10 Hacks To Make Your Home Look More Expensive

I’m going to be sharing with you some simple tricks to make your home look a little more upscale and expensive. I’m a big-time homebody and I like spending time at home, so I love finding little ways to make my home feel even more comfy and luxurious.  I think sometimes we think the only way to have a luxe looking home is with a luxe budget but the truth is you can make some little tweaks and changes you can make to your own home that make it feel more high-end, without spending tons of money.

Packaging

The first hack I really love is to remove packaging from your home. We all have different brand packaging around our home. Things like cleaning supplies, cooking supplies, hand soaps, etc. A simple upgrade is to swap this out for brand-free bottles and sprays. 

I have these amber bottles I got on Amazon and I swapped out the cleaning supplies I always keep on my sink for this neutral set and it’s such a simple easy swap that just makes the room look a little nicer. 

Instead of the bright bold packaging companies use for marketing busy-ing up the room, you have a clean, cohesive set. Another place this idea would be great is the bathroom. Swap out your hand soaps for a neutral bottle. This also works great in pantries as well, you can swap out the endless bags and boxes for some more cohesive and matching bin and storage containers.

Labels for spices and dry goods

Another place you can upgrade by using a cohesive pattern is your spices. Spices always tend to look a hot mess because they are all different sized and shaped and colored bottles and if you cook a lot you need a good handful of spice.

I bought this set of mini glass bottles that actually came with labels and with just a quick switch the spices now look a lot more cohesive and clean. This was such a simple switch and I can’t tell you how much of a difference it made.  

Now next time someone comes over and cooks in your kitchen they are gonna see those spices and be like WOW. Wow, Kallie has it together, look at her spices. And, who doesn’t want to impress hypothetical visitors with their organized spices?  

I’m kidding, don’t organize your spices for hypothetical visitors, do it for YOU. Trust me, you deserve it.  This project legit brought me so much joy.

Reduce clutter

Ok, a big culprit to why your home may look less upscale is clutter. Now I’m not preaching minimalism here, not that there is anything wrong with minimalism. But just I’m not personally a minimalist.  I have books and artwork and STUFF in my home and yes Marie whatever her name is it does brings me joy. 

But, the key isn’t not having anything, because for most people going fully minimalist is really hard, but it’s just about keeping it tidy and well organized. You could walk into the SAME house but if one was tidy and clutter free and the other had piles of stuff and excess items on the tables, it would feel less expensive and nice, even if the two houses were IDENTICAL. It’s just about making sure all the things you own have a place they belong so you can easily put them away. It’s about not keeping piles of clutter out and actively working to put things away or get them where they need to go.

Switch out hardware

Moving right along another great way to make a big difference is to switch out the hardware on cabinets and furniture. This is especially great for less expensive furniture to make it feel more high-end. An example is in my daughter’s nursery we have this IKEA dresser and instead of going for the standard knobs which were fine but definitely made it feel less luxe, I swapped out some leather door pulls for just about $25. It’s a huge upgrade to this dresser for not a lot of money. 

Hide Your Thermostat

Another great tip for making your home look more expensive is for when you have any ugly thermostats or electrical boxes. Sometimes houses have things like this in very inconvenient places. Depending on the cost or if you’re renting, you can’t always just move them. 

I’ve found you can get creative with how you cover these. In our last rental house, we had a big ugly thermostat on the wall right when you walked in the house, and a simple way I fixed it was I just hung a hat over it and made it into a gallery wall. I know it’s just a small simple thing, but it immediately made our entryway feel finished instead of looking at this big ugly thermostat when you first walked in. 

Bring in fresh florals/plants

Next, a really simple way to make your home feel more expensive is to bring in living plants. Either bouquets of flowers, I like just getting honestly whatever bouquet is on sale that week at my local grocery store. Or, bring in some houseplants. 

Now guys let me tell you I’m NO green thumb. I kill a lot of plants and can’t keep a garden to save my life. But, I’ve found a few very simple, low-maintenance house plants even I can handle, and if I can handle it you can too. Do a little googling to find the right house plants for you. I typically search for low-maintenance house plants and then look into ones that will do well in my home. For example, if the room gets low light or lots of good natural light etc. A few of my favorites are snake plants, pohtos, and spider plants.

Also on that note, upgrade your houseplants into nicer pots. You don’t even need to get anything expensive, I have some pots I got for $10 at Ocean State Job Lot and then some more expensive ones, and honestly, you can’t even tell the difference sometimes. Just don’t leave them in the cheap plastic bins they came in or you’ll defeat the purpose of them

Take a photo of the space and look at it

One of my favorite little tricks for making your space look better is to step back and take a photo of the space. So often when we live in a space we sometimes become kind of blind to things. We become clutter blind to excess clutter or we don’t notice the old outdated decor. So, step back and take some photos of your space. 

Then sit down and look at these photos. Often certain things will jump right out to you as not looking as good. And, if you need some help, send the photos to a good friend or two and ask them if they could change ONE thing in that space to make it look better what would it be. Or, another great way to phrase the question is if you could keep one thing in this room and get rid of one thing in this room, what would those things be and why?

Save Up For The Nicer Purchase

My next little trick is to stop stocking up on little budget items for your home and instead put it away from a bigger nice purchase. This is a mistake I used to make all the time. I would buy a lot of smaller items for my home. A new throw rug, some new pillows, a home decor accent, a different side table because it was on sale. These were purchases I felt comfortable with because they weren’t too expensive and I thought these little things could make a difference to my home’s appearance. 

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes just a few small items can make a difference in a space, but often all these little purchases just end up making my space more cluttered, and they don’t always match in a cohesive way because I’m buying more on price point or because it’s in the clearance section than on buying it for the style of my home, or because I actually NEED it in my space. 

So my thought now is I tend to avoid these little purchases of getting things because they are on sale or a really good deal and just put that money away. That way when I see something I really need or would really look perfect in my space, I can purchase it even if it’s not in the clearance section.

Fold Fancy

My last little trick is to fold things in your home better. Anytime you’re anywhere high-end, like a nice clothing store or a fancy hotel, things are folded nice. The towels in your home are probably folded like the average house towel. But if you fold them like spa towels instead, suddenly it makes you feel like you’re at the pool of a nice resort. I learn a ton of my folding tricks from Melissa Pater on TikTok, she’s hilarious and also her folding is really good. 

Make sure you watch the video that goes along with this post to see how I fold my towels and clothing to give my home a more luxurious look. 

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I'm Kallie!

Nothing happens around here before coffee, so pour a cup and join me. Here you’ll find life hacks, budgeting, simple DIYs, and honest motherhood.
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Hey there, I’m

Nothing happens around here before coffee, so pour a cup and join me. Here you’ll find life hacks, budgeting, simple DIYs, and honest motherhood.
New here?