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After taping nearly 150 episodes of "Design on a Dime," HGTV's $1,000 makeover show, Kristan Cunningham learned a thing or two about money-saving renovations.
So when the interior designer and her longtime boyfriend, Scott Jarrell, moved into a Venice canal district rental last year, they gave themselves a $1,000 budget for a kitchen face-lift and decorated much of the house with finds from big-box chains and vintage shops.
"You either have the do-it-yourself spirit, or you don't," Cunningham says, sipping a mug of coffee in her now-cozy, French farmhouse-inspired kitchen. "We knew we were going to be in this house for a couple of years. But since it is a rental, Scott and I tried decorating it with low-cost design ideas."
Cunningham and Jarrell experimented with contemporary design in their previous home, a 1988 design in Pasadena by the celebrated firm Buff & Hensman. They sold it in 2008 and considered a move to New York City to reduce Cunningham's travel as a design correspondent for the "Rachael Ray" show. It's a good thing those plans changed, because the couple is now in development for a yet-to-be-named television show that will be produced in Los Angeles. Cunningham, 32, is also a judge on "HGTV's $250,000 Challenge," a renovation competition that premieres Sunday.
Jarrell, 32, worked in marketing and promotion at Fox Television before joining Cunningham's projects as location manager.
"I'm an honorary designer," he says. "But in all honesty, I'm the worst do-it-yourselfer on the planet. I'm the planner, and Kristan is the doer."
The couple is similar in one way, however.
"We always try to meet in the middle, and since Kristan's taste skews masculine, that makes it easy," Jarrell says.
Cunningham describes their rental as a 1980s faux-French Normandy. "We chose to keep everything simple, old and French-looking," she says.
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