In this post I’m sharing Inexpensive Ways to Make Your Home Look Expensive!
You don’t have to spend a lot to bring some fresh updates to your home and make it look expensive!
These design tips will show you how to make your home look expensive on a budget.
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30 inexpensive ways to make your home look expensive
Choose an Accent Color and Repeat it at least 3 Times!
Repeating an accent color will make your room look pulled together and give it that designer look!
Confused as to how to pick an accent color for your room?
Read this Design Tip: The 60-30-10 Color Rule to show you how.
Bookcases and Etageres will make your Home Look Expensive
There is nothing like adding vertical interest to a room to make it look richer!
Adding a bookcase or etagere and styling it with the above tips will add so much beauty and style to a room!
You can add molding to an Ikea bookcase to make it look more expensive.
Here are some inexpensive bookcases and etageres:
Need help with furniture layout, choosing paint colors, room design, selecting furniture or updating your home?
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Window Treatments
Every window should have drapes or blinds to give the room a finished look!
Ikea, Target and Amazon have gorgeous and inexpensive drapes!
Design tip: Drapes should be hung as high as possible and be long enough that they just skim the floor or gently break at the floor.
Drapes that are too short will definitely make a room look cheap.
When drapes are not hung high they can make a room look squat and unbalanced.
Shop inexpensive curtains here:
Fresh Paint will make your Home look Expensive
A fresh coat of paint will instantly make your room look more expensive!
Color trends change with time so updating your paint color will also update your home.
Light airy neutral paint colors make a room look expensive.
Choose from white, beige (yes beige is back!), cream and off-white colors.
Dark brown and black are also on trend so will make your interiors look more upscale as well.
Sherwin Williams often has sales – their paint is amazing!
Choose a color you love that will work with your floors, furniture and fixed elements.
How to test paint colors in your home with zero mess and zero cleanup!
An easy, mess-free way to test paint colors is with these Samplize Peel & Stick Paint Samples which are:
Accurate colors – large 9″ x 14″ paint samples with two coats of real paint, guaranteeing 100% color accuracy
Peel & Stick – can be repositioned and reusable
Quick – samples are delivered to your door the next day!
All the top paint brands – Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, PPG, Farrow & Ball
More Color Sampling Tips:
Get the Right Angle
Don’t physically look down on the Peel & Stick sample – hold them up against the wall.
Ceilings? Same concept. Look up for the best color representation.
Add a White Border
Place white paper around the Peel & Stick paint sample to make sure the existing color doesn’t influence how your sample color appears.
Fan Decks: Take Color Collections Home
A fan deck lets you peruse hundreds of paint colors from the comfort of your home, to start your color journey.
You can have fan decks shipped to your home:
You can have fan decks shipped to your home:
Paint your Interior Doors
Look through any magazine or Instagram and you’ll find high design homes with doors painted black, blue or charcoal gray.
Painting interior doors adds beautiful contrast to any room.
Color Of The Year Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze SW 7048
Mix Your Textiles
In interior design, the term “textile” refers to any product that’s woven or made of fabric.
Textiles include:
- pillows
- throw blankets
- area rugs
- curtains
- upholstery
Mix your textiles to make your home look more upscale.
Combine leather, linen, velvet, cotton, wool.
Layer in different textile textures with your pillows and throw blankets to add interest and style to a room!
Also, make sure you have a beautiful rug in every room – they make a home look expensive and are so affordable today!
You can find inexpensive accent pillows here.
Shop these gorgeous, inexpensive pillows:
And inexpensive throw blankets here.
Shop these beautiful throw blankets:
Pull your Furniture Away From the Wall
This will make your space look more expensive because it utilizes the room much better.
It gives a room more presence and creates better conversation areas.
When furniture is up agains the walls it makes the room dull and boring.
A Good Furniture Layout Plan
If your furniture is not arranged properly it can make the room look small, cluttered, awkward and cheap.
Take stock of your furniture and create a furniture arrangement that will fit your room!
- How To Arrange Furniture In A Small Living Room
- How To Arrange Furniture With An Open Concept Floor Plan
Add Framed Art to make your Home Look Expensive
Adding art will get rid of the blah boring look of a room in an instant!
Adding artwork is also a great way to create a cohesive color palette in a home and make it look richer!
Shop these inexpensive wall art pieces:
Art doesn’t have to break the bank! There are many sources for inexpensive and FREE art!
Here are a few:
Elegant Blue and White Christmas Bedroom Decor Ideas
The Right Amount of Lighting
Make sure your rooms have overhead lighting and ambient lighting.
This includes ceiling lights, table lamps, floor lamps and or wall sconces.
When a room has multiple light sources it feels more elevated.
Design tip: Also putting your lighting on dimmer switches is a great way to create beautiful ambiance!
Artificial or Real Trees, Flowers, Botanicals and Plants
There is nothing like adding greenery to a room! It instantly adds life, pattern, texture and color!
- 5 Ways to Decorate With Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees & Best Faux Options!
- Beautiful Houseplants That Ship To Your Door!
Change your Cabinet Hardware
Cabinet hardware is the jewelry of the room.
Cabinet hardware can get pricey… but stores like Target and Amazon have less expensive styles!
Replace your cabinet hardware with gold / brass or satin nickel in an updated style.
Black hardware is very on trend now too.
Shop these inexpensive cabinet hardware options:
Design tip: Tailored minimal hardware styles are on trend and make a room look current and fresh.
Our Tuscan to White Kitchen Remodel Before and After
Update your Area Rugs and Runners
Rugs and runners are so inexpensive today!
Rugs are the anchor of a room so updating them will instantly refresh your room and make it look expensive.
Rugs are essential to add color, pattern, texture and coziness to a room!
Declutter to Make your Home Look Expensive
Decluttering is free to do and will make your room look so much airier, brighter and more expensive.
Take a day or even an hour here and there and go through your room throwing away anything that’s broken.
Donate items that are dated or you don’t like anymore.
Then bring in inexpensive, beautiful baskets with lids to keep clutter in check.
Design tip: A decorative lidded box is a great way to store and hide ugly TV remotes!
Baskets can also hold kids toys, extra pillows and throw blankets!
Shop your Home
Its FREE to decorate a room with items from another space!
When you rotate decor you make the room look instantly refreshed!
Thrift Stores, Facebook Marketplace and Estate Sales
You can score inexpensive decor, lamps, and cabinets at estate sales, thrift stores and facebook marketplace!
Also be on the look out for vintage items such as vintage wood, marble, travertine furniture pieces, vintage ironstone and vintage MCM furniture.
My thrift store ironstone bowl and fall entryway
Add an Opposite Design Trend to your Rooms
When you add a design element that’s opposite to your overall style, your room will get that ‘designer’ expensive look!
If your room is traditional – add something that’s modern in design or add Mid Century Modern design to it.
If your room is modern – add something that’s traditional in style to it.
You get the point.
These opposing styles will add life and contrast to your overall design style!
How To Update Dining Room Furniture
Refresh your Towels
Get rid of dingy towels and buy a few new white ones to get that luxury hotel look!
Skip the basic hand towel and buy hand towels with stripes, beautiful tassel and fringe details that will elevate your powder room too!
Add the Warmth of Wood, Natural Woven materials, Rattan and Marble to your Rooms
There is nothing like warm wood, rattan and natural woven accents to upgrade a room and add texture!
Use a wood or rattan tray, bowl, sculpture and rattan placemats.
Add a marble accent or two.
Marble instantly creates a chic luxe look!
A budget friendly marble tray or cutting board is an inexpensive way to do that!
seagrass tray in my family room
Remove Dust Jackets from Books
If you have books in a bookcase or on a coffee table, remove the dust covers to make your space look more expensive!
Many books have beautiful texture and color on the hard covers!
Photo Frames
Ditch cheap photo frames and buy a few new beautiful ones! They are inexpensive at HomeGoods and Target.
To be honest I really don’t like photo frames that have the easel on the back.
Photos look so beautiful in frames on the wall in a gallery wall arrangement or propped in a bookcase.
I really love lucite photo frames! They are inexpensive and so elegant looking!
Not only are they chic but they can stand straight up and layered in front of decor in a bookcase to look more elevated!
The Monochromatic Neutral Look
Layer your room with various shades of cream, white, ivory, beige, caramel, gray….. these neutral colors always look sophisticated, pulled together and rich when layered!
Design tip: the way to make neutral rooms look interesting and not flat or boring is to vary the textures you use!
Cabinets with Glass Doors
Get rid of clutter behind glass doors.
Any cabinet that has glass doors has to be styled and edited to look beautiful.
If its messy, it will make a room look cluttered and cheap.
These items should not be behind glass doors:
- Picture frames
- Random odds and ends
- Glassware that doesn’t match
- Photo albums
Style your Bookcases and Tabletops
When your table surfaces and bookcases are bare or not styled properly they make your home look dull, boring and cheap.
Buy a few essential decor pieces like:
- A Vase
- Ginger jar
- A shallow bowl
- Candle/candle holders/votives
- Bead garland or link chains
- Small sculptures/orbs
- Coral
- A tray
Light and Bright Spring Kitchen Decor Ideas
Replace your Lamp Shades
Replace shades that are dingy colored or have a dated shape with fresh white lamp shades in an updated drum shape.
This will instantly make your room look more high end!
Rub N Buff
Change the metallic color of your picture frames and art frames with silver leaf or gold Rub N Buff!
Rub N Buff is so easy to use!
Pillows and Pillow Covers will Make your home look Expensive
Yes pillows can be expensive depending on the fabric!
You can buy inexpensive pillow covers here and inexpensive pillows with inserts here!
Changing your accent pillows will make your bedroom and living room look more expensive!
Replace boob lights and dated lighting
Get rid of those ugly builder grade ceiling lights and ‘boob lights’!
Replace them with chic ones on a budget!
Here are my favorite inexpensive ceiling lights and chandeliers.
Layers will make your Home look Expensive
Don’t forget to add layers of textiles to your room to give it that final pulled together look!
Accent pillows and throw blankets will make your space look more expensive and luxurious!
Scent
Adding a beautiful scent to your rooms will make them feel more luxurious and give that pampered feeling to a room!
Beautiful scented essential oil diffusers and candles not only make your home look more luxe, but they can also create a more relaxing feeling!
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More Design and Decor Tips:
- How to Paint Tile – Easy Fireplace Paint Makeover
- Hot Furniture and Decor Sales!
- Behr Blank Canvas Color Of The Year 2023
- Agreeable Gray – Undertones & Coordinating Colors
- How To Cover An Ugly Carpet
- How to Paint a Wood Fireplace Mantel White
- How to Pick Paint Colors With Confidence
- How To Identify Paint Color Undertones & Choose The Right Color
- 5 Design Tricks To Brighten A Dark Room
- How to Combine Design Styles So They Don’t Clash
- Choosing Our Bedroom Paint Color – Sherwin Williams Pure White
Heather is a Designer, True Color Expert® and proud military wife at 
Heather, I love your site! It’s got so many great tips and I love your style but all the adds piping up and the tabs on the side make it impossible to read on a mobile device! And seriously, who gets on their computer much anymore 😊 I would live to see your site like your designs, clean and uncluttered.
Hi Jessica – thank you for your lovely compliments on my site and feedback on your mobile experience! 🙂
I have changed a couple of things on mobile, so my articles should be easier for you to read now, keeping in mind that the ads help pay for offering free design and lifestyle tips and without them I couldn’t operate my website or offer free design articles! Thank you for understanding 🙂 Let me know what you think of the changes! xo Heather
Heather
I love your suggestions and style. It’s mine, as well. I am looking forward to more suggestions and ideas. I am glad I found your page.
Thank you for the lovely compliment Patricia! Have a beautiful day!
Excelente HeaTher.
Where did you buy your blue picture? Its in the inexpensive ways to make your home look expensive group. The picture I’m asking about is in the room that looks from the living room into a white kitchen. It has a starburst chandelier. Two glass blue and white lamps with white shades. Blue and white throw pillows on white sofas.
HI…I have never commented on a site before, but yours is wonderful! It’s easy to follow and has
some great ideas. Thank you.
Thank you for the lovely compliment! I’m so glad you are enjoying my site and tips! 🙂
Hi Heather,
Loved reading this article, great advice. I have a question regarding painted interior doors. Our home still has stained woodwork and is a red oak shade. Our interior 6 panel doors are starting to show some wear. I was wondering your opinion of painting the doors urban bronze but leaving the trim as is? Or painting the frame as well but how would that look with the floor moldings that are the stained red oak color?