How to make your home look more expensive – on a budget

The end of the year has really crept up on us, and we can't believe we're almost in 2025. Something that’s top of our list to really work on during the new year is our homes. Throughout the past 12 months, we've started numerous projects but as the time has absolutely flown by, we never got around to finishing them.

We've decided that it's time to kick into gear and upgrade our homes into the comforting and relaxing spaces we’ve always dreamed of!

One of the things that’s an issue, however, is our budget. We don’t want something that’s going to cost an arm and a leg, but we still want our homes to feel cosy and comfortable and look amazing. And the good news is, there are budget-friendly ways to do this!

Making your home look expensive doesn’t have to be expensive with these handy tips and tricks to elevate your space for half the price!

Keep colours neutral

There is no greater home hack than keeping your colour palette neutral. When you’re using creams, sands and whites, greys, stones and tans in your flooring, walls and even some of your major fittings, you’re allowing you furniture and other items to speak for themselves. You can show your personality through some statement pieces, but keeping the background for your furniture neutral means you can mix and match and swap things out as much as you want, therefore ensuring your home always looks up-to-date and fresh with the latest trends!

Neutral colour schemes also ensure your home has that classy feel to it. Loud bright or overly dark colours on the walls or floors can make a room feel smaller or suck all the light and airiness out of it, leaving you with a cramped and uncomfortable space that leaves guests feeling a little smothered. Keeping to natural colours – which are super in right now – gives you much more to work with and instantly adds a lush, airy feel to any room.

Use statement pieces

Like we said before, your furniture is where you get to show off your personality. Even if you want to keep your furniture colours fairly neutral you can still incorporate interesting shapes and textures into your home to draw the eye. Keep it tactical and try to limit statement pieces to one per area. If you have open plan, try to have them spaced out, so that you don’t have the eye drawn to all the crazy pieces in the living room, like an art deco coffee table along with huge pendant lights and massive custom-made rug full of colour.

Try keep them with the theme of the room, just a natural show-stopper, that stands out from the crowd, like the natural centre-piece of the room. Some ideas could be beautiful artwork or interesting lighting or even a display in your cabinets – whatever you love will shine through.

Use LED strip lights

This is a hack that a lot of DIY Instagrammers have been touting the last couple of years that definitely isn’t a fad! Yes, we may be used to seeing them in Tik Toks flashing purple and red in some teen’s dorm room, but they have a much classier use that can seriously change the atmosphere in a room!

Getting LED strip lights and lining them underneath your kitchen cabinets can give them that glow beneath that looks like you’ve installed expensive light fixtures and give your kitchen not only extra visibility on your countertops, but a really glam looking feature that can highlight your kitchen fittings. And the recessed lighting hack is not just for the kitchen! Try these out behind your solid headboard for a cool, modern look, or underneath some large, framed artwork for a little extra highlight, even DIY your bookshelves with them for an instantly classy look!

Hang your art well

Our choices in artwork are deeply personal and therefore reflect our own preferences and personalities. Investing in proper framing and make even a thrift store find look incredible and utterly expensive. Often, going for a sunken frame, or a statement colour that contrasts with the piece of art itself can draw the eye and points of interest around the room.

The way in which you hang your framed art can also have an impact on the room’s overall feel. Gallery walls are becoming a massive interior trend that won’t be going anywhere for a while and we absolutely love them. They can bring a hodge-podge of art together and make it cohesive without looking too manicured and proper, but still bring an element of class to the room. Alternatively, you could try place two or three panels of art side by side that work well together to create a mini-series of art that always looks beautiful and well put-together when done right.