This content provides practical design principles to make a home appear luxurious and expensive, focusing on aesthetic choices rather than actual cost or size. The underlying philosophy emphasizes creating a sense of value through craftsmanship, timelessness, and thoughtful curation.
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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 bin your Ikea 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 looking 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 while 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 it so angular.
If you're not ready to splash out on a piece of curvy furniture,
maybe you can incorporate round decor pieces instead.
An oval-shaped rug here and there, a cushion that looks like a ball.
For a home that feels luxurious, expensive and timeless, you want to focus on filling it with
materials that age and patina beautifully, and that have been around for centuries.
So these could be things like natural stone, metal that patina, 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 screams 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 skip 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 floor-to-ceiling is your friend.
Now you've done hard work, 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, wow 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 photos around, like you feel like you're an intruder on someone else's space.
if you have artwork that's a little bit more abstract or photos that's like less 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 roll call.
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 towering 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 calls 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 intentional 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 wall 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. Mismatched 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 soulless. 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 trickets?
Probably not.
Instead, they feature bold vases oversized sculptures
dramatic lamps
larger items feel substantial and chosen with purpose,
while small decor lacks impact and makes spaces feel really really crowded.
I mean it's a rule 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 clutter 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 hallmark 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 marke,t where every single
trinket 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 like 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 aesop 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 glass or neutral tone dispensers, they still work but now they look good as well.
Stash wires, toiletries, snacks into 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 walls 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 walls, 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 apartment... 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 create 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. Of 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 subscribe! Byeeeee [Music]
