12 Ways to Make Your Home Look Luxurious (Architect-Approved Tips)

in this video I'll be sharing design principles that help make your home look really luxurious and expensive no it has nothing to do with the price of your Decor or how big your house is so you don't have to stop bending your Ika Furniture just yet the tips I'm about to share come from a decade of architectural experience along with a very unhealthy obsession with interior design now you might be thinking who the hell cares how expensive it looks to which I'd say you do that's why you clicked on this video and it's perfectly okay

to admit this because this is a safe place my channel is all about making your home look really really nice if look expensive is what you want this is what we're going to work on out of these two living rooms which one do you think looks more expensive and luxurious probably you'll want to pick the one on the left one of the biggest difference between these two pictures is the shape of the furniture and decor pieces they have in the room this one has a lot of Curves whil as this one doesn't curves and organic

shapes somehow makes a room look and feel a lot more luxurious there are studies that shows curved objects actually activates parts of our brains that's associated with safety and comfort so we just find it more aesthetically pleasing and when we like something we value it a bit more curves generally are also a little bit harder to produce and for humans effort equals value it's like a lot of these like flat pack Furnitures we can see the joints are super obvious and you can see how it's easily made versus something where it just looks continuous and

smooth the more difficult it is to design and create the more it reflects craftsmanship and Artistry and these are things that make something seem a bit more scarce and luxurious so in your home if you have spaces that have curves and a piece of curvy furniture or Decor would fit in that space go for it if you have a room that's slightly round then put in a round dining table if you want to put a desk in the corner you don't have to make a so angry if you're not ready to Splash out on a

piece of curvy Furniture maybe you can incorporate round Decor pieces instead a oval-shaped rock here and there a cushion that looks like a bowl for a home that feels luxurious expensive and Timeless you want to focus on filling it with materials that age and petina beautifully and that have been around for centuries so these could be things like Natural Stone metal septina lots of different types of wood leather plaster or lime wash walls they looked really good in the past they look really good now they'll look really good and pleasing to us way in the

future too cheaper materials like laminate or plastic or vinyl don't age as well they Scruff they crack they need replacing and high quality materials are the opposite they look better over time developing patina and character we also value these materials because they're hard to get and difficult to imitate these Timeless high quality materials also feel very different to the touch they feel heavy weight feels expensive when you compare the weight of a plastic cup versus a crystal cup let's just pretend I have them in my hand right now you know that you're going to enjoy

using and touching the crystal one more because it's heavier it looks prettier and it's more difficult to make it's harder to get it's more valuable and if you fill your home with objects like this you know it's going to look and feel more luxurious one of the reasons builtins work so well is that they reduce visual clutter when things are clean and uninterrupted it makes your brain think the space is bigger than it is and everything just looks a little bit cleaner and more sophisticated built-ins also scream bespoke craftsmanship it screen scarcity and high effort

and as human beings we value this so much and that is something that seems really expensive to do even if you secretly DIY the thing over 7 weekends and 50 trips to the hardware store so if you do decide to invest in some built-ins for your home like don't SK G on scale if you have wardrobes run them along the entire wall take them up all the way to the ceiling I think one of the worst things you can do is just to have a tiny Gap left over between the ceiling and your built-in cupboards

because this looks accidental unless you live in a super old building and you have these beautiful architectural crown molding details that you shouldn't touch and you shouldn't hide so fled ceiling is your front now you've done hard workare don't skip on high quality hardware and nice finishes and materials so don't even think about having plastic handles and fake wood knobs go for like nice metallic finishes marble knobs nice brassy joints and Hardware to make a space look expensive choose furniture that doubles as a sculpture not every piece needs to be a work of art because

in the end you don't live in a museum you live in a home and you have to make it work it has to be practical but you can go for a couple of pieces that is not only functional but also super beautiful so think of you know a curvy chair a geometric coffee table or a lamp with Organic flowing shapes these designs draw attention because they're unexpected our brains naturally appreciate designs that break away from the ordinary it just stands out and makes you go huh I wonder what that is that's pretty nice W must

be expensive your family vacation isn't luxury Decor art ties a room together with balance Harmony and just enough mystery to keep things interesting photos while meaningful to the owner can be a little bit too personal you can keep a couple of them around and have a lot of them in your bedroom and study but in like dining room and living room maybe you shouldn't have too much of it that's why for example if you go into like an Airbnb I think it always feels a bit uncomfortable when you see too many personal fossils around like

you feel like you're Intruder on someone else's space if you have artwork that's a little bit more abstract or photos that's like less priv private the space feels a bit more open and a bit more Universal imagine walking into a room where every piece of artwork is the same size and neatly lined up like soldiers at rollal it looks functional but I think it does look a little bit too neat too manufactured and a bit boring now picture the same room with taring canvases anchoring different spaces small abstract paintings leaning casually on the shelf and

a few petite sketches sprinkled across the wall the room just feels a bit more Dynamic curated and dare I say expensive the reason this works because contrast of different sizes grabs our attention varying artwork sizes also tricks a brain into thinking the collection was built over time and not bought in one afternoon we appreciate spaces way more when we feel like someone was intentional and gave a lot of thought and effort into it because we value human creativity and effort evolutionary psychology cus this costly signaling effort plus exclusivity equals value this is beautifully Illustrated in

the scene in The Grand Budapest Hotel where a character is cutting through all sorts of packages to check for I don't know dangerous stuff but he comes across this one piece of package and it's a beautifully made cake and he hesitate and he just can't quite bring himself to cut through it because it's so beautifully and thoughtfully created and it just shows how we're hardwired to Value thoughtful deliberate work and the same principle applies to your home your art collection so make it vary in size make it look intens itional and make a look curated

in your home if you want to start populating your space with artwork of different sizes a good way to start is just to go big with some statement pieces invest in a couple of oversized pieces to dominate key areas like above a sofa or on large expansive empty wo in the living room and then you can start adding in like smaller pieces in other areas of your home to give it some contrast you can also play with Arrangements that are asymmetric and play with a composition before you set on something that you think looks quite

nice and if you're creating a gallery of wall art in any part of your home to keep it looking expensive and Chic make sure to frame it but resist the urge to get matching frames for everything even though you think it might look quite neat mismatch frames makes your display feel like a collection you've lovingly built over time and not something you panic bought at 10 p.m. this is exactly what professional designers do they shop for pieces that fit the space and let the frames complement the art rather than forcing everything into one size fits

all solution have you ever noticed the homes you find in design magazines or boutique hotels the furniture rarely matches and it doesn't look like it came from a single catalog matching furniture set while convenient does not Inspire and can look quite boring so don't be afraid in your home to pair modern furniture with old vintage pieces of course that needs to be balanced if everything you get is brand new and is matching then it looks soless but if you get everything that's really old then it looks like you are your grandma's and it feels bit

stuffy so mix and match the balance I think is kind of up to you that's a personal judgment call but the most important thing is not to fill a room with the same stuff from one product line try to make all the decor you see in your home larger than your head anything smaller than this size will look a little bit cluttered big pieces look deliberate and small pieces feel like filler think about the luxurious expensive hotels and designer homes do you ever see shelves packed with tiny tricket probably not in instead they feature bold

vases oversized sculptures dramatic lamps larger items feel substantial and chosen with purpose while small Decor lacks impact and makes bases feel really really crowded I mean it's a roll of thumb if you have a really large head then you can also like go a bit smaller than your head size and if you already have a lot of small decor items that you love and you just don't want to get rid of or hide group them together into like threes or something and put them on a tray this way when you look at it visually it

appears like one large item instead of multiple small ones this is quite a neat trick to use if you want to reduce a visual clut in your home and expensive places are not cluttered leave your open shelves half empty I think it's better to always look a little bit under decorated than over decorated negative space is a homark of luxury think about these luxurious shops or the Apple Store they have so much display space and they display so few items right it's a big difference between these types of places and a flea market where every

single shrinker is on show and it's just crowding out all of the breathing room from the display so when you want your space to feel more expensive in terms of Decor less is always more I mean let's talk about the flea market example again if you have a piece of furniture in a flea market crowded by everything else it looks like junk take that same piece of furniture put in a museum surrounded by space and immediately it becomes art very very pricey art so in your home break your own heart hide the stuff that you

really like but there's too much of look at your shelves when you think they look empty enough take off more items nothing functional and ugly should be on display messy everyday items bring too much reality into the space luxury life to keep things clean aspirational and to be honest painfully difficult to maintain in spaces like this you never see a countertop cluttered with toothpaste tubes and mismatched shampoo bottles instead you get Sleek asop dispensers glass jars and marble trays so perfectly styled you feel almost guilty touching them when you want your home to look expensive

you just have to suffer a little bit for it you're not trying to design space that's most practical you're trying to design space that looks dreamy and aspirational so if you want to achieve a sense of luxury in your space hide away all the ugly practical functional stuff you need transfer your soaps shampoos cleaning products into glov or neutral tone dispensers they still work but now they look good as well stashed wires toiletries snacks and cabinets or baskets I'm not saying that I would do all these things myself because they're definitely not practical and to

be honest if I tried I would be cleaning four times a day and wiping down the surfaces with my tears but this video is about making things look expensive not practical so let's just grab our $100 bills wipe our tears with it and move on to the next Point accent WS can be pretty cool and quite endearing but to be honest I don't think it feels very expensive or luxurious let me stop by saying I really get the appeal of accent wol they can be really bold fun and a great way of adding some personality

to your space without committing to every single surface and I used to have this in my old departments but at the end of the day they do feel a little bit more DIY than expensive luxurious design spaces expensive looking Interiors don't rely on a single wall to carry a room's personality they use cohesive textures colors and materials across the whole Space to great balance and depth so if you want your space to feel very expensive and well thought through do the dramatic thing commit to the whole room if you want to paint your walls one

color don't do just one room do the whole Space maybe even the ceiling if you want to put moldings don't just do it on one wall do across the entire surface at least in that one room if you found this video interesting you might want to check out this video which talks about how to make a Timeless home or this one which is about how to use psychology to create a really really Cozy home or any of the other videos that's also popping up on this side here thanks for being here and don't forget to

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