How to Make Your Home Look Luxurious on a Budget

Decorating your home in the luxurious style you may desire can come at a hefty price tag. From high quality modern or antique furniture, to wall treatments, drapery, accents, and fixtures for every room of the house, the cost quickly adds up. To emulate high-class, luxurious style, follow along for some tips you can implement to make your home look and feel high end.

Shop at Second Hand & Antique Stores

Before we even begin to outline all the different tricks you can use to make your house look like a designer home, the number one tip for luxury for less is second hand. The gently used market place is booming! Everything from fashion, to jewelry, to home furnishings and more is available in name brands and high quality products across the board.

• Thrift stores and secondhand shops hold countless treasures.
• The used-market arena these days are high-end, selling furniture and fixtures for your home at remarkable savings compared to the same products at retail stores.
• Any stigma that was once attached to pre-loved products has vanished as the trend is now in vogue, being a sustainable and useful way to help the environment while saving you money.
• Quality secondhand finds will add a high-end look to your home.

Affordable Luxury Décor Ideas

Desiring high-quality luxurious pieces for your home is a normal wish. Because that inclination does not always work with your budget, here are some high-end, designer-inspired decor and furniture ideas that will keep your bank account intact.

Begin with a Blank Slate

Before starting the decor process, take account of any architectural features you can use to your designing advantage. Do you have any of the following present:

• Built-in bookshelves
• Crown molding
• Hardwood floors
• Tile backsplashes
• Wooden beams

Details like these are actually costly so take your previous owners' investments for yourself. Make them prominent and the focal point of a room. Have a show-stopping fireplace? Starting that room using the blank slate concept, you’d use the fireplace as a focal point, highlight it, arrange the room around it, and don’t let anything else compete with it.

Color Accents

If you’re going to paint, make sure you check out these tips on how paint color affects a space.

• Paint is inexpensive and makes a big difference.
• 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.
• Go for high contrast color companions. Black and white. Tan and turquoise. Red and ivory.
• Don’t want to paint entire rooms? Try painting your doors gray or black to add an element of chic to every room.

Molding Matters

Molding is a high-class element that will bring in a touch of luxurious elegance to any room of your home. Anything from a simple style to ornate Victorian style will add dimension and depth. Add moulding to:

• Baseboards
• Chair rails (or horizontally across a room wall about hip height)
• Ceilings
• Vertically on walls

Statement Splurges

Look to spend the bulk of your budget on a few high-quality statement pieces. These are the items that are, one the most visible, and two the most used. For example:

• Chandeliers
• Dining room tables
• Rugs
• Sofas

Choosing to spend a little more on any of these elements will upgrade a home’s sense of luxury. Remember to choose colors and fabrics that are easily cleaned and won’t stain or fade too quickly over time. These core pieces of furniture are important to anchor your living spaces. BONUS TIP: It’s all about details when choosing key pieces which can make an item look more expensive.

Natural Wood

The richness of natural wood has a luxurious look and feel that will work in almost every decor style, from Mediterranean, to Asian, to classic Modern (we might have to leave the futuristic techno look out of this list though). Using any element of natural wood in the home can add richness. Look to include it in:

• Carved chairs
• Flooring
• Homemade wood benches
• Natural wood tables
• Wall panels

Let the natural patterns of the wood grain shine as the main focus, using all one type or mixing your woods is fine as well.

Area Rugs

Area rugs help ground furniture groupings, define rooms, and add more interest to a space. Placing all your furniture on the area rugs is a very decadent and high-end look that adds a note of luxuriousness to your home. Area rugs can really transform a space; these might be one of the elements you can splurge a little on.

The Mighty Mirror

Mirrors are magical pieces to use in your home decor themes. They serve many purposes: giving the illusion of a larger space, adding simple but elegant elements, to making a room look polished and modern. Use extra large renditions of these reflective surfaces to bring a focal point to a space or to just introduce an artistic element that calls for your attention.

Accessorize

Small accent decor items add touches of luxe to your space. Sophistication can be found in these elements, with a vignette of a side table, lamp, vase of flowers, and an artistic piece all highlighted with the perfect lighting. During your second hand shopping, look for items with touches of high-end materials, such as:

• Antique gold
• Crystal
• Leather
• Marble
• Solid wood

Luxury Lighting

Singular lighting, i.e. just overhead cans or tracks, can make a space feel harsh and sterile. Adding layers of light, table lamps, floor lamps, wall sconces, completely changes the feeling and ambience of a room. Luxury lighting gives your home a welcoming vibe.

Illusion of Higher Ceilings

Grand rooms feel luxurious, and usually high ceilings are an element of this formula. To achieve this same feeling in a home with lower ceilings, use window treatments. If you raise window panels to the full length of the wall, you can create an illusion of height and give a space a grander feel. This is an inexpensive way to achieve the illusion of larger rooms. Add complimentary fabric to your existing panels at the top, middle, or end of the drapes.

Art: Large Scale And/Or Matted

• A single framed 8×10 on a large wall can feel kind of miniscule, alone and awkward.
•  A gallery wall with multiple small frames can start to feel cluttered and chaotic.
• To change the look and feel, go big.
• Mat 8×10 images in larger frames, such as 10×13 or 16×20.
• Now your photo will feel high-end and important.
• Art on a large scale also makes a big impact and feels streamlined or can become the focal point of a room.

Metallics

Decorating with metals is absolutely a luxurious method to add high class style to your home. One small accent piece with some glitz can go a long way.

• Art sculpture
• Brass candlesticks
• Finishing on a side table or lamp
• Mirrored tray
• Look through your decor stash and see what you can spray paint

Fresh Flowers

Anytime you add a bouquet of fresh flowers, greenery, or other elements from your natural surroundings, you are instantly elevating the room with a bit of decadence. Fresh flowers, branches, and plants of any kind bring life and sunshine to a room.

Bathroom

Up your restroom look with some of the same actions listed above.

• Statement or colored accent wall
• Backsplash with different colored tile
• Throw rug
• Live plants or flowers

Shop Second Hand

We stated it at the beginning and we’ll say it again; this is the number one tip in getting luxury for less. There is gold (a lot of times literally!) to be found in your second hand markets. Do your research and be patient in your hunting; the right item will present itself to you. Quality second hand finds will always add a high-end look to your home.

SUMMARY

With any budget it is possible to make your home feel high-end. Using the guide above will give you an excellent outline on how to find luxury for less when designing the home of your dreams. Be deliberate in your selectiveness and see the potential that is already present. A home is your sanctuary no matter the style. And as we always say, if you and your family are happy in it, that’s what matters more than anything.

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