3 min readPictured Above: A living room designed by Kate Hartman Interiors and styled by Tawney Waldo.
People often refer to the kitchen as “the heart of the home,” but living rooms don’t get nearly enough credit. This is your official gathering space, where family, friends, and guests convene for casual conversation, game nights, and movie marathons. Since it’s such a high-profile area of your home, it can help to make your surroundings feel even more plush, luxe, and special.
“In most homes, the living room is one of the most used spaces, both by the homeowners and their guests, so it should be thoughtfully designed and furnished to feel polished, cohesive, and complete,” echoes Kate Hartman, founder and principal designer at Kate Hartman Interiors.
Olivia Wahler, interior designer and cofounder of Hearth Homes Interiors, points out that if a room feels good, you’ll actually use it.
“A pretty living room pulls the whole family in,” she says. “A boring one is the room everyone walks past on the way to the kitchen. And ‘expensive-looking’ really doesn't have to mean expensive. It just means somebody thought about it.”
“Expensive” is a relative term. If it’s something that makes your living room feel more special and it didn’t break the bank, then by all means—go for it. The designers we spoke with all point to one type of swap that can make a living room look instantly more expensive, whether you’re doing some cost-effective DIYing over an afternoon or purchasing a few pieces online.
The Number One Swap: Anything Customized
Our experts agree: Customized decor of any kind instantly makes a living room look more expensive.
For instance, Hartman believes that custom window treatments instantly elevate a space, something that doesn’t take weeks to accomplish. Window treatments can be easily ordered online (thanks to careful measuring), or you can make them yourself if you have the sewing skills.
Katie Labourdette-Martinez, interior designer and cofounder of Hearth Homes Interiors, is all about the unique wall trim you add to your living room, something you can accomplish by hiring a pro or doing it yourself.
“Picture frame molding, board and batten, applied molding squares—whatever suits the house,” Labourdette-Martinez says. “It instantly gives the room architecture. The wall feels layered and intentional, like the house actually has bones.”
Interior designer Stephanie Kraus of Stephanie Kraus Designs leans into sculptural furniture, whether it’s custom or vintage, to really make it distinctive, or you can purchase sculptural pieces and give them your own spin with added throw pillows and blankets.
Kraus says that, in particular, a “sculptural, one-of-a-kind” coffee table, like a burl wood coffee table, does the trick to make a room look more expensive.
Other “Expensive-Feeling” Swaps for Your Living Room
Need to up the fanciness factor without waiting for a custom design to come in? Here are the other recommendations designers say make a living room look and feel instantly more expensive.
Accessories
Hartman says she focuses on decorative accessories.
“From throws and pillows to coffee table books and styling objects, these smaller elements collectively have a big impact and are what truly complete a space,” she notes.
Lamps
Wahler is begging homeowners to “turn off the overhead lights” and opt for lamps instead, like a floor lamp by the sofa, a couple of table lamps, maybe a picture light over your art, or “a sconce if you're feeling fancy.”
“Put everything on dimmers,” she further recommends. “Good lighting makes okay furniture look great, and bad lighting makes great furniture look flat.”
Scent
“A room that smells incredible feels luxurious before you've clocked why,” Wahler says. “Pick a scent you actually love (not what's trendy) and stick with it across your candles, diffusers, and the occasional room spray. The consistency is what makes it feel like a signature instead of an air freshener.”
Ceiling Treatments
“Ceiling treatment is the most underused tool in residential design,” Kraus says. “Most people stop thinking about a room at the wall line, but taking a design decision—shiplap, board and batten, a warm wood planking—all the way up to a vaulted ceiling completely transforms the scale and warmth of a space. It's the difference between a room that feels built and one that just feels finished.”
