One of my favorite things on this planet? Decorating a house on a budget and making it look like you spent a fortune. Here are 12 ideas to make your house look more expensive.
Hello rock star.
How is your spring going? I hope it’s just like mine.
Full to the brim of projects.
I was looking back over the last couple of years and I couldn’t believe all the projects that we’ve finished. And the best part? In typical Thistlewood fashion, we finish everything on a budget with creative solutions to challenging projects. We have children in college and not a lot of money left over for “new” anything.
So instead?
We improvise.
And just between us? Improvising is my favorite. It’s how to get creative with the dollars that you have to create the look of expensive projects without breaking the bank.
So just in case you needed a few project ideas for your spring and summer?
Some project ideas are tiny and easy and others are a little bigger.
Here are 12 ideas to make your house look more expensive.
// set of two scalloped baskets with lids //
// set of two scalloped baskets with lids //
// set of two scalloped baskets with lids //
12 Ideas To Make Your House Look More Expensive
1. Use baskets to streamline
There is NOTHING (and I mean nothing) that un-cutes your house than having too much stuff everywhere.
I started with this one because it’s a simple idea that everyone can do.
Look around your house right now. Is there something that’s not cute that you could add to a basket to instantly cute it.
Here are some ideas to instantly cute your house up and make it look more expensive by storing these things in baskets:
- dog toys and accessories
- stacks of magazines
- coffee supplies
- puzzles and games
- paper plates and plastic forks and knives
- CD’s and DVD’s
- craft supplies
- hand towels and wash cloths
See how easy?
If you are looking for cute baskets? I just got these scalloped baskets with a hinged lid.
You can see the set of two here.
I put together this idea list of the CUTEST scalloped baskets over in my Amazon store. You can see them here.
2. Disguise those metal columns
If you live in an older home like me? These metal columns were once ALL THE RAGE.
Everyone had them. But here’s the thing—some are really pretty and are beautiful—and some are not.
These were what the columns on our back carport have looked like for their entire lives.
If you’ve ever priced columns, you know it’s SO EXPENSIVE to remove them and add new ones.
So instead?
We came up with this solution.
3. Paint a concrete porch
This is one of my favorite DIY’s we did at the house.
What better way to expensivize up a house, than to take boring concrete from plain to this.
It’s so cute that it makes me smile every day and you can recreate the look of expensive tile for under $100.
This is what the porch looked like before.and what it looks like now and how we painted it.
// picture frame lights //
4. Add picture lights
There’s something so fancy about picture lights.
I’m pretty sure they have them in Buckingham Palace and anything okay with the Crown is fine by me.
I love these lights because they are battery-operated, so you don’t have to wire them at all.
They operate off a remote and you can adjust the light, too.
You can see my favorite picture lights I have all over the house (and they are on sale today) here.
5. Write out your house numbers
Why just add your address when it can be even cuter?
You can spell out your number with letters instead of digits. People always comment on our address and it makes the house look super fancy.
I always get asked where I got my letters and numbers from. It’s a company called Drop Cap Studio and they are having a 10% off spring sale right now.
You can see the different options here.
See the entire how-to here.
6. Make a built-in out of a standard bookcase
Built-ins can be so expensive, but they update a house and make rooms look so much more expensive and custom.
We have a space upstairs that I wanted to turn into a reading nook.
We had these standard bookcases and I had a vision to turn them into built-in.
See how we transformed the space here.
// curtain rods // curtain rings //
7. Upgrade your curtain rods and rings
When you have curtain rods that are bent or dated, it makes a room look a little sad and forlorn.
It’s so inexpensive to update your curtain rods and it instantly updates a space.
Another easy update is to add clips to curtains (which also makes it so much easier to pull the curtains across).
Here are my favorite curtain rods.
Here are my favorite curtain rings.
8. Paint a garden shed
This was another one of my most popular projects for 2019.
We updated the garden shed in the back of the yard with paint.
See the before and after and how we did it here.
// my favorite down inserts (on sale) //
9. Add down inserts
This is one of my best tips.
Down inserts are where it’s at.
You can replace a polyfill insert with a down insert, and it will instantly update the pillow.
Also—if you want your pillows extra fluffy—size up one size with your down inserts.
You can see my favorite down inserts here.
// soft white light bulbs //
10. Change out your light bulbs
To create a cozy space in your home and make the ENTIRE space live better?
Update your light bulbs to a soft white. You don’t want a super bright light and you don’t want yellow lights (a lot of older lightbulbs are yellow).
A soft white lightbulb is the best light for a space.
You can see amazing lightbulbs here.
11. Paint your plywood flooring
This was just regular plywood flooring. We pulled up the carpet and there was plywood underneath.
So we painted it.
We had already painted the flooring at the farmhouse and it held up so well, we painted it here, too.
It’s such a great flooring option to update a room and make it look much more expensive.
You can see the how-to here.
12. Add architectural details
One of the easiest ways to make your house look more expensive?
Add molding.
Over the doors, around ceilings, windows, and kitchen cabinets.
Here’s how our kitchen cabinets were extended all the way to the ceiling and disguised the extension with a little molding.
And here are a few ways to add architectural details to your home.
In amazing news?
Guess what?
Your house is already amazing.
It’s yours after all.
These are just some simple and creative ideas to stretch the budget to make your projects even more affordable.
And now?
Happy spring(and may it be full of projects). PS You can see tons more ideas on my Pinterest projects page here.
PS Do you have any ideas or updates you’ve done to make your home look more expensive? I’d love to discuss in the comments.
disclosure: affiliate links are used in this post.
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