Create a Gorgeous Luxury Home on a Budget

If there is one [albeit unimportant] thing I am passionate about, it is home decor. In fact, over the years I’d say I’ve become an interior design enthusiast. I can’t tell you how often I am asked if I’m a stylist or an interior designer. When my answer is a laughable, “No!,” I often hear, “Well, you should be…” But beyond my love for interior styling, I must confess, I am a sucker for a great bargain. I want our home to be filled with luxurious fabrics, scrumptious textiles, and beautiful textural pieces. But I want them at an affordable price point. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, keep reading. I have some amazing tips for you today on how to create a luxury home on a budget!

A back story about making the most of your situation

A long time ago, in a land far far away, when we were first married, our decorating budget was….let’s say limited. By limited I mean non-existent. Imagine with me if you will a tiny 600 square foot apartment in not the greatest area of town. The bathroom tile was from the 1960s and was mint green. Peach was a trending color of the decade and we tried our best to mix the mint green with peach and make it work. Sigh.

Our sofa was a hand-me-down. It was brown plaid from the 1980’s and had three legs. That’s right. Three legs. We propped up that last missing leg with books and hoped no one sat down too aggressively or the sofa might just slide right off. We covered it with a quilt or a blanket or anything we could find to try and disguise that hideous plaid mess.

Our television, or rather televisions, were also hand-me-downs. This is where the creativity started to really flow. We had a larger color TV with no sound, and a smaller black and white tv, also missing a leg, with sound. So we stacked the smaller onto of the larger and made it work. We didn’t have a remote, and only had three channels. When we wanted to watch television, we tuned in the color TV for viewing, and tuned in the black and white for sound. It was spectacular to say the least. But given our living room was only 10 x 8, it really wasn’t a problem.

Then there were our end tables. HA! We didn’t have end tables. We had moving boxes we turned on end and covered with fabric used as a table cloth. These were special times, friend. Special times… But we were young and in love, and we were willing to make the best of any situation simply to be together.

Choose the best quality you can afford

We’ve come a long way since those days and I’ve decorated my fair share of houses. I’ve learned a lot along the way, and made my fair share of decorating mistakes. That is why my first suggestion when creating any home, especially a luxury home on a budget, is to choose the best quality you can afford. As we began to upgrade our starter apartment second hand finds, our budget was still very small. I specifically remember purchasing throw pillows at Walmart for less than ten dollars each. At the time, that was a splurge, but we carefully chose the best option our money could buy.

A few years later, after our budget grew and the size of our home grew, I had a dear friend give me some life-changing advice. She was a brilliant seamstress and was such a mentor in the ways of homemaking. She advised me to purchase pillows that had feather inserts and zippered covers. Then, I could switch out the covers and have better quality inserts as well.

As I priced feather or down inserts, I realized they come with a pretty price tag. However, with a little treasure hunting and a bit of searching places like HomeGoods and TJMaxx, I could find great quality pillows with down inserts at a fraction of the cost. Even if I didn’t like the pillow cover, the insert alone was worth the $12 or $15 I paid for it. Swapping out the cover was the easy part.

When we buy the best quality we can afford, that is when we begin to elevate our homes and create a luxury home, even when working on a budget.

Choose quality materials over fast fashion home decor

Next, if you are looking to elevate the look of your home, choose quality materials. There are so many amazing products on the market these days, but many of them are what I consider the fast fashion of the design world. Like sofa pillows and throw blankets, you can choose the least expensive or you can hold out for better quality when it goes on sale. Always wait for the quality item. It will last longer and cost you less in the long run.

A few quality products I’m loving right now are travertine, marble, natural materials, velvet, leather, and suede. These products just project a feeling of luxury. Whether you have a travertine console table, marble coffee table, onyx book ends, or leather pillows or curtains, these materials always convey something a little more luxurious.

What if your budget doesn’t afford a travertine or marble table? How do you make it work if you can’t afford the leather sofa from Pottery Barn? Working in quality materials, even in small statements, will elevate your home and help you create a luxury home on a budget.

Here are some examples of how we worked in a few luxury materials into our small home:

Choose the best scale and proportions for your home

While I love to peruse the RH catalog and dream of fifteen foot book cases and twelve foot mirrors, that large scale simply doesn’t work for everyone. So my final suggestion when creating a luxury home on a budget, is to find your inspiration, and then scale it proportionally to fit your home.

Remember to go as large as proportionally appropriate, but don’t overpower your space. In that same vein, don’t fill your home with too many small trinkets as they can make your space feel cluttered. The one exception that seems to work for us is to keep smaller items corralled into a bookcase. I’ll leave a link for that article below in the reference section.

Buy the biggest rug your space can accommodate, scale your artwork to fit the proportion of your wall (both width and height), opt for the largest lamps your space can afford to offer you the best quality lighting – and by all means, get dimmable lighting if at all possible!

Creating a gorgeous luxurious is possible, even on a budget.

Try these ideas and please let me know how your home feels. Leave a reply and let me know your favorite ways of creating a luxurious space on a budget. I can’t wait to hear from you!

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