You can create a home that looks straight from of a luxury magazine with a friendly budget. All you need are some easy tips that we’ll share below.
Pro Tip: Treat Each Room as a Blank Slate
Take note of the preexisting features in your home you can highlight. Architectural details such as crown molding, wooden beams, hardwood floors, built-in bookshelves, and mosaic-tile backsplashes are all worth focusing on. These details don’t just look expensive; they are expensive. Make them as prominent as possible—keep them clean, clutter-free, and the focal point of the room. For example, don’t splurge on an expensive painting just to have it compete with a showstopping fireplace.
Here are a few tips that can make your home look more expensive:
1. Add a Pop of Color
“Paint is extremely inexpensive and makes a big difference,” says Keysha Jillian, lead interior designer, and owner of K. Jillian Designs, based in Tampa, Florida. “Whether you need to tone down a color or add a bold color to liven up your space, color is great for changing the overall feel of a room.”
2. Pick Towels You’re Actually Excited to Use
It’s time to get rid of those dingy old bath towels—discolored whites and bleach-stained colors make your space look dirty and cheap. “Proudly display crisp white, fluffy towels like the kind you would find in a fancy hotel or spa,” says Drew Henry, founder of design firm Design Dudes. “This will immediately trigger a feeling for your guests, and they will have a more luxurious feeling towards space.”
3. Swap Out Your Throw Pillows
Throw pillows are an easy way to accessorize and brighten a room, whether you buy them or make your own. Jillian says homeowners should throw out their older throw pillows and replace them with bright, fuller pillows—or just buy crisp new pillow covers. “Mix and match colors and textures, and blend different groupings,” she says. But more is not better. “There can be too many pillows, so make sure you don’t go overboard.”
4. Add Molding
If your walls are bare besides the occasional artwork, consider adding molding to the baseboard, chair rail, or ceiling. “It doesn’t even have to be a gaudy, Victorian-style molding—a simple and single-shape, single-depth piece of molding will do the trick,” says interior designer Erica Leigh Reiner, owner of E. Leigh Designs.
5. Hang Art On the Walls
From family photos to DIY art, framed works can make a house feel like a home. Before mounting any work, homeowners should figure out where everything should be placed and the proper way to hang it. “Make sure the art you select is the right size and scale for the wall you’re decorating, and remember you don’t need artwork on every empty wall,” says Jillian. “If you feel creative, a great way to get inexpensive artwork is to create your own. Head to your local craft store and you can find everything you need to create a beautiful canvas or framed custom artwork.”
6. Accent with Accessories
Magazines are a great source of home decorating ideas and inspiration for how to accessorize a room. However, homeowners should expect to shop around for a budget-friendly version of anything they see in a design magazine. Accessories vary significantly in cost, but if you’re looking for a great deal there are plenty of discount home stores that offer stupendous finds.
7. Create DIY “Built-In” Structures
The key to making any piece—from bookshelves to kitchen cabinets look custom is to have them fit into your home perfectly. The easiest way to achieve this look is to have them extend all the way from floor to ceiling. A bookshelf that spans an entire wall will almost always look more expensive than one that stands alone. Luckily, with a bit of forward planning, this project can be tackled in one or two weekends.
8. Update Old Fixtures
A quick and easy way to decorate on a dime is to update old fixtures, especially in the kitchen. Knobs, handles, drawer pulls, and light switch plates are small, inexpensive details that give your home a high-end sheen.
9. Throw a Backsplash On It
A DIY backsplash is great for jazzing up a kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room without breaking the bank. If tiling a backsplash is too intimidating, consider creating an accent wall with bright color paint.
10. Get Rid of Something Super Old or Ugly
If a dated light fixture or piece of furniture constantly makes you groan, get rid of it. The project doesn’t have to break the budget: Drab wall colors can easily be painted, and outdated knobs and hardware can be inexpensively replaced. Even dated kitchen cabinets can be painted white and instantly brought out of the ’80s.
11. Add an Area Rug
Area rugs can really transform a space. “Area rugs help ground furniture groupings, define rooms, and add more interest to an area,” Jillian says. “It is recommended that all of your furniture sit on the area rug, but at the very least, make sure the feet of your furniture are touching a portion of the rug.”
12. Make Walls Shine
Lustrous wallpaper adds dimension to an otherwise flat area. Go for just a hint of shine with a semi-gloss or luster sheen to keep it classy, not gaudy. Stick to simple neutral or semi-neutral colors, but look for a paper with a hint of a shine the light can bounce off of.
13. Stick to Classic Neutral Walls
When in doubt about paint color, choose a classic neutral. Colors like beige, gray, greige, and yellow will always look fresh and on-trend. What’s more, they pair well with everything. Limit bold accent colors to accessories, and you’ll never have to repaint an entire room because a bright color choice got to be too much.
14. Choose Deep Colors
If neutral colors aren’t your thing, bold colors can scream “elegant” with a bigger punch. Deep hues with shiny finishes are the way to go. For example, a deep navy wall with gold and purple contrast within the decor can exude glamorous energy that for sure can feel luxurious.
15. Don’t Match Finishes Perfectly, Coordinate Them
Certain stains and finishes play well with others (for example, cherry wood marries well with oak, and hickory blends tend to work well with almost everything), but the vast majority do not. If you’re looking to match your floor to your cabinets, or your faucets to your doorknobs, go for an exact match, or make a real contrast; aim for at least three shades darker or lighter. An almost match has the tendency to look cheap.
16. Keep Your Home Clean
Follow the rule of threes (objects look best when organized in odd numbers, especially threes) and leave a generous amount of white space on your walls and surfaces. When it comes to looking luxe, less is always more. File paperwork out of sight, find a home for everything and clear the clutter.
17. Up Your Thread Count
No matter what your bedding style, increasing the thread count for your sheets will instantly make your sleep space more luxe, says Wynter. Your home won’t just look expensive—it will feel it.
18. Add a Centerpiece
No need to wait for a dinner party to elevate your usual table setting. Something as simple as fresh-cut flowers can make it seem like you’ve put time and effort into your dinner table.
19. Ditch the Old Toothbrush Holder
Upgrading your toothbrush holder and soap dish is a low-cost way to add flair to your bathroom. Pick a sleek, modern set that matches the rest of your decor.
20. Pick Basic Dishes
Shelling out on fine china isn’t the only way to create a stunning table setting. White dishes … have a low price tag with a high impact. Pair them with gold flatware for a trendy, high-brow look.
21. Keep Toys to a Minimum
It’s easy to let toys take over the whole house, so Barnett has a rule that big toys need to stay in bedrooms and the basement. Once those are out of sight, board games and crayons won’t seem so obtrusive—especially if they stay in their homes.
22. Shed Some Light
Very often in luxury homes and apartments, you’ll find that the lighting is subtly done but brings your attention to certain areas. Installing warm LED strip lighting on top of a bookshelf or under a mirror adds interest and dimension.
23. Brighten Up the Laundry Room
Don’t ignore the design in your laundry room just because you don’t love spending time there. Laundry rooms are a great room to paint a fun color that you may be scared to use in other places. Rugs and artwork also make the room more inviting.
24. Refresh Instead of Replacing
A fresh coat of paint isn’t the only DIY you can use to liven up a drab space. Staining your kitchen cabinets will give them a whole new look and won’t set your budget back by much.
25. Create a Vignette
Otherwise “dead space” can be dressed up to make the whole room look more styled. Areas like coffee tables, consoles, empty corners of a kitchen counter … are all prime real estate for a well-dressed vignette.
