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| Nate Berkus' apartment in NYC. I love his style. |
I�ve been thinking about how our home can look ultra-luxe on not much money. I�m not about to go out and spend up large on new items, besides, the types of interiors I admire most are the ones where a lot of creativity, imagination and effort has gone into the design, rather than just oodles of cash.
Here are a few things I thought of that create an aura of luxury and old-world glamour. Some are my d�cor preferences so may not suit you and some are more general.
Neutral tones and a muted colour palette - black/charcoal, cream/white, beige, ochre, gilt, oiled wood, maybe a dash of rich red. Different textures in similar colours. Mirrored surfaces/glossy paint.
Small amounts of expensive fabrics (otherwise known as remnants and end of rolls) made into cushion covers, foot-stool covers, fabric coasters, and place-mats and cloth napkins for the dinner table
Group together candles and pretty candle holders. Also group pictures, cushions/pillows, books for an interior designer touch.
Have large scale pieces of furniture � better one big sofa than little bitty bits.
Be clean and tidy. Even a home that�s had a lot of money spent on it can look terrible if it�s messy and dirty. You will notice that the most luxurious looking homes are clutter-free, that�s why they look so good. In our own homes, and I�m definitely guilty of this, things get put into all sorts of spaces. You stop noticing them after a while but they are still there, looking non-designery. Take a photo of each room, those items stand out then.
Place a premium on �spareness�, don�t take up every single space with something (Nate�s apartment in the picture on this post is a good example). Don�t overfill rooms, let the items that you do have in there shine. This is what home stagers do when they want to make a house more appealing for sale. They literally remove half the items in each room. I love browsing staged homes, they are so inspiring!
Decorate with things you love and that are �you�. If you love, love, love everything in your home, then no matter how disparate the items may seem, they all meld together and create your style.
Have lamps as well as overhead lighting. They don�t need to be expensive. I found a one I love at the Salvation Army for less than $20 (see photo below). And the cabinet it sits on was $35 at a Hospice shop. It�s solid timber and old, and has pen marks on the shelves inside like it held art or workshop supplies. It has our DVDs inside now.
Do the classic high-low mix. Our sofas we saved up and paid a fortune for and they were made for us from French fabric by a local furniture manufacturer. We will have these for decades if not longer. And I love having them next to the $35 cabinet! Now I know �a fortune� is not �a tiny budget� but we saved for over ten years for our sofas and before that we had old sofas that were well past their use-by date but we kept them nice, rotated the cushions, spot-cleaned when necessary and vacuumed with the upholstery attachment regularly. We do this with our fancy sofas now too. It will keep them looking newer longer plus it helped us be happy with our old sofas as we saved up.
White feels very luxurious to me. I have white plates and bowls, white sheets and always buy white toilet paper (just say no to 'fun prints'!).
Have something growing or fresh inside. Many of you love cut flowers, you can buy or pick them from your garden. For me I love an orchid plant to look luxe, and I especially love the look and feel of a lush fern inside. Unfortunately mine don�t last long but maybe it�s time to try again. Maidenhair ferns are my absolute favourite. Terrariums are attractive, although expensive to buy. A bowl of fruit looks great too. I don�t personally do this but I�ve seen tables in magazines with a bowl or tall glass receptacle filled with lemons or oranges.
So that�s my �designer d�cor on a pauper�s budget�. Are you as fascinated by this topic as I am? What are your favourite tips?