Hi there (again)!
We are PorchLight Home Staging popping on to welcome you back to our blog. The way this blog thing works is that on the first Friday of every month, we will celebrate the much needed weekend by releasing our monthly blog. In these short but sweet articles, we will mesh the world of home staging (our forte) with current events and fashion trends. This month’s blog topic is all about making your space look more expensive without breaking the bank. Have you ever walked into a space and just gotten a feeling of class and organization? Well, that’s what we’re channeling this month. With summer just around the corner (thank goodness), it’s time to get your place in tip top shape to entertain some summer gatherings. We are going to focus on three super easy and important locations in your home where you’re going to want to add some “expensive” elements to: your bedroom, the dining room, and living room area. We want to preface that making your home look more expensive doesn’t need to cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to save you big bucks!
The Bedroom
Like we have said time and time again, the bedroom is one of the most important spaces in your house because it provides a calm oasis after a long day, or at least it should. Oftentimes, people forget about how important decorating a bedroom is just because it isn’t the most frequented room. I’m going to challenge you to change that thought process, and rather make more of an effort to decorate this room for you. Our first tip we have for elevating your bedroom has to do with soft goods. Soft goods are going to be your pillows, duvet cover, and any other bedding. The rule of thumb when designing your bed is to have 2-3 varying colors present. Then, you want to break those colors up with neutrals. Another tip for making your room look more expensive has to do with your electronics. We have all been there… you set up a tv or wifi router and then are baffled with how to cover up the bulky power chords. Some ways to fix this are purchasing chord covers (found at almost all hardware stores or Amazon). You could also place a plant or basket that can cover up chords wound together on the ground. Either way, hiding those power chords will definitely avoid a “cluttered” look and make your space look rather dashing! Here are some examples of what we are talking about below.
Pictures Courtesy of Architectural Digest, Wayfair, and West Elm
The Dining Room
Ah, the room most of us only use three times out of the year… No matter how many times you’re in this space, the dining room is undeniably the best room to look the most expensive. Dining rooms are a place for special gatherings and celebrations, so why should it look ordinary? The biggest mistake we have seen when decorating your dining area is the use of matching dining sets. This makes the room look very heavy and rather bland. We want to encourage juxtaposition aka mix of textures and colors. If you love the look of a dark mahogany table and chairs, that’s fine, but add a pop of color in the chair cushions. Gwyneth Paltrow’s dining area portrays just what we are harping on. Another addition that dresses up this formal space are wireless art lights. This is such an easy way add a moody and sophisticated element to this room. When the main lights are dimmed and the wall print are lit up, you emulate the formality of a museum. Don’t be intimidated by this idea either, Amazon as well as Wayfair sell very affordable, wireless options, so you can test it out and see how you like it. I guarantee it will be a hit though! See just how these two tips really change a dining area below.
Pictures Courtesy of Architectural Digest, and Wayfair
The Living/family room
Count me in to relax and spend my most day in the room with a bid comfy couch and a TV. For most people, this would be considered their living room or family room space. We believe that the room which gets the most “lived in” deserves to look just as chic as the other rooms mentioned. If you have large shelving units that are big attention grabbers of the room, this first tip is for you. Decorating shelves can seem like a daunting task because of how front and center the pieces are on display, but we want to alleviate some of that design stress for you. A good rule of thumb is to place objects on the shelves according to the “1 or 2/3” rule (that’s what I’ve coined it). This is the idea that when decorating your shelves, you should start with a 1 big object maybe a bowl or luscious plant on the top shelf and then as you move to the second shelf, pick two to three smaller objects. For example, you could stack some books and a picture frame. Then, the third shelf should hold another bigger item (just 1), and so on and so forth. It’s all about balancing and varying how you style every shelf in a rhythm. Next, we want to play into any standing greenery you may have in corners of your living room. Adding a soft (hidden) light to the basket the plant is in, gives off a really elegant and warm feeling to the room. Tasteful lights added almost anywhere to a space really elevate it, and we don’t usually make a blanket statement like that. Lastly, a really simple addition to your space that will make it look ten times more organized and expensive is a decorative box for your remotes. This way, your remotes are all in one place (and not lost under the couch cushion), and they are hidden from guests.
Pictures Courtesy of Architectural Digest, Wayfair, and Bless’er House
Save That $$$
After reading this article, we hope to have given you some good tips and tricks for decorating your space in a more sophisticated way. Design changes can get very expensive, but we want you to know that they don’t have to be that way! These tips renter friendly and cost affective. So, don’t be afraid to DIY a few things, no one has to know (: