Discover gorgeous and inexpensive ways to make your living room look expensive!!
You don’t have to spend a lot to update your living room and make it look expensive!
These design tips will show you how to make your living room look expensive, fresh and updated, on a budget.
PIN THIS AND SAVE IT FOR LATER!
Affiliate links may be included in this article. See our privacy policy.
Paint Color
McGee and Co.
Updating your living room wall color is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to make your home look classy and expensive.
Choose a color that’s on trend to refresh your living room and make it look updated.
See these Top 50 Bestselling Paint Colors At Sherwin Williams for inspiration.
The current wall color trends are: whites, off-whites, earthy colors, green, dark brown and black.
An updated neutral wall color will instantly make your home look expensive.
Dingy, marked baseboards will make your room look dull, cheap and dated.
Giving the baseboard trim a fresh coat of paint will work wonders as well!
See: 5 Best White Trim Paint Colors
Also, your living room fireplace surround and mantel may be making your living room look low end!
If you have ugly, dated fireplace brick or tile or an unattractive mantel – refresh it with paint!
This will instantly make your living room look upscale!
How To Paint a Dated Honey Oak Mantel White
Update your living room with a neutral color scheme and one accent color.
Eliminate all other accent colors in the space.
This will create an expensive, pulled together look.
Select neutrals that coordinate with each other such as white, ivory, bige, black, dark brown, gray, green and caramel.
Choose your favorite accent color and add it to the room in at least 3 places (sofa, coffee table, mantel) to make it look intentional.
You can use a variety of shades of the accent color, such as light blue and dark blue.
Or use various shades of merlot as your accent color.
A layered color scheme of neutrals including beige, caramel, tan, green, white, black and browns will also create a classy, timeless look.
Need help with furniture layout, choosing paint colors, room design, selecting furniture or updating your home?
I’m a Designer and True Color Expert® – I can help!
See my Virtual Interior Design & Paint Color Services, and client reviews.
Email me at [email protected] for more information and rates!
I’d love to work with you!
Next we’ll look at the topic of curtains!
Curtains Will Make Your Living Room Look Expensive
Add curtains to your windows – even if you already have blinds.
Curtains add a layer of style and interest to a room as well as height.
They will make your living room feel more expensive and complete.
Windows without drapes make a living room look and feel sad, boxy and harsh.
Design tip – Curtains that are too short and don’t touch the floor make a living room look cheap
Also, curtains that are not full enough for the window make the room look cheap.
Curtain Hanging Rules
- Curtain panels should be 1.5-2x the width of the window for the proper fullness.
- When closed the curtains should slightly cover the window trim at the sides.
- You don’t want to see the window trim at the sides when the curtains are open.
- Hanging the rod too low will also make the room look cheap.
- Hang the rod as high as possible. This will also make your living room look bigger!
- The drapery panels should just kiss the floor.
These are beautiful budget friendly curtains- see them here.
This is my favorite budget friendly curtain rod – see it here.
I’ve also used these beautiful cabinets as a TV unit for my virtual design clients- they are beautiful quality, offer great storage and look stunning!
A tiny tv unit will definitely make your living room look cheap.
Most people buy a TV unit that’s too small for the size of the TV.
Make your living room look more expensive with a TV unit that’s the right size for your TV!
TV Size Rules:
Your TV length should be 2/3 the length of the TV unit.
If the TV is bigger than 2/3 the length of the TV unit, then your TV unit is too small.
Buy a TV unit that’s the right size for the TV – it will make your room look pulled together, more expensive and balanced.
Hide TV Cords And Media Wires
Nothing makes a living room look tacky and cheap than wires and cords dangling from the TV down the wall and media, audio and gaming unit wires trailing from the TV unit along the wall to the outlet.
Here are 2 ways to hide all of those unsightly wires and cords!
- Hide the TV wires by placing them inside the wall. Cut a hole in the wall where the TV is, run the cords down the wall to the bottom of the wall. Cut a hole at the bottom of the wall and pass the cords through to the outlet. Cover the holes in the walls with this TV cord hider for wall mounted TVs – This cable management kit hides TV wires behind the walls and covers the holes with beautiful grommet covers
- If that can’t be done, at the very least hide the wires with a cord cover that can be painted the same color as the walls to help disguise it!
Hiding wires is easy to do with these clever cable management ideas!
These are my favorite way to hide cords:
- Cable and Cord Cover – Paintable Cable and Cord Concealer System hides cords on walls
- TV and Media Cord Cover – to hide cords on walls and along baseboards
- Sleek socket – Thin Outlet Concealer with Cord Concealer Kit
Decorate The TV Unit To Make Your Living Room Look Expensive
I absolutely love these gorgeous wood and rattan storage cabinets to use as a TV unit!
I’ve used these gorgeous storage cabinets in many of my design client living room design consults!
2, 3 or 4 cabinets arranged together as a TV media unit stores media and audio equipment, kids toys, pet toys and more!
I can’t stress enough how important it is to decorate the top of a TV unit with a few stacked books, vases and decorative bead garland draped on top, or a small sculpture or bowl on top!
This layer of decor will add style, texture and pattern to the room creating a beautiful expensive look.
I love to add a vase of stems or flowers on one end of the TV unit and a table lamp at the other end.
Add decorative bead garland on a stack of 2-3 coffee table books in the middle.
Make sure the decor doesn’t block the TV!
Don’t forget to decorate your living room with intentional pieces.
Do not add a lot of bitsy items or items that don’t color coordinate!
Choose beautiful decorative items such as:
- vases
- pillows
- throw blankets
- decorative bowls
- trays
- decorative boxes
- decorative links and orbs
- stacked books
Make sure that all of your tabletops have at least one decorative piece on them: coffee table, end tables, console table.
Also if you have a bookshelf in your living room make sure it is well decorated.
Decor has a huge impact in a room!
Without decorative pieces a room will look unfinished and cheap.
TV Wall Decor
Do not place a TV and TV unit on a wall by itself…this will make a room look cheap and unfinished.
Adding wall art or wall lighting will frame the TV and ground it… so that it looks cohesive with the room and looks balanced in the space.
Make your living room look expensive by adding framed art or family photos above and on the sides of your TV.
You can also add wall sconces – one sconce on each side of the TV.
Add battery operated wall sconce lights that don’t require hard wiring and are dimmable!
Or add beautiful plug-in wall sconce lights that don’t require hard wiring!
Cover the plug in sconce cord with a cord cover, which can be painted the wall color, so it will blend into the wall and create a pulled together look!
What looks more expensive? A TV over the fireplace mantel or the TV with a TV unit?
In my opinion as a designer, a room will always look more expensive if the TV is placed over the fireplace.
The bonus is that this will free up more floor space for your furniture!
The reason that a TV over the fireplace looks more expensive than a TV with a TV unit, in my design opinion, is this:
A Samsung Frame TV hung over the fireplace mantel looks like real framed art and looks stunning!
A wide variety of art styles can be selected to display on the TV screen.
You can even upload onto the TV inexpensive, beautiful digital art that you can buy on Etsy.
I particularly love landscape art and abstract art displayed on TV’s!
The Frame TV sits flat on the wall too, which makes it look even more like a real piece of art.
The Samsung The Frame TV is frequently on sale too!
An inexpensive way to copy the look of the Samsung The Frame TV is to display a beautiful TV art screensaver to your TV such as landscape or abstract art!
You can easily display digital art on your TV via Youtube!
Select Youtube on your TV, search TV screensaver art then select your favorite art!
Some people feel that hanging a TV over a fireplace is too high for TV viewing, but it’s not if your seating is the appropriate distance from the fireplace.
Design rule for correct TV size that’s hung above a fireplace mantel is:
The TV should be 2/3 the length of the fireplace mantel.
The design rule for the correct distance for the seating to the TV is:
= 7′ or 3 x size of the TV screen
There are also pull down TV mounts that will move the TV down in front of the fireplace while watching TV if you prefer a lower TV viewing height.
I’ve used these pull down TV mounts with my design clients and they love them!
This TV mount moves the TV back up over the fireplace mantel when not being viewed!
Hang Art Above The Sofa
Art hung above the sofa will instantly make your living room look expensive and very luxurious!
Placing a sofa against a wall all by itself looks unfinished and creates an empty, uninviting look.
Your living room will look stylish and expensive if you eliminate the blank wall above your sofa and add art!
Choose your favorite art style:
Black and white photography art, landscape art, coastal art and abstract art are on trend right now…. but choose whatever style you love best!
I recommend adding one large piece of art or 2-3 pieces of art above the sofa.
The design rule for the correct size of art to be hung over a sofa:
- The art width should be 2/3 the length of the sofa
- If you are adding 2-3 pieces of art then the total width of all of the art pieces, plus the spacing in between the art pieces, should be 2/3 the length of the sofa
Here are the design rules for how high to hang art above the sofa:
- Hang the art so it is 4-10″ above the top of the sofa.
- If you have 2 or more pieces of art, hang the art 4-8″ apart.
- Make sure the total art width is 2/3 the length of your sofa.
- If you have 2 pieces of art above the sofa the 2 pieces and spacing in between should total 2/3 the length of the sofa.
An alternative idea is to hang a picture shelf above the sofa!
Another way to make your sofa wall look expensive is to hang a picture shelf above the sofa and layer several pieces of framed art and decor pieces on it.
Design tip! Overlap some of the framed art items and some of the decor, as shown in the above photo, for a stylish, chic look!
For shelf colors: white art shelves and light wood color art shelves are my 2 favorite colors.
The design rule for how high to hang art shelf above a sofa is:
- The art shelf length should be minimum 2/3 the length of the sofa
- Hang the art shelf so it is 4-10″ above the top of the sofa
- Make sure the art shelf is higher than your head so your head doesn’t hit the shelf
Area Rugs
Create an expensive look in your living room by adding an area rug that is the right size for the furniture arrangement and the room.
Most people buy a rug that’s too small!
Make sure the rug is big enough so that the front feet of your sofa and chairs are on it.
The best rug size is the size that allows all of the furniture feet to be on it.
You can layer 2 rugs on top of each other, as long as the bottom rug is a jute or sisal rug.
Every room looks empty and lifeless without greenery, especially the living room.
I always add a real or faux tree to my own rooms and to my client rooms to add style, height, interest and texture.
They make a room look more expensive because they add another layer of pattern and beauty to a living room.
Plus trees and plants allow you to add more style and texture to the room with the pots or baskets that the tree and plants are displayed in!
Some faux trees can be expensive but many are so affordable!
These faux olive trees and decorative trees are affordable.
This faux olive tree is a best seller, is so beautiful and is slim so it doesn’t take up much space!
It’s perfect for small living rooms and perfect to add style to an empty corner.
When you have littles, their toys always accumulate in the living room!
Scattered and piles of toys can make a room look cluttered…and clutter makes a living room look poorly and messy!!
Make your living room look more expensive and let your kids be kids by storing kids toys in the living room with beautiful storage ideas that tuck it all away:
- Beautiful baskets with lids
- Storage ottomans and poufs with lids
- Storing kids toys in a sideboard cabinet, tall cabinet or a bookcase that has a cabinet at the bottom is another way to make your room look more upscale
- A simple cube bookcase with gorgeous baskets is a beautiful and inexpensive way to contain the clutter!
When toys are put away when they are not used, your living room will look so much more upscale, relaxing and tidy.
The same rules and ideas apply for pet’s toys too!
Layered Lighting
Your living room will look more expensive if you add table lamps and/or floor lamps.
Even if you have an overhead ceiling light, adding additional lighting is essential.
Adding two table lamps will make your living room look expensive and will also provide ambiance to your room.
A floor lamp or two will also add beautiful style and ambiance.
Also wall sconces above the sofa or above the fireplace mantel will create a chic look!
Ceiling Fans
I love this chic whhite ceiling fan!
Dated, dark, drab and clunky looking ceiling fans will instantly make your living room look cheap.
And ceiling fans that have cords hanging from them are outdated and make a room look cluttered and tacky.
Replace your dated ceiling fan with a clean-lined, white ceiling fan that will blend into your white ceiling!
A remote controlled fan will get rid of dangling unsightly cords.
This is one of my favorite ceiling fans that I use in for my virtual interior design clients spaces!
It’s clean lined and a beautiful style, is smart enabled and has a dimmable LED light!
Family Photo Ideas
Displaying a lot of family photos with mismatched or dated frames will make your room look cheap and cluttered.
I recommend that you take your family photos and get them printed in black and white, frame them with matching black, light wood, walnut or white frames and display them in a gallery wall.
This is such a beautiful look!
You can add a family photo gallery wall above the sofa (2-3 large framed photos) or on a blank wall in the living room, as shown in the photo above.
Updating your picture frames will make your room look more expensive.
Design tips for displaying small family photos:
- Make sure the frames coordinate and are updated in lucite frames, nickel, black or light wood frames.
- Only display a few family photos in the living room – you don’t want your home looking like a portrait studio!
- Make sure they are displayed on a bookcase shelf or wall shelf so that the unsightly back of the photo frame is not in view.
- Never display family photos behind glass cabinets – this looks really cheap.
Hire A Designer!
Making mistakes with your living room decor and furniture can be costly and really frustrating!
Hiring a designer who has experience and an eye for design to update your room, create a furniture arrangement plan and select the perfect furniture and decor pieces will save you money and avoid costly mistakes!
As a Virtual Designer and True Color Expert® I can help you create a beautiful living room design that will make your living room look expensive – while working with your budget!
I have access to very affordable, budget friendly furniture, rugs, lighting and decor that create a designer look for less!
Through Virtual Interior Design you can easily create professionally designed spaces in your home, that fit your lifestyle, design style and budget!
Need help with your new build home, kitchen or bathroom renovation or room update?
I’m a Designer and True Color Expert® – I can help!
See my Virtual Interior Design & Paint Color Services – and client reviews.
Email me at [email protected] for more info about my virtual interior design consults!
I’d love to work with you!
Accent Furniture Is Essential
Don’t forget about adding accent furniture to your living room!
They add an essential layer of comfort, style, as well as color, texture and pattern to make a living room feel pulled together and expensive!
Accent furniture pieces I recommend adding are:
1. Stools
Add a stool beside a fireplace, at the end of a sofa or beside a chair
This wood stool is inexpensive and beautiful!
2. End tables
Add an end table to each end of the sofa to create a balanced look.
3. Coffee table
A coffee table will create an expensive look as it helps create a conversation zone and makes a room look balanced.
It’s also a great spot to decorate and make a room look more expensive with decor!
4. Console table / sofa table
Cover the back of a sofa or sectional in an open concept living room by adding a console table.
The back of a sofa makes a room look bare so adding a console table will help disguise the back and help separate an open concept living room from the other spaces.
A console table is a great way to decorate a blank wall too! Add framed art or mirror above it and decorate it to create beautiful style and add an expensive look to the room.
5. Pouf ottomans / upholstered cube ottomans
Add a couple of upholstered cube ottomans or round ottomans in front of the fireplace.
6. Accent chairs
Adding accent chairs create a beautiful conversation zone and make a room look more expensive and complete.
These budget friendly accent chairs won’t break the bank:
There are so many beautiful, inexpensive ways to make your living room look expensive!
Take one of these ideas and add it to your living room this weekend!
More Design & Decor Ideas
- How to Make A Mood Board For Interior Design
- How To Arrange Furniture In A Small Living Room
- Modern Organic Living Room Design Ideas
- Top 50 Bestselling Paint Colors At Sherwin Williams
- Agreeable Gray – Undertones & Coordinating Colors
- 5 Design Tricks To Brighten A Dark Room
- How To Fake An Entryway – Enter Right Into The Living Room
- How to Make Your Home Look Cohesive and Pulled Together – The Right Way!
- Behr Blank Canvas Color Of The Year 2023
- How to Pick Paint Colors With Confidence!
- How to Paint Tile – Easy Fireplace Paint Makeover
- How To Cover An Ugly Carpet
- How to Paint a Wood Fireplace Mantel White
- How To Identify Paint Color Undertones & Choose The Right Color
- How to Combine Design Styles So They Don’t Clash
Leave a Reply