To understand what gives any home a look of class, exclusiveness, and wealth, there is a need to embark on a short but important history lesson. Before the industrial revolution, there was only one way to stand out of the crowd – hire renowned artisans who plied their expertise. It was a long and expensive process.
Today, with automation and mass production, artisans are relegated to the bin of history, yet the lessons from these perennial masters still remain. Intricate designs, infusion of noble metals like gold and silver, all implemented so as to mimic the past era in order to invoke a sense of wealth in the mind of a guest.
The question is, can you invoke the same impression with a tight budget?
Avoid Spatial Incoherence
Having mismatched colours all over the place is a sure way to demonstrate low class. Fortunately, this is also the easiest and cheapest issue to rectify. If you intend to retain all the furniture, try to at least change the holstering in order to match other elements in the room. Specifically; walls, chairs, couch, couch pillows, carpet, and curtains.
A golden rule of interior design is to not have more than 3 complementing colours; everything else is up to you, and you can easily find out which colours best complement each other with a cursory online perusing. Consider this step a necessary foundation for all other embellishments.
Furnish the Walls
This can be done in 3 ways; painted motif (which requires a skilled room painter), hanging pictures with consistent-styled frames, and applying mould patterns on the edges of wall surfaces. Regarding framed pictures, it is no longer necessary to be obscenely rich in order to have classy art adorning your walls.
In fact, this may be the cheapest way to hide the barrenness of walls. Simply look for images on Etsy that you like and think would fit nicely within the space, buy the digital print and have them printed and framed by hiring a printing service. They are dime a dozen, offering any kind of frame you need (or even frameless) while the price of printing itself is negligible.
That being said, 2-3 pictures per wall should suffice. Don’t overdo it.
Learn by Doing
If you see some room arrangement online that immediately syncs with your sensibilities, don’t be afraid to replicate it in its entirety. The trick is, you won’t be able to replicate it to the last detail, while at the same time the process of trying to replicate it will teach you a lot. In the end, you will likely end up with a satisfying décor that has its own uniqueness even if you set out to replicate someone else’s theme.
Avoid Plastics
Plastic may be sturdy and convenient to clean but it will plummet the looks of a space. Instead, try to have wooden or wood imitations with glossy metallic touches. Once you set yourself with these criteria, you will be surprised to find for how cheap you can get very classy looking furniture – from mirrors, to tables and chairs. After all, you have come a long way in alloys and metallurgy from the olden days of infusing something with raw gold and silver.
Lighting
Lighting may end up being the most important piece of the classy puzzle. When switched on, lighting becomes the focal point of a space, but even when inert, lighting fixtures on their own can have a great impact on the entire room. Notably, take a gander at the selection from Lampwise to see what your budgeting options are, and how much of a compromise you are willing to make. In particular, if you have a larger room, try chandeliers lights, or even better, patterned wall lights.
Takeaway
What comes off as luxurious is something that is well organised, selected with care, and complements other elements of the space in both style and colour. Once you understand this, the implementation will come easy.