Husch and Dakota came around 5 p.m., everything was in place except for a couple pieces of art. She showed him around, ended hanging a few last things and was out the door by 7. “This created for four very long days, but it all worked out,” Rosene says.
“When you ask somebody to do something most men and women think is hopeless, you do not have very high hopes,” Husch says. “I walked in after my long driveway with my dog and opened the door into my apartment with my jaw on the floor. I wouldn’t have changed one thing about my new apartment in Dallas.”
Rosene had such a great time on the job which when we chatted, she had been toying with advertising similar services to the remaining residents from the construction. Then she reconsidered. “It had been enjoyable, but I really don’t know if I could work like this all the time,” she says. “It was exhausting!”
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