Home Interior Design Tips: Luxury Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

Want to create a luxurious feel in your home but don’t have the budget for expensive items? It’s possible to create beautiful interior spaces on a budget. Discover my top tips for cheap home interior styling that makes the most of your design dollar.

Make Use of Your Existing Items

The best way to re-decorate a room on a budget is to not spend money on new pieces at all. You may feel like all your existing items are tired and old, but take a step back and try to reimagine them in a new context or different formation.

Often, you are likely to already own many nice things that can look stylish with a little bit of tweaking. Considering reupholstering older furniture; the frames will still be perfectly good even when the fabric is worn. Cabinets and drawers can be completely transformed with minimal work and expense – paint them a fresh colour and add new interesting knobs.

Visit Auction Houses

If you’re intimidated by the expensive price tags at high street furniture stores, make a trip to your local auction house instead. They often have sales and they’re a great place to pick up unique and interesting pieces for less. Even better if you have a creative imagination and can think about how antique and mid-century pieces could be reimagined with some minor changes.

Shop Second Hand

Often, it’s the quirky and out-of-left-field pieces that really make a design special. One of the best ways to find these different items is to shop second hand. Vintage stores, op-shops, and even online second hand sites are great places to find furniture and accessories, and for a fraction of the price of buying new. Sometimes you can even find a piece that it out of your price range for a much cheaper price – just search for the specific name of the item on places like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.

Save Your Budget for Statement Pieces

You don’t need to fill your home with designer and luxury items for it to feel expensive. Instead, save your design budget and splash out on just one or two statement pieces, which can become the hero of a space and create a glamorous focal point. Spending big on just one thing in a room – such as a beautiful dining table or an incredible piece of artwork – will instantly elevate all the items around it.

Create Space in your Layout

You don’t need to spend money on heaps of expensive items to make a room luxurious – in fact, often less is more. Consider the layout of your rooms and create the illusion of space by rearranging furniture and thinking about placement of art and other accessories. Giving your furniture some room to breathe by moving it away from the walls will instantly make your space seem more lavish. Think about the flow of the room and the way people can move into and through it. Choose a statement piece as a focal point and keep the design around this minimal.

Hang Artwork Together

Artwork can add personality and colour to an interior space, but art can also take up a big portion of your design budget. A smart way to make the most of your existing artwork is to hang multiple pieces together in a gallery wall style, rather than scattering them around the room. This instantly elevates cheaper or simpler pieces of art and will create a statement focal point on the wall. It also means you can easily add new art as you purchase it.

Consider Repainting

Paint is a fast way to completely transform a space, and it doesn’t need to cost a lot. If you feel like your interiors are looking tired and uninspiring, consider a new bold colour. A feature wall can instantly add interest to a room. You can even experiment with paint to highlight certain areas of a space, such as a strip of block colour around a study nook or to highlight a hallway.

Grow your own Plants

Love the look of big houseplants but concerned about the cost? One of the great things about plants is that they are living things and they will grow larger all on their own if you give them a bit of attention! Small plants and seeds are cheap and will eventually pay off with that impressive statement Montserrat that you’re looking for. You can even ask friends if you can propagate cuttings from their plants. If you’re starting off with a collection of smaller plants, grouping them together will look more stylish than placing them around a room.

Choose Cheap Staples

Some household items are simply required within your space, such as kitchen and laundry accessories. Don’t bother trying to find fancy or special versions of these sorts of things. Inexpensive versions from large chain stores will achieve the same result and usually come in a neutral colour palette that won’t clash with your design aesthetic.