Metro Home, Dwell, Elle Decor, or Domino?

Most of the magazines you listed usually show and advertise only quite pricey interiors, furnishings, furniture, accessories, etc. If you opt for one of those, you will have to figure out how to recreate what you see using lower priced items. Sometimes this is an easy task and sometimes, especially if you fall in love with a particular wall paper or chair, it sets the stage for disappointments. Metro Home & Elle Decor are among two of my favorites, so if you're willing to try to achieve a look without trying to copy it exactly, subscribe to either or even both. It often helps to also find a magazine that has advertisers from your area listed, so check into a local magazine as well. Depending on the scope of the work you're planning to tackle, it would probably be worth it for you to use the services of an interior designer at least to get you started with realistic estimates of the costs you might be facing, the time involved, and to help you prioritize or even recognize certain things that may really require attention which you might have felt could be dealt with later. Using a good professional designer won't cause the over-all budget of a project to increase as long as your initial budget was reasonable. Another thing you might want to consider is hiring a home inspector -- depending on the age of the house and what maintenance your grandparents did or didn't do, you might have some surprises that will require attention and some money to handle. Because you have to be economical, it would be wise to start by tackling what must be done rather than what you'd like to see done. Good luck!