Sure, submersing yourself in a quintessential Jane Austin timepiece may be incredibly romantic. but gone are the days when luxury was limited to those with grand estates.
While the most luxurious estates may be out of reach to many, there are a number of budget-friendly design options that can add that touch of luxury to your home. Here are 7 to get you started.
1. Start With Your Towels
Towels are not just drab, functional pieces of terry cloth. Bold colored towels with a fluffy feel can make your home feel more luxurious, welcoming and be that warm embrace that follows every shower.
2. Hide Your Lights
Those exposed globular bulbs over the vanity may provide ample lighting while doing make-up or grooming a beard but aren’t exactly on the higher end look of things. Replacing these with a nice fixture can make a huge difference in the room.
Also worth noting is the benefit of implementing creative lighting to make a home look more luxurious and feel bigger (especially where it clears floor space by getting rid of lamps and shades). Built-in ceiling lights or high hanging and bold lighting fixtures can take a room from dull to decadent with the flick of a switch.
3. Replace Your Fixtures
Don’t underestimate the impact of replacing door knobs, handles, and light switches. All these items have the potential of upgrading the look and feel of your home in subtle but solid ways. Replacing old handles with new ones will give a refreshing vibe to your home (or, in places like here in Lancaster, PA, you might see a much greater impact accomplished by replacing “newer” hardware with old/antiques that play off the old world charm of the county).
4. Add More Mirrors
Mirrors are wonderful for making rooms look a lot bigger and brighter than they actually are. Considered an essential staging accessory that many real estate agents use to help sell smaller homes, it can also be a great way for you to upgrade your living spaces. Adding large mirrors to areas like your living room or bedroom can have a huge impact on how open and luxurious your home will feel.
5. Work with Colors
We can hardly overstate the importance of a well-planned color palette throughout a home.
The palette should be somewhat cohesive throughout the home (there’s just something incredible un-luxurious about going from neon green in one room to a soft lavender in the next, then onto cobalt blue and so on).
Studies confirm the powerful impact of color on mood, having the potential to bring you down or lift you up but this isn’t limited to a simple choice between light or dark colors. Truly luxurious homes often have a balance of both, implementing bright, neutral colors but also giving the home a more stately feel with bold or dark colors that add drama and elegance to a space.
6. Green It Up
Adding greenery indoors is not only excellent for lending a breath of fresh air by boosting oxygen. These can also quickly take a space from bland to beautiful. Many houseplants are incredibly low maintenance.
Be sure to play with different growth habits and experiment with foliage that may compliment different design styles.
7. Declutter
Most all of us have more than a handful of things lying around the house as decorations but would really do well to come off display.
If your home décor riddled with tacky items, faded pictures, and old knick knacks, you may consider taking a day to go through and assess what’s still relevant and how much of it is actually adding to your enjoyment of the space. I’m sure there’s probably a few things you can say you really don’t need. Removing visual waste and chaos from your home will open up more space, decrease stress and instantly make your home a little more luxurious.
8. Re-Furnish
As you’ve taken care of the small things, you may consider going a little bigger and refurnishing a room or two in your home. Modern or minimalist furniture is typically considered more luxurious these days. Picking 2-3 colors and following a consistent theme throughout the room is key for tying things together.
Be sure to look for furniture with bold and powerful colors to create stark contrasts where needed to create a more striking look. Be mindful to avoid drab and faded colors that steal away from the sense of extravagance you may be looking for.
No matter your budget, there’s always something you can do to improve your home. By starting with the little things and upgrading to bigger ones, you’ll soon find yourself increasingly excited about the home you get to call your own retreat from the world.
So, now I’m curious – which of these will you be tackling first? Drop it in the comments below. I can’t wait to hear your ideas!
