price IS RIGHT
When people find out I’m the editor-in-chief of Style at Home, their response is almost invariably, “I love the High or Low column – it’s such a great guessing game!” The statement is also usually followed by a tally of how often they get it right. Whether readers challenge themselves or compete with friends to guess which of the almost-identical rooms is (sometimes) thousands of dollars more expensive than the other, it’s a testament to the column’s enduring popularity.
Can you believe we’ve produced High or Low more than 100 times? A monthly mainstay since it was first introduced in 1997, it’s seen the creative genius of talented designers like Andrea McCrindle, Margot Austin, Jessica Waks, Madeleine Wong, Ann Marie Favot, Morgan Lindsay, Samantha Pynn, Stacy Begg and Christine Hanlon, among many others. And, trust me, devising two rooms with up to 15 elements that match visually but boast steep price variations is not an easy task.
When I took the helm of Style at Home in 2010, the column was just two pages, with the High clearly indicated on one side and Low given away on the other. But where’s the fun in that?
That’s why we turned the column into a guessing game and added more pages to explain price differences – to celebrate the fact that great style isn’t always contingent on cost. In fact, many of the most talented designers we feature employ a mix of saves and splurges in their interiors. Take the living room on the cover of this issue, for instance (see “Forever Young,” page 78): The space features an incredible mix of iconic investment pieces and smart big-box-store finds. So, naturally, we created a “Get the Cover Look” (opposite) and made it into – your favourite! – a game. Can you guess which products are high and which are low?