5 Simple Tips to Give Your Home a More Upscale Look

Want to make your house look like a custom home without spending a lot of money? Check out these 5 easy ways to make your house look more expensive.

Whether you want your bedroom to feel like a luxury hotel or just want to add some rich-looking details, there are lots of little ways you can make your house look more expensive than it is. Since I live in a builder grade home which was a boring square box when I moved in, I can tell you from experience it is possible.

As many of you know, I live in a builder grade house that I have been updating so that it doesn’t look so builder grade. Along the way, I have found some easy and relatively inexpensive ways to do this.

Two of the big differences between a custom home and a cookie-cutter builder grade home are the quality of the materials and workmanship, and the number of custom details. Or in my case, the fact that there were NO custom details in my house.

Trying to upgrade all of the standard-grade materials in the house isn’t a very affordable (or efficient) way of improving the look of your home. But fortunately, there are lots of things you can do which are easy, budget-friendly, and make your house look like it was custom-made even if it wasn’t.

For a quick preview of some of my tips you can watch the video. Or keep reading to see my whole list of easy ways to make your house look more expensive.

1 | Consider All Surfaces (Ceilings, Walls and Floors)

One of the questions I like to ask myself when I’m coming up with ideas for upgrades is what would an interior designer do? Then I go and find some inspiration pictures…Pinterest and Instagram are my friends in this area.

When an interior designer decorates a high-end home, they make a plan for all of the surfaces in the house…ceilings and floors as well as walls.

That doesn’t mean that every surface has to be decorated, but if it’s not, it’s because the designer decided that the space would look best that way.

I love the black and gold color scheme in the room above. The wallpaper adds interest to what would otherwise be large (boring) walls. And they painted the ceiling gold!!

When I decided to makeover my den, I also went with the black and gold color scheme.

My original plan was to paint the ceiling gold, too. But I decided in the end that it would be a little too much in this tiny room.

So I went with the same color black as the walls.

I know. That’s a decision that a lot of people think is more risky than the gold.

But I love the way it turned out (and learned a few things about how to decorate a room in black in the process).

Installing faux tin ceiling tiles added interest to the ceiling (and covered up the popcorn.)

And it’s an inexpensive way to make the room look more custom.

The finished room does not look anything like the boring beige builder-grade room that I started with. Sorry for the really bad before picture…it’s the only one I have 🙂

2 | Add Moldings

Crown moldings, chair railings, wainscoting, baseboards, and other kinds of architectural details make any room look more expensive.

Most of them really aren’t that hard to install or that costly to buy, but make a huge impact on the look of the room.

As you may have noticed in my den picture, I love to add panel moldings to walls. They are inexpensive and easy to put up…and they really add that custom look to your room.

In my stairway makeover, I took the panel molding concept a step further by adding faux columns and more substantial moldings for the panels.

Stairways tend to have very tall walls that are hard to decorate because you see them from different angles depending on where you are on the stairs.

The moldings help to break up the large expanse of wall, and definitely add that custom look.

3 | Use High End Finishes As The Focal Point

Using quality materials in the construction of your house definitely shows through in the end product. But even if your house wasn’t built with high-end finishes originally, you can add some of your own.

In the picture above, the floor-to-ceiling fireplace surround is definitely the focal point in the room…your attention is drawn to it immediately.

Using a more expensive material in a small area that is the focal point of the room makes the whole room seem more upscale.

But since it is a small area, it doesn’t cost nearly as much as trying to upgrade the whole space.

This is another tip that I used when I was re-doing my den…that gold wallpaper was pretty expensive.

But since I only needed one roll of it to fill the panels, I could afford to pay a little extra.

And hanging wallpaper inside of panels makes it a much easier DIY project.

4 | Hang Large Mirrors

Splurging a little on one large mirror* makes a room look bigger and brighter, which also helps it to look more expensive.

This long narrow dining room definitely looks wider because of the mirror.

It also uses the large artwork idea from the last tip to create a focal point that will get reflected in the mirror. A good thing to keep in mind when you are hanging large mirrors.

It immediately opened up the space and added some sparkle to a very small room.

5 | Use Large Art Work

If you look at designer rooms, you very rarely see small pieces of art hung on the wall (unless there is a whole group of them).

That’s because large pieces of art command your attention and make it look like a gallery. Which adds a high end feeling to your room.

If you don’t want to spend money on artwork and you happen to have some pictures that bring back memories (eg. a trip you have taken, a favorite park, a family portrait or even your own garden), you can have them blown up to poster size and frame them.

With today’s technology, even pictures you take on your phone are a high enough quality to be printed at a large size.