10 Cheap Ways to Make Your Home Look Expensive

  • By: Monica Shulz

Can you make something look expensive when it is not? Sounds like a paradox? Wait until you see the unbelievable results. You don’t have to break the bank attempting to make your home look and feel expensive. There are inexpensive ways to spruce up your space and still achieve the desired effect.

Sense of Smell

When you walk into someone’s home, the first thing you notice is the foremost viewpoint be it an entryway, staircase, bedroom, or any other interesting focal point. But that is not all you notice in your first impression. You also notice the sense of smell within the space.

A good smell is what captivates you or your guests each time you step into that space. Whether it is through a candle, wall plugin, or diffuser, there are plenty of ways to enhance your home’s sense of smell. What’s more, they are all pretty inexpensive.

Unfortunately, most people never consider the sense of smell when decorating their spaces. Yet, it is one of the best ways to enhance the overall vibe of your space while making it feel nicer and more expensive.

Blank Walls

While blank walls are an excellent design idea, leaving all your walls blank can cheapen up the look of your home. Adding wall art, peel and stick wallpaper, paint, or wall hangings is a great way to turn eyeballs when you step into the space. You can view the room comfortably at eye level.

With blank walls, your room looks short and shrunken as if everything is on the floor. If you have no idea what to add to your blank wall, think about a gallery wall, artwork, color, texture, or visual interest. Just anything to maximize your creativity and get that focal pop. These are all super affordable ways to fill up the blanks.

Layering Up

Layering Up

Layering up is all about styling in a way that adds dimension and texture to your space. Adding that layered look on your couch doesn’t have to be expensive. You can use what you already have and spruce up your living room or bedroom in exotic styles that make it an expensive-looking space.

Simply placing a textured floor blanket or a couple of floor pillows on the couch will do the trick. Overall, it makes the couch look more luxurious, pleasurable, and comfortable while adding interest in texture and patterns.

The same thing goes for beds. Setting your bed in layers of sheets, quilt, duvet, comforter, multiple sets of sleeping pillows, or throw pillows adds more life to it at no extra dime.

Nightstands

Layering Up

Instead of having just one nightstand by your bed on the side you are sleeping on, how about two? Having two nightstands profoundly elevates a bedroom if you have space on either side of the bed. Even if no one else sleeps on the other side of the bed, in the company of two nightstands there is such an impactful change to the space. It’s what gives your room symmetry and some bit of balance in the end.

Walking into a bedroom with just one nightstand makes you feel the room isn’t complete. You might find yourself wondering, ‘where is the other nightstand?’

Light Fixtures

Layering Up

Replacing old, dingy, crusted, dusted, and busted light fixtures is an extremely affordable affair to make your space look cuter. Besides affordability, light fixtures are also super easy to swap from rental-grade to something a little bit more personalized.

In case you run out of ideas, you can head to YouTube and DIY your light fixtures to achieve that customized atmosphere in the space. Swapping out unattractive light fixtures is a great way to make your house look expensive by stripping it the basic or rental-grade look and feel.

When changing your light fixtures, ensure you place the correct light bulb in them. It shouldn’t be an extremely cold or warm light bulb to avoid messing up the color depiction of your space.

Plants and Flowers

plants

These two options are a perfect way to add a breath of fresh air to your space. While you can opt for artificial plants, real ones provide a much better vibe. Get the company of several plants throughout your apartment if you can.

Moreover, plants and flowers are a great way to add color to your space without actually adding color to the space because they are neutral. If your space is punctuated with several neutral tones, the green plant color naturally blends right in to spice up everything else.

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

If you are a DIYer, these simple and inexpensive tips will help transform your home magically without making a huge investment. You can start by installing brand new hardware to upgrade the furniture pieces you already have in the house.

For example, swapping out the hardware on a dresser, vanity, or cabinet makes a huge impact out of really reasonable price points. You can also add new legs to any of the pieces from acrylic legs to hairpin legs or switch the outlook of your coffee table.

DIY Upgrades-Cheap Paints

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware
DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

There are plenty more DIY ideas like painting an old accent chair with leather paint to give it a cheap facelift. Make a concoction of leather paint at home and end up with a vintage-looking gem for your living or study room.

You can also use homemade ceramic paint to decorate different home pieces for a porcelain-finished look. Produce the paint by mixing baking soda with acrylic paint.

See? It is all just a breeze. Put all your DIY skills to good use to recreate, update, or upcycle pieces you already have.

Wall Molding

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware
DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

Wall molding is a reasonably priced home upgrade option yet gives you a lux expensive outcome in the end. Whether it is board and batten, beadboard, wainscoting, diagonal, or vertical molding, any form of wall molding will do the trick.

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware
DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

Wall molding doesn’t have to cost a lot at all. Buy a couple of boards, nail them to your wall, cut them down to size, and apply the paint finish that suits you. The elegant architectural appeal you end up with gives your boring space a refreshed look with an expensive-looking taste.

Window Treatments

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

Want a perfect bedroom makeover? Think about window treatments. Adding curtains to your bedroom can breathe new life into the space. The trick lies in going beyond sheer curtains that only fit the window to mounting the curtain rod just a few inches below the ceiling.

The idea is to avoid blocking the beautiful windows veiled behind the curtains. Mounting your curtains as high as you can make the windows appear taller when closed and the wall higher when open, enhancing the texture of the room with some extra fabric above your window. Such a window treatment stays with you longer and helps you sleep better at night.

Conclusion

I hope you fell in love with these inexpensive home upgrade tips. Remember, you are not obliged to apply them in your home if you love your space as is. These are simply DIY ideas to help you enliven your space a bit more if you feel it is rather dull.

If you also like to watch these above steps in a video you can just click play on the Youtube video below. Or better,  subscribe to his check out Lone Fox Youtube channel. I also recommend that you check out his other platforms such as: Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and his blog and Lone Fox shop.

DIY Upgrades-Brand New Hardware

Photo by Lone Fox / CC BY 3.0