A Decorating Den interior designer shares 12 design tips on how to elevate your home. These tips include upgrading hardware, switching lampshades or bases, creating curated vignettes with decorative trays, painting woodwork in a pop of color, wallpapering unexpectedly, and adding a wall sconce or picture light.
To quickly elevate a living room, top designers make 12 easy changes:
- Avoid matching furniture;
- Declutter accessories;
- Do “Themes” with Subtlety;
- Go for large, statement art;
- Choose artistry over mass-produced items;
- Layer textures;
- Decorate with meaningful objects;
- Add drama with small details;
- Accessorize your ceiling with light fixtures;
- Use handmade pieces.
Structurally placing mirrors, sheer curtains, and light-colored furniture near windows maximizes natural light.
Add layers of textiles and accessories to create a softness in the space.
Prioritize interior design, making it go beyond aesthetics and reflect your style and personality.
7 Creative Home Décor Ideas on a Budget to Elevate Your Space:
- Update your wall with wallpaper;
- Use plants and flowers to decorate your space;
- Update old light fixtures;
- Use neutrals;
- Fake built-ins;
- Update hardware;
- Add fresh landscaping;
- Try tile;
- Add molding;
- Update your entryway.
In summary, these tips can help elevate your home decor style, from simple tweaks to complex renovations. By embracing sustainability, artistry, and uniqueness, you can create a functional and stylish space that is both functional and stylish.
📹 10 Ways To ELEVATE Your Home 🏠 Designer Worthy Home Hacks!
Having a house that looks like it was done by a top interior designer is more attainable than you think! Here are 10 ways to make …
How do I make my room look like rich?
Before shopping to upgrade your bedroom, consider these tips to make it a luxurious space. Incorporate a rug to add texture and warmth, and display art to showcase your style. Overfill your throw pillows, add a hanging light fixture, rethink your nightstand, focus on statement pieces, and keep the floor empty.
A chic rug can add texture and warmth to your bedroom, whether you prefer florals or understated designs. Display art, whether it’s a sculpture, photograph, or colorful painting, to show off your style. Leaning your favorite piece against a wall can be just as powerful. Remember, your bedroom is a personal space where you relax and recharge, so it should be given your full attention.
How to make a house look more expensive?
In order to create a luxurious appearance within a limited budget, it is essential to implement a systematic approach to organization, utilize a neutral color scheme, prioritize the incorporation of high-quality furnishings, develop original artwork, incorporate crown molding and trim, select well-designed light fixtures, incorporate accent pillows and throws, and utilize window treatments to create the illusion of a larger space.
What adds the biggest value to a house?
To increase the value of your home, consider cleaning and decluttering, adding usable square footage, making your home more energy-efficient, painting, improving curb appeal, upgrading exterior doors, updating your kitchen, and staging your home. Home improvements can help increase its worth, and there are various ways to pay for them, such as cash-out refinancing, home equity loans, or home improvement loans. If you plan to sell your home, it’s crucial to determine the cost and recoupment of the improvements.
The value of your home can increase or decrease due to various factors, including factors out of your control like the local housing market. Strategic upgrades to the premises can significantly increase the value of your home, enhance your equity stake, make it more marketable, and improve your quality of life while occupying it.
How to make your home look elegant?
To make a home look expensive without spending a lot, consider adding character and texture with paneling, installing statement lighting, updating the staircase, displaying cut flowers, replacing carpets with wood flooring, incorporating luxury materials, keeping wires out of view, and adding a vintage rug. This approach not only enhances the overall aesthetic appeal but also increases the home’s value, especially if you’re considering selling it. The secret to achieving an expensive look isn’t necessarily about the amount spent, but rather about incorporating luxury materials and keeping wires out of view.
How to elevate the look of your house?
The increasing number of people working in their homes has led to a surge in home improvements, with the end of the stamp duty holiday reducing the rush to move versus improve. This trend includes simple painting and decorating, replacing worn furniture, and adding luxuries, as well as more dramatic improvements like extensions, internal renovations, and garden buildings. Nine experts have collaborated to discuss 40 ways to make homes look and feel more luxurious, from affordable finishing touches to bigger renovations and installations.
Some of these “affordable” finishing touches can even be free! By incorporating simple touches like painting a feature wall, going big with wall art, redecorating or painting, using color cleverly, decluttering, decorating with candles and mirrors, adding house plants and flowers, and updating glassware and tableware, homeowners can create a more enjoyable and luxurious living environment.
How to cozy up your home?
In summary, there are several ways to cozy up your home during the winter months. Some of these include updating bedding, swapping in snuggly throw pillows, adding warmth underfoot, considering soft lighting, warming up window treatments, rethinking sofa covers, layering kitchen linens, and displaying memories on display. To make your home feel cozy, you can make small changes such as stashing slippers by the front door or turning on an electric fireplace. Using soft lighting and incorporating cozy elements like candles can also make your home feel more inviting and comfortable.
For winter, flannel is a great option for bedding, as it can hold warmth in and provide warmth. Swapping crisp sateen sheets for flannel or jersey sheets can also help. Additionally, folding a quilt or blanket over the bed’s foot can be a helpful addition for cold nights. Overall, these small changes can help make your home feel more inviting and comfortable during the winter months.
How do you elevate your home?
Elevation techniques entail the lifting of a house and the construction of a new foundation below it, or alternatively, the retention of the existing structure with the addition of an elevated floor or a new upper story.
How to look subtly rich?
Dressing like a millionaire involves embracing minimalism and classic pieces that scream “old money”. This includes wearing timeless classics like white button downs and borrowed-from-the-boys loafers, opting for neutral colors and monochrome outfits, and wearing quiet luxury items (no logos!). To achieve this look, reach for the basics, investing in one or two high-quality white button downs. The crisp cotton style is a wardrobe workhorse and can be styled in various ways, such as pairing it with tailored trousers and heels to the office or dressed down in jeans. Logos are not a good choice for purses, and sunglasses are always a power move. By following these tips, you can achieve a sophisticated and sophisticated look that is both comfortable and stylish.
How to elevate your living room dos and don’ts?
It is recommended that the artwork be positioned at a height of 15-20 centimeters above the head, in order to prevent any potential contact with the head. However, exceptions may be made for individuals of taller stature.
📹 10 Affordable Ways to ELEVATE Your Home 🔨 Hacks that look EXPENSIVE!
Today I a rounding up some of my least expensive ways to make a big impact in your home. Whether this be with paint, some …
Great tips here! Just bought a rug for under my queen bed. I spent a long, long time looking at rugs and made sure I went to the store to feel the rug. The rug I chose is so cushy and soft under my feet.. I step on it every morning so needed to make sure it was going to feel good each and every day… that’s true luxury to me!
Really enjoyed perusal the beautiful article with lots of lovely information and mind-blowing guidelines. Would love to see a article on the collection of items ( coffee mugs, wooden modern statues or figure, or antique small items) etc . and how to showcase them in a room . 😊 With love from SAM Guwahati, Assam, India 🇮🇳 ♥️
Drew, almost all the DIY projects that are displayed in my home came from your articles! And your room re-dos have inspired my own room updates. Thank you for sharing so many fantastic ideas!! I have several marble plant stands that elevate my living space. This summer my husband and I will be updating our entire house in preparation for retirement. We have chosen Hewn flooring, that has zero off gassing and look like hard wood. It is also great for dogs!🐕
Great tips! May I also add hanging your curtains “high and wide”? Amazing how much classier a room looks by raising the rod up (I usually do a few inches from the ceiling) and further out from the side frame of the windows to give the illusion of larger windows. And if you have to buy new curtain panels to kiss the floor (or puddle, if you like a more traditional, luxe look), Amazon and other retailers have such inexpensive options these days. All of my drapes are either velvet or sheer, faux linen cheapies with an equally cheapie roman shade behind them but they look more expensive than they are. And please for the love of all things holy (hole-y?) skip the grommet curtains. Try tab backs and then you have the option of putting them directly into the pole or using clip on rings which is what I’ve done. I understand even, say, a $100 investment is out of reach for some – totally get it – but this is an easy upgrade to try if you can swing a little budget-wise.
Hi there. Thanks for the marvelous tips! I have a popcorn ceiling (I know… ). I don’t want to remove it and I need to add a light fixture in the living room. By doing so I’ll end up with a whole for the fixture and a ‘buffer’ area around it without the popcorn texture. Can I add a ceiling medallion to make the transmission a bit less awful? Or ceiling medallions and popcorn ceiling are simply an absolute no no? Thanks!
About rugs. Save up for a nice wool rug. Nothing looks worse than a rug that’s too small or looks CHEAP! I’d rather have no rug than a cheap looking rug. Also don’t buy the smaller rug just because it’s cheaper. I saved for a large 10 x 12 wool rug. It cost $1,500. It looks amazing and it’s a rug that will look good forever.
Great and inexpensive ideas. I was so excited when your one tip for ‘conceiling your clutter’ came up. I thought what a great play on words by a genius designer. I wasn’t sure what you were going to talk about – turns out it was concealing clutter which I think is a huge upgrade. I have a theory that all the people who see reveals of their homes and love it so much on TV home makeover shows – it’s because they’ve never seen their house without anything out of place…. Thanks Drew!
Love all these suggestions. We’ve done some by way of upgrading a fixer home in retirement. Yah we did that! I was raised without clutter! Our mother was fastidious about everything. Yeah when in 20s rebelled a bit to putting away clean laundry the minute it was done but we had a sorted life. If you look in my cupboards, shoe boxes, tissue boxes folded down and stapled or retail bought depending where all have all sorted items by use. 2 under batrhoom cabinet. Boxes sort rice packs and small things in kitchen pantry. I could buy fancy things like it does look nice when some show all rice etc. in nice containers but who is looking inside the cabinet? I especially put small med bottles etc. in a box. Hate nocking down 5 to find one! Plus you know what you have and dont buy tons of same thing. Ive seen people just shove groceries willy nilly and not sort. Plus then keep buying like 10 containers of cinnamon and loose it?! No matter how small or large a house I had if it couldnt go into a closet you had too much stuff. Plus Ive never bought on trend. I don’t think Id ever use an insta pot so not buying one and have another appliance on the counter. Ive never had clutter on my kitchen counters or any surface. I follow a lot of websites that upcycle home decor. I love what they do. I like yours. Most are shabby country chippy and not our style. But even though Ive upcycled some similar things and sold a bit with the jean tote bags I make I dont put any of it in my house. We art decorate, a lot my partner had from travels or his kids made.
i do love a ceiling medallion, and have added a few to my living room and bedroom…but i did wonder about the “Victorian” one that you showed with a 1960s “sputnik” light…the styles were too far apart for me…but, maybe that’s a “thang”?…like plaid and stripes together? I could see the 60s light with “deco” for example, because they are kinda minimalist, brass, and modern in away. Just was curious about your thoughts. 😎 Barb
great ideas drew! FYI at 9:40 just a funny little spelling error. its not Con”ceiling” its concealing. BTW not sure if you did this article but a article already but it would be great to see a article RE Q&A of how, when, why you started your online business. That would be very interesting! Take care. Viv 🙂 Oh yeah Big McKenna fan and it was so lovely seeing her candle in the background in of one of your other articles! 🙂
Hi Drew! By stacking baseboards you are able to accommodate any unevenness in the walls, whereas a tall one piece baseboard may require a lot of filler. So stacking is actually a problem solver and the same goes for ceiling trim. Many years later I now know better and should have a larger living room rug but I still love the color and muted floral pattern of my wool rug. Can I layer the existing rug on top of a very low pile neutral/complimentary colored rug so that it creates a border of 6-12 inches all around? I think this would work? Thanks! PS I love your shopping articles. S.
Love your website and listening to you talk always makes me smile. Your passion for your home, style and your creativity is so inspiring! The teacher in me noticed spelling at 9:40 mark “conceiling” …I think you meant “concealing”.😊😊 not trying to be a B, just thought you may want to know. At least you know I watch your vids all the way through😅❤
**Just note that removing glass does leave your artwork unprotected. If you have a valuable piece of art or one you love and wish to preserve for years to come, please consider investing in museum grade glass. It is antiglare and protects from UV rays, in addition to providing the general glass barrier to dust, scratches, and accidents. You can get it at any framing store (including the big box ones like Michael’s and Joann’s) cut to whatever size you need.
Amazing tips!! My favorite thing that I did to upgrade my office was to put molding along the top, bottom, and middle ledges of my basic Amazon bookcases to make them look built in. They made it feel like they were intended to be part of that room all along. I’m all for changing small basic features of a room for a bigger impact. I love perusal your decor rips.
I wish my husband would hide all his clutter. He did have the whole peninsula in our kitchen covered in things. I bought him an office piece to put his papers in. But he still has half the peninsula covered. The same with his chest of drawers in the bedroom. I have a lot in there. On top of the dresser. But I do keep,things in baskets. And drawers. My kitchen countertops are full. I don’t have a big kitchen. It’s a galley walk through. And I have lots of cabinets. But I need the things that I have out on the countertops. My utensils and knives, salt and pepper shakers. I do have a coffee maker. I don’t drink coffee and my husband drinks instant. But when people come to visit I need to have it out. And a bread box. That’s all my counter space.
Fabulous article. I think removing the glass of a picture does indeed make it look better, but exposure to the air can degrade paper over time (think of yellowed newspapers). If a work on paper is something valuable, you can get “museum glass” at a custom-frame shop. Museum glass is specially formulated to have no glare, and it also protects from UV rays. It’s pricey, but worth it if the art is something really special.
Drew please give me a solution. We are in the final stage of our Georgious walkout basement apartment with a contractor . I chose white tiles with gold grains for the bath rooms however bath vanities with my contractor are white with gray and I did not find white with gold grains quartz top vanites too. Custom was expensive and contractor installed the one he had in hand. Please give me some solutions how can, I make fake gold grains on quartz top to go with the bathroom and powder room
I could use advìce on to cut down on dishes and pans. Id like to see your appliance unit. Where do you store spices. I had 2 pull out drawes but that wasnt enough space. Also im thinking about replacing my washer drier to those that stack. That would free up one side of the laundry nook so i can make a pantry for canned goods etc. Yes my kitchen needs help.
Decluttering is essential for many of us== in New England we call it “Spring Cleaning” and put any odd stuff we don’t use or wear in boxes over the winter. Then we do the whole SUMMER LAWN SALE thing. Concealing clutter is one thing—getting RID OF IT is yet another. Also nowadays? There are so many places other than Salvation Army to rid ourselves of unneeded but useable stuff. So I say, GO FOR IT. ❤
Please, folks! Have an electrician rewire those gorgeous vintage light fixtures! I love the idea of giving a new life to them, they deserve it, but be safe doing it. Old electrical wiring can be brittle, broken, chewed on by critters or simply not up to code anymore. Anything pre-70s or older I’d definitely look at critically.
So I have white baseboards next to a creamy color. Do I paint the door moldings too . And if the door moldings separate two rooms that are two different colors, what then? I would love you to do more on this subject. In my house I added half rounds to the bottoms of my moldings and it enhanced them a lot. Thanks! Long time subscriber, Maureen
In response to your question about content topics, I really love this sort of article where you offer tips & tricks that can be applied almost immediately without huge Reno or purchases. Also love your experimenting content like your hallway! That was very cool to see, it’s bold & not something I would risk doing unless I saw the process like how you showed. Just more cool stuff like that 😊 thanks Drew, love your website
I always unsub when I see titles like “look expensive”. It sounds like a very disgusting thing to want. Besides, I’ve watched that whole list of 100 diy things and they all look exactly like a diy, they’re not high quality. Cute as a hobby but not things I’d keep in my home unless I really want things to dust. If you equate high quality that with expensive, that is, as you should. Expensive for the sake of expensive serves no purpose.
Thanks Drew for the 10 affordable tips on elevating your home. I am going to elevate my baseboards, paint and replace three light fixtures. Your home and tips are absolutely doable. I used to feel overwhelmed; however, reminding me that its the little things are equally important to help elevate/improve your home is so refreshing and motivating!