1. Decorate with second-hand, vintage, and antique pieces
Long gone are the days when high-end furniture and home decor were the only ways to make a space look chic. Take a pass on the high price point for your living room furnishings and opt to deck out your space with second-hand, vintage, and antique pieces.
2. Skip mass-produced pieces and be unique
This one may be a tad bit trickier to achieve given that some of our favourite budget-friendly homeware brands release pieces we all love and want to get our hands on! But when your home isn't furnished with the same decor everyone else is using, it almost alludes to the idea that everything is a bit more luxurious, if you will.
3. Never underestimate the power of art
If you've got bare walls in your living room, they're probably one of the key factors as to why your space may feel empty. 'Adding colour, texture, and height is one of the best ways to change the mood and feeling of a room', notes Harriet Pringle.
4. Add panelling to your walls
If you're looking to elevate your space and make it look more expensive, it's wise to consider touching on the architectural features of your home. When utilised correctly, living room wall panelling ideas can add immediate value to your space, creating depth and interest in what was once old, plain squares.
5. Play with textures
Textures play a huge role in making something look and feel luxurious. Consider adding interest to your space by pairing your more antique pieces with modern furniture to create contrast, adding metallic luxe, taking risks with patterns, and mixing and matching different kinds of textiles. Textures can even be brought in via furnishings such as surface finishes, curtains, and cushions.
6. Pay attention to details in textiles
Following on from our previous tip to make your living room look more expensive by playing with texture, we encourage the practice of paying extra attention to the details within your assortment of textiles.
7. Switch off your 'big light' and perfect your lighting
Lighting can have a big impact on a space, adding warmth and dimension. Setting the tone and atmosphere in a space is integral to the vibe that others will feel when occupying the space - and given that your living room will likely be where you host guests, ensuring you create the perfect mood ranks pretty high in importance when considering living room lighting ideas.
8. Hone in on colour schemes
Colour plays a huge role in determining how we feel within the environment around us, so if even we ourselves are feeling unimpressed by the four walls in our space, how much more are our visitors? This is why we ought to carefully consider living room colour schemes before rushing into one.
9. Make a statement with stone interiors
Stone interiors are a foolproof way to elevate any space - from stone fireplace ideas to the addition of a statement coffee table (while you're at it, it pays to know how to style a coffee table).
10. Ditch the handles to create a seamless finish
'Modern handleless furniture has proven extremely popular, especially as the design needs to cater to open-plan living that requires a more 'lived-in' feel and blurs the boundaries between the kitchen, living, and dining areas', says Simon Bodsworth, managing director at Daval.
What makes a space look luxurious?
'When you think of luxury, a lot of us think about an experience, so identifying an area for entertaining guests, such as an open plan and beautiful dining space accessorised with textured glassware, floral centrepieces, and quality cutlery will help to identify the space as more lavish and aspirational,' states Elaine Penhaul at Lemon & Lime Interiors.
What colours make a home look expensive?
'Plum is a violet hue and violet is the most complex and interesting colour in the spectrum. It's associated with creative problem-solving, dreaming, and mysticism. It was also once the most expensive colour to produce, so only royalty and people of the highest status could afford to have it', advises Marianne Shillingford, creative director at Dulux.
What makes interior look cheap?
Harriet Pringle at Narchie warns us that 'a cluttered space can always make a room feel chaotic. Invest in great storage pieces that are functional but also decorative in their own right, so you don't have to compromise on style.'