Dumpster-Diving Paul Weiss Associate Learns New Way to Decorate Cheaply

Tax lawyer Colin Kelly paid $572,000 for his New York apartment, but he was more frugal when it came to decorating.

Kelly, an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, lived in “a mostly bare space with a motley assortment of brown furniture,” the New York Times reports.

“The coffee table and side table are both Craigslist purchases,” Kelly told the Times. “The lamp, I think I found in a Dumpster. The rug I got at Ikea.”

A colorful glass vase was another free find, the story says. Asked about the “provenance” of the item, Kelly explained that during his college years at Harvard, he and his roommates discovered it at 2 a.m. in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, “mysteriously filled with urine.” It has since been cleaned with bleach and passed between the roommates every few years.

Kelly responded to a New York Times offer to give free help to people with small decorating budgets. He was willing to spend $8,000—the amount of the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit. Designers from Incorporated Architecture & Design in Manhattan took on the project—which included removal of a soffit—for free.

The designers saved money with purchases of furniture from Ikea, metal blinds from a hardware store, melamine shelves from Home Depot, and artwork made from a digital photo. Kelly’s vase was incorporated into the design.

“It’s funny,” Kelly told the Times. “Having a nice space makes it—I don’t want to say I feel compelled—but I bring myself to clean the space much more often than I did before."