For luxury and elegance, homeowners often have to shell out for professional help finding the latest trends and big-ticket items. But what if you want your home to look expensive, but you can’t break the bank?
According to an interior designer to the stars, there are still ways to communicate luxury via your own personal taste.
“Anyone with money can walk into a B&B Italia and spend $1 million on furniture and have it look like a B&B Italia showroom,” said Julian Buckner, who founded the Los Angeles-based staging, interior design, and furniture sales company Vesta Homes in 2018. “Taste is knowing when to put in the ultra-modern leather casino sofa and then marry it with some vintage nightstand that you found at the design mart in Texas.”
Buckner, who has worked with clients like LeBron James, Travis Scott, and Jonah Hill, said the average home he stages is worth about $6 million. But his advice applies regardless of price point. Below, he shares his tips for how people can make their homes feel more luxurious without the hefty price tag.
Bring a personal touch to your decorating.
Bringing something unique and unexpected into a room as decoration shows a level of thought that conveys luxury unlike anything else, Buckner said.
“Those small knickknacks or found items may be the single biggest thing to add personality to a space,” he said. “I’ve seen those antique old wooden shoe horns, antique toys, plaster or marble busts, anything you just wanted to tie into the broader aesthetic.”
Just make sure not to get carried away.
“I see people go to HomeGoods and just buy a bunch of random knickknacks and put them on every shelf, and I think that cheapens it,” Buckner said.
“It’s like informal men’s dress wear,” he added. “There are a couple of areas you can express personality, and it’s maybe in your socks and your choice of a wristwatch. I think that same thing is true in luxury design, where it’s in those found items, those antiques, and ultimately the accessories; that’s a really unique opportunity to express yourself.”
Make furniture unique by having fun with different fabrics.
There are other subtle ways to show off your personality, too. Buckner said a great way to add a unique fixture to your home is to reupholster furniture.
“I think that the average consumer does not appreciate, does not understand, or does not even know that reupholstering is an option,” he said. “You can take a relatively inexpensive sofa and for not a ton of money, reupholster it in a really unique fabric that ties into the rest of the home, and that can absolutely make a space.”
Try not to have everything match.
While having a theme to a room is fine, Buckner said having things too “matchy-matchy” is no longer in style.
“You can see that with the emergence and the popularity of a company like a Restoration Hardware, this more monotone type of furniture and people buying full rooms together and having everything matchy-matchy,” Buckner said. “We’re seeing a shift away from that and a real focus on curation — on things not matching.”
Sometimes, things clashing can actually make a room more interesting.
“I think when things don’t match, when there’s a little bit of dissonance in the design, that’s an area — when it’s done tastefully, not tons of different fabrics and colors and textures everywhere — to make you stop and think, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,'” he said. “We’re starting to see a lot more of that.”
Window treatments are the most important and easiest fixes for your home.
Buckner’s No. 1 fix for adding style to your home is adjusting your window treatments.
“Window treatments, I think, are often massively overlooked, and it’s a very inexpensive way to make a space feel very high-end,” he said. “Whether the curtains are too heavy, they’re poorly positioned, or the rods look cheap, there’s such an opportunity there in fabric and layering on the window treatment side that I think can add a ton to a room.”
Trendy isn’t always better.
It’s hard not to be inspired when you see a celebrity’s home with a special lamp or a certain style of couch (Buckner said Bouclé has had its moment), but it’s often better to stay away from popular trends.
While Buckner’s high-end clients change their homes around every three to five years, trying to keep up with trends isn’t cost-effective for the average consumer. It’s more important to find pieces that you like first.
“I would stay away from trends and focus on timeless design and products that you actually love. Spend the time on putting that together, whether it’s something you found in a unique place, or has a story behind it, or something that resonates,” Buckner said.
“When it’s thoughtfully done, it really conveys the highest level of taste.”
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