Many people spend lots of money on their homes, but their homes don't quite look as high end and expensive as they desire.
Maybe your home is missing a key element of good design or is lacking the cohesion that you desire.
Here are a few ways to make your home look more expensive without breaking the bank.
Ban the Clutter
Clutter makes even the most elegant homes look less expensive.
Avoid clutter at all cost.
Come up with organizational systems that work for you and your family.
Invest in storage containers and storage furniture to keep your stuff out of sight.
At least twice a year (maybe once a month), do a clean out of each room and closet in your home to make sure you are not holding on to clutter.
Cheap items next to an expensive item makes the expensive item look cheap, so get rid of your cheap stuff and only keep the high quality items.
Paint
Many homes, especially new homes, have walls that are painted in a low quality builder beige or light gray paint.
Paint your walls any color but builder beige or gray. If color scares you, paint your home a bright white the color of your trim, darker gray, or darker beige.
Don't forget to also paint the ceilings.
In addition to painting walls, you can also paint your doors and/or cabinets to give them a custom look.
Many high end designers these days are choosing to paint the trim (baseboards, door trim, crown molding, etc) that same color as the walls, which is called color drenching.
Scale
When decorating your home, make sure to use furniture that is the correct size for your room.
Larger rooms need larger furniture and smaller rooms need smaller furniture.
Putting furniture that is too large in a small room will make your room look small and not allow proper space to move around.
Putting furniture that is too small in a large room will look like you cheaped out on the furniture and that you don't know how to properly arrange your room.
For decorative items, you can use items that are a tiny bit oversized.
Larger decor items can feel more expensive than normal sized or smaller items.
If possible, use one larger item in place of several smaller items that can make your home look cluttered.
Texture
Adding textural items to your home makes it feel more warm and welcoming.
Textural items feel like they have history and often feel more expensive.
Try to incorporate both hard and soft textures, shiny and dull textures, and rough and smooth textures.
A few textural items commonly found in homes are a fluffy blanket, a wicker basket, velvety curtains, sleek shiny lamp base, rough stone fireplace, and plush decorative pillows.
Avoid Matchy Matchy
Matching furniture sets can often feel cheap and not well thought out since many matching furniture sets are sold at discount furniture stores for one low price.
Ideally, furniture should feel like it has been collected over time.
Select an eclectic mix of furniture and accessories for your home in the style that you prefer.
Eclectic items are also easier to move between rooms of your home if you want to redecorate in the future.
Select furniture that has character and is unique and maybe even tells a story.
Floors
Basic builder grade carpeted floors is the opposite of expensive - it is the least expensive flooring option.
Ideally, opt for real wood floors in your home for areas that do not have a high chance of getting wet.
Wood floors give a home the feeling of warmth and history.
The charm of wood floors makes a home feel much more expensive than a home with builder grade carpet.
In wet areas (such as bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms), use a natural stone flooring, such as slate, that still has warmth but is moisture tolerant.
Not Trendy
Trendy items are only in style for a few years. This is especially true of items that are ridiculously popular because, as the saying goes, the "the higher you climb, the harder you fall".
Holding on to an item that was especially popular after its popularity has faded tends to put a date stamp on your home and make your home look out of style.
Unfortunatly, most home trends only last 3-5 years and trends have been coming in and out of style even faster in recent years due to how quickly information is spread on social media.
Most (but not all) trends start in multimillion dollar homes year 1. Year 2 they move to million dollar homes. Year 3 the trend starts appearing in stores such as Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. Year 4 the trends start appering in stores such as Target and Hobby Lobby. Basically, if you just noticed a home trend at Target, then the trend is most likely on its way out of style.
In order to make your home look more expensive, select items that are not trendy.
Fresh Flowers and Live Plants
Avoid fake plants and flowers in your home - especially in places (like above your kitchen cabinets) where people know they are fake because you are not going to climb up there and water plants.
If you cannot keep a plant alive, it is better to not have a plant at all than a cheap looking fake plant.
For those who must have fake flowers or plants, invest in the highest quality faux plants #ad within your budget so it looks the most life-like and make sure to keep it dusted.
Fresh flowers aren't necessary in your home at all times, but consider adding fresh flowers to your home if you are having guests.
You might be able to create an arrangement of flowers from your garden instead of purchasing flowers.
An alternative to fresh flowers is a bowl of fresh fruit.
Curtains
More often than not, homeowners only put basic blinds on their windows.
Curtains make a home look more expensive.
The width of your curtains should be at least 2 times the width of your window.
Your curtains should be hung high, closer to the ceiling, to make your ceilings feel higher.
Hang your curtains so that they barely cover any of your window when fully opened. This means that your curtain rod will extend well beyond the width of your window.
Many designers like to add roman shades or bamboo shades underneath curtains to give them an extra layer of texture as well as another way to control the light and privacy in a room.
For tips on purchasing the right curtains for your home and how to hang them, see the article The Correct Way to Hang Curtains and Drapes.
Light Fixtures
Many homes come with basic cheap light fixtures (often under sized) that the homebuilder purchased due to their low cost, not because they are attractive.
Light fixtures should be decorative as well as functional, and are often the focal point of a room.
Replace your cheap basic light fixtures with ones that look expensive.
Typically, larger light fixtures look more expensive that smaller ones.
Avoid shopping at your local home improvement stores for light fixtures that everyone has seen many times, but shop at a specialty lighting store or online for more selection that will be unique to your neighbors.
Use lamps instead of overhead light fixtures for a more pleasing light that is easily modified to suit to occasion.
Dimmer switches (with dimmable light bulbs) allow the light level to be set exactly where you want it to make your home look its best.
Try to use at least 2 or 3 different lighting sources per room for a designer look.
Make sure that all of the light fixtures in your room are the same color temperature - marked with the letter K on the light bulb box. Most designers suggest a color temperature between 2700k-3000k.
Cabinet Hardware
Many cabinets do not have hardware or have very cheap hardware.
Invest a little money by adding or upgrading your kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room cabinet hardware to make your home look more expensive.
Do not purchase cabinet hardware that comes in a multipack because that is what the majority of homebuilders use on hundreds of homes. Instead, select more unique hardware that not everyone has seen.
Most everyone is familiar with the hardware that is available at your local home improvement store, so shop online for a larger selection because unique items look custom and more expensive.
Door Hardware
Most door hardware is very basic.
Consider upgrading your door hardware #ad with hardware that is more elegant and sophisticated for a more expensive looking home.
Items that are touched every day should be of the highest quality that is within your budget.
Make sure to read the reviews of the hardware that you want to purchase to ensure that the finish does not rub off, that the hardware turns smoothly, and that the company has good customer service.
Don't forget that your door hinges should match either your door hardware or the color of your door, so you might need a different color hinge if you change the color of your hardware.
Framed Mirrors
Most people have a plain plate glass mirror over their sink in the bathroom, which is very basic.
For a more expensive looking bathroom, carefully remove your exisitng bathroom mirrors and replace them with framed mirrors.
Plate glass mirrors look good as long as they are custom cut to go all the way from wall to wall and countertop to ceiling (with the wall sconces attached to the mirror). Unfortunately, most basic builder homes use a standard size mirror, leaving a wall gap on the sides.
Mirrors can be used to upgrade other rooms of your home because they give an illusion of space that does not existing, thus making you home feel larger and more expensive.
Additionally, mirrors bounce around light in your room and give a different perspective.
Beveled mirrors look more expensive than unbeveled mirrors.
Make sure to select a mirror that has a frame that complements the decor in your room.
Some people like to use real antique or faux antiqued mirrors to give a feeling of history.
Antiques
Many people don't want a home full of antique furniture, however adding 1 or 2 high quality antique pieces (or maybe even an older vintage piece) to each room of your home makes your home feel it has history because your items have been collected over time.
Mixing modern furniture and antique furniture gives your home a one-of-a-kind custom look, and custom is usually expensive.
You can shop for antique furniture at antique stores, thrift stores, estate sales, and maybe you can ask a relative to give or sell you an item if they no longer want it.
Dark and Rich Colors
Typically, but not always, rooms with a darker color scheme tend to look more expensive.
You might choose to have dark and/or rich colored walls in your room or you might prefer lighter walls with dark and/or rich colored furniture and accessories.
Saturated jewel toned colors, such as plum, eggplant, navy, sapphire blue, mustard, camel, emerald green, olive green, rust, dark magenta, and burgundy give a richness to a room that feels expensive.
Warmer metallic colors, such as gold & brass, also feel more expensive than cooler metallic colors of chrome, stainless steel, and brushed nickel.
Ceiling Fan
Many people in warmer climates feel the need for a ceiling fan to circulate the air in their homes.
Unfortunately, ceiling fan are not attractive.
Even if you think a ceiling fan is attractive while stationary, it will not be attractive while spinning (and most people in warmer climates use their ceiling fan year round, never turning it off).
If you must have a ceiling fan in your home, try to make it disappear by using the most plain and boring ceiling fan that closely matches the color of your ceiling.
Do not get a ceiling fan with faux stained wood blades because that draws more attention to your ceiling fan and makes it feel closer than it is.
Mount your ceiling fan as high as possible without losing its functionality. Often the ideal height of a ceiling fan is around 8 foot off the floor, however you can mount it higher but it might lose a small amount of its efficiency (which many people prefer).
Check the actual height your ceiling fan is from the ceiling - ceiling hugger fans are not always the closest to the ceiling.
Avoid ceiling fans with exposed light bulbs. Also avoid ceiling fans with a "boob light" that have a metal attachment screw in the center of the glass light cover.
Most designers will suggest that you get a ceiling fan without a light kit and use lamps and/or wall sconces for better lighting.
An alternative to a ceiling fan is a tabletop fan #ad. Avoid using any cheap plastic fan, however a good looking (perhaps vintage inspired) tabletop fan looks much more expensive than a plastic tabletop or freestanding floor fan.
Natural Materials
When deciding on what materials to use in your home, natural materials almost always look more expensive.
Some popular natural materials include granite, marble, real wood, and more.
Avoid man made items that try to mimic natural materials, such as ceramic tile that tries to look like marble or laminate countertops that try to look like wood.
Make sure to research the item you are buying since some items sound like they are natural, but are not (such as quartz or cultured marble).
Smooth Drywall
Texture is added to painted drywall to distract from any imperfections in the drywall surface.
Most visible drywall in people's homes is a level 4 drywall where texture is applied and it is painted, or no texture is applied and it is wallpapered.
For optimum quality, opt for a level 5 drywall in your home.
Level 5 drywall is completely smooth and requires no texture, however there is a lot of extra work involved which will greatly increase the cost.
In order to get a level 5 drywall, 2 or 3 coats of drywall compound must be applied to the walls and sanded in between each coat after the coat has dried.
Not only is it very time consuming, but it is also a very dusty process.
Make Functional Items Attractive
Functional items are not always pretty to look at, so find ways to make them less utilitarian looking.
If you have a container for your kitchen utensils sitting on your countertop, consider finding a really pretty container to put them in.
If you have mouthwash sitting on your bathroom countertop, put it in a gorgeous glass decanter instead.
Some people go so far as to decant their food items into attractive containers so their pantry and refrigerator look pretty.
Its the attention to detail that makes a home look more expensive.
Throw Pillows
Ideally, your throw pillows should have a beautiful cover and back, made of either the same fabric or 2 different presentable fabrics. Lesser expensive pillows will have a less attractive back side made of cheaper fabric to save money.
When purchasing pillows, either buy the pillow cover and pillow insert separately, or buy pillows with a removable cover.
Many people use a simple and cheap cotton or polyester pillow filling for pillows, which can make them look lumpy or flat.
For a more expensive look, opt for a down pillow insert or one with down and feathers. A down pillow insert will allow you to "chop" your pillows for a luxury effect.
Also, select a pillow insert that is 2 inches wider than your pillow so your pillow looks extra fluffy.
Large Area Rugs
Many people use area rugs that are too small for their space because rugs can be expensive, especially high quality rugs.
At minimum, all major furniture pieces in your room should have at least their front feet on the area rug.
Ideally, your entire furniture piece should be on the rug.
Instead of machine made rugs made of synthetic fibers (such as polypropylene or polyester) that can look cheap, opt for handmade rugs made of a natural material (such as wool or silk) for a more high quality look.
Since rugs can be expensive, consider buying rugs second hand at estate sales.
Consider Styling
When decorating your home, give extra though to how your decor is styled.
Just placing random pretty items on a table will not give you the expensive look that you are after.
Move your decor around your room in many different places to find the best location for each item. Consider whether the decor might look better in a different room and whether you might need additional decor.
One rule of thumb that designers use when styling is to select one tall, one medium, and one short item per surface.
Consider using hardback books to elevate certain items to the height that you desire.
Architectural Trim
You can add architectural trim to make your home look more expensive.
This includes crown molding, window casing, and paneling.
Make sure to install it the proper way since some architectural trim requires you to have wood panels that cover your drywall instead of just applying it directly to the drywall, which looks cheap - like a poor quality DIY project.
One of the most important steps in applying architectural trim is to use a large quantity of flexible caulking #ad. Make sure it is flexible to withstand temperature and humidity changes in your home without cracking.
Before applying architectural trim to your home, make sure you are willing to put in the extra time to dust around the trim.
Hide Technology
Electronic equipment is not pretty and can easily make a home look messy - especially seeing power cords or charging cords.
Having electronics that are hidden looks expensive.
The harder it is to find the electronics, the more expensive your home might look.
Hide cords, remote controllers, speakers, TVs, and all other tech.
If you can't hide your TV, consider getting a Frame TV #ad, which is a TV with a frame around it that looks like art when turned off.
Art
Many people have mass produced art that everyone has seen before, which is rather boring.
Instead of art prints, use one-of-a-kind art instead.
You can buy paintings and other art from lesser known artists at good prices.
Also consider shopping for art second hand.
The quality of art is often representative in the frame that surrounds it, so don't cheap out on the frame.
You can also create your own art using the exact colors in your room.
Art that is a bit oversized for a space looks more expensive. Art that is too small for the space looks cheap.
Ideally, art should be around 2/3 the size of the item it is hanging over (such as a sofa, table, or bed) up to the same width, but not wider.
If you want to use family photos as art, make sure to put them in a frame with a mat, which looks much more expensive than framed photos without a mat.
Curb Appeal
People form opinions of your home the second that they see your home for the first time, which is why curb appeal is so important.
You don't have to have the most magnificent garden, however your home needs to be in good repair and your lawn & flower beds need to be tidy.
Spend time weeding your flower beds and adding new mulch.
Ensure that your lawn is mowed and edged regularly.
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