Having good taste can be a curse if you don’t have the money to back it up. You deserve to live in luxury! But without the budget, you can’t spend thousands of dollars on golden monkey sculptures or whatever the wealthy are into these days. Try these secret, low-cost ways to make your house look more expensive, and you’ll be living large.
Switch Out Hardware
Even if your furniture is looking basic, don’t be tempted to buy something new. The shipping costs alone hurt to think about. Thankfully, you can upcycle just about anything. You can find unique—and luxe—touches at the hardware store, and your credit card won’t suffer. Make a chest of drawers look like an heirloom from the pedigreed side of the family just by replacing some knobs and drawer pulls. Switch out the hardware on all your kitchen cabinets, and you’ll feel fancy every time you visit the refrigerator.
Stick On Tiles
This may be my favorite technological advance of the last thousand years. You can buy stickers at the home improvement store that look like glass tiles for almost nothing. Presto! You’ll end up with one of those backsplashes you see on HGTV. You can also experiment with stick-on wallpaper for a bold style statement. And if you regret it, there’s no shame in peeling it back off and disposing of it discreetly.
Sew a Throw Pillow
I get nauseous thinking about spending more than $15 on something like a throw pillow, but everything I like is more than $100. You can get around this and add some class to a room with the luxe fabric you usually see on priceless antique cushions. The secret? Scraps. Any fabric store will have a section of scraps from rolls of expensive upholstery that are the perfect size for throw pillows, and you can get them for $10 to $15. Find someone who knows how to sew something vaguely in the shape of a square, stuff it, and you’re in business.
Add Realistic Flooring
I love carpet. It says, “Lay down on me—you have a few minutes.” But it just doesn’t have the same oomph as hardwood or stone floors, which say, “You are a landowner of superior breeding.” I can’t spare the money for fancy floors, and I certainly don’t want to maintain them, so I’m a fan of what they call luxury vinyl. You won’t believe how realistic it looks now, with planks that even mimic the texture of teakwood and tiling you’d swear came from Carrara.
Don’t use these low-cost ways to make your house look more expensive if you’re just trying to impress someone. Yours is the only opinion that matters, and you’re smart enough to create designer-quality interiors without the designer prices.
