You can find a lot of reasonable buys at Wal-Mart. But one key to making it on a budget is by donating your time and labor to the project. Do-it-yourself projects will always help you save.

When I take on a design project, I have to jet from the bookstore to the hardware shop to the lamp store and back again just to collect a small portion of the many items I need to fill a home. But, when you hit the flea market, they're all right there. From booth to booth, you have the bases covered.

Books are the heart of any home, and I spend hours going through books for design inspiration.

I can look at a photo and the dimensions of any piece and tell you if it's going to sit well with the four other pieces in your room.

I was a boy with one dream and one dream only: I wanted - no, strike that, I was desperate for - a room of my own. You see, in those days I shared a room with my little brother, Jesse, and it wasn't pretty. He was the Oscar to my Felix: messy, careless, and just a little bit sticky - exactly the way a kindergartner is supposed to be.

The truth of the matter is being gay is the way I was born. I believe this to the core of my being.

In a minimal interior, what you don't do is as important as what you do.