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How can I make my lounge look expensive? While you will probably have to put some money behind this endeavour, the keyword here is to make it look expensive, rather than spending enough cash on the interior that your home insurance premium starts to look like that of your first car if your first car was a bit tasty and the insurance people considered you a bit not that good of a driver.
There are a few ways to make your lounge look classy/chic/plush without overstepping into either bankruptcy or ostentation, and I will share a few of them within this article.
How can I make my lounge look expensive but not trashy?
So, how can I make my lounge look expensive…. But not trashy? Most of us know that “expensive” and “classy” don’t always go hand in hand. You can make your lounge look expensive without spending a massive fortune if you know what you’re doing; and you can also spend a massive fortune (should you happen to have access to one) and end up with a lounge that looks like a cross between Trump Towers and the palace of a third world dictatorship’s leader if you don’t.
There are four corners to this for me, and the first of them is to make it unique. If you emulate the set from a local furniture store/page of interior design magazine/screenshot of the Ikea catalogue, you might end up with a good look, but it’s going to be so formulaic as to look mundane rather than moneyed.
You can absolutely buy yourself flatpack furniture and off-the-shelf cushions and so on, but make sure there’s some personality in it too. Shopping for second hand goods, antique/vintage items, and homemade goods all have a part to play here.
Secondly, make it tactile. For obvious reasons, you might not want all and sundry that visit petting your cushions, carpets, and blinds or curtains because Dirty Hands, but the interplay of textures that are tactile and appealing (silks, fake furs, soft floofy stuff, polished surfaces; things that draw the hand as well as the eye) all combine to make a room look and feel plush.
Thirdly… Say, do you know what doesn’t make a lounge look expensive? Dirt. Pet hair. Grime. Stains. Yep, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you want to make your lounge look expensive, your lounge has to be at least passably clean. Get the marigolds on (or hire someone if you actually are rich), but either way, Keep Stuff Clean.
Also, there’s one non-visual tip I need to share that can really up your luxury-lounging game… If you know how. Can I make my lounge look expensive to someone even with their eyes closed? Yes! Say what, now!? By using the right room scents to give someone a mental visual of luxury. Whatever sort of smells you love and/or hate, you will probably know that smell is very evocative, and can trigger a very powerful feeling or mental picture.
Home scents of all types from plug-ins (ideally hidden) to reed diffusers to air fresheners to candles and so on should never be overpowering, but can absolutely be brought into play to add to the general aura of the room. Pick a scent or range of scents that when you shut your eyes, conjure up visuals of luxury, prestige, and the general goal you’re aiming for.
How can I make my living room look better?
How can I make my living room look better without totally redecorating it? If your lounge is more or less how you want it to be in all of the key ways and/or if you’ve already got a lot of nice stuff and just want to up your game, you may be wondering if there are any tweaks or minor changes you can make to improve it.
Step one is to cut the clutter. Unless your room already has a reasonable amount of clear space, you might want to think about paring down the number of knick-knacks and ornaments/pictures/even cushions and so on that you have there. There is such as thing as too many side tables and/or chairs too, in some cases.
Centre pictures or paintings on walls and ornaments or freestanding art within a blank space on the floor or table; there should be room around them to allow people to take them in without first watching them fight everything else nearby for relevance. This also forces you to put more thought into what stays and what goes, and clears up some space.
On which note, cables, cords, functional stuff; out of sight, friends. Use cable tidies, place them behind things, cut overly long leads to size; even for your phone, consider getting a charging dock or pad rather than having a cable permanently trailing off your coffee table.
When it comes to the art or bits and bobs you do have or get in future, try to stick to fewer but larger pieces; statement pieces, if you will. The impact of these is more distinctive and so, posh-looking or well-thought-out seeming than having lots of little oddments or pictures all over the place.
I also like a room to have some life in it; actual life I mean. If you can’t convince a fairly good-looking (but non-shedding, as per the above section) local cat to lounge around looking fancy for you, get some nice green plants (again, fewer and larger works for me, and in nice pots or whatever) and/or fresh cut flowers.
How can I make my living room look rich?
How can I make my living room look rich, and what’s the difference between this and making the lounge look expensive?
For me, what I think of when people specifically want to know how to make the living room look rich, is how to make the room look and feel warm, and comfortable but select, and elegant without being overly stiff and formal.
The type of colours you use is integral here; pretty much everyone knows what constitutes “rich” colours, and any colour can be rich if you choose the right hue. For me, rich colours are always warm toned rather than cool, and the texture or tactile effect of the material as I mentioned earlier ties in with this too.
Soft furnishings, throws, and cushions all add to this, as does carpet rather than hard flooring; or rugs on hard flooring for the best of both worlds.
Upgrading your window dressings is one of the most effective ways to make a living room look rich too. Curtains can look a little tired or dated, and some types of blinds are a little too plain or one-dimensional to offer the kind of visual intrigue that I think of as being “rich.”
I would suggest that premium Roman blinds are the best way to make a living room look rich when it comes to the windows and walls, as these take up such a large chunk of the wall when they’re closed, while also remaining visible and visually interesting when open too.
My final words of wisdom on how to make a living room look rich and/or classy, is to make the focal point of it something other that the TV screen. I’m not saying not to have a TV, and a massive and fantastic quality one will certainly support the whole endeavour too; but try to make the focal point something else, even if your chairs all turn to the TV when you’re in them.
Like what? A great view, a stunning fish tank, a piece of art… Whatever you think works.
If you have a tip to share on how to make your living room look expensive or if you’ve recently revamped your living room and want to show it off, please feel free to send me some pics, and I might include them in a future blog post. Drop me an email or shout out in the comments.
