Those seaside estates you see featured on magazines and modern architecture shows? Not everyone is going to be able to afford one. Whether you own a condo or are building a tiny house out in the countryside, you deserve to have access to luxurious style elements. You can focus on having the most stylish home furnishings accenting your home, choose to build a house made with the finest quality materials, or allow the home’s chic architecture speak for itself. You can choose to make your home more luxurious at any point in the process, in the days after you move in, or years after purchase. The style that your home eventually comes to have is a reflection of you and what you find important as a homeowner. If you want your home to possess a luxurious element, here is how you can exude elegance in an effortless manner.
When the Outside Counts
The exterior of homes is often where homeowners fail to fully capitalize on a great opportunity. In grand, sweeping mansions, the exterior is usually highlighted in grand fashion. You will see perfectly manicured lawns, well-crafted winding driveways, oversized water fountains, majestic trees, and so on and so forth. In short, the outside of the average mansion sets visitors’ expectations firmly. They know that inside, the property is going to be even more stately and luxurious. The exterior of your home can be like the wrapping paper on a wonderful present, adorned with bows and ribbons, or it can be simpler and lend to the interior being that much more amazing. Dry landscapin is unique as well as inexpensive to keep up, so you can have a home exterior that stands out without having a landscaping bill. Putting together a beautiful garden in the backyard can highlight a home that has limited square footage. Be creative about making the exterior of your home the star of the show.
Making a Grand Entrance in Your Home
If you are fortunate enough to have a home that features a foyer, an entry hall, an enclosed porch, or another area that visitors pass through upon entering, now is the time to play that space up. First impressions count, so if you are intending to make your house look more luxurious, you have to put loads of thought and effort into the entrance. Antique tables, fragrant flowers, mirrors, area rugs, and interesting artwork all go nicely in a grand entrance area. Consider the style aesthetic that you want your home to present. If you are going for a clean and modern look, keep the accessories in the entrance area to a minimum. Use select art to make the area unique, add a tall lamp so that the room features dramatic lighting, and highlight the flooring by keeping any area rugs or runners neutral in color.
Adding New Style Elements That Impact Structure
If your home was built over a hundred years ago, a bit of wainscoting will definitely improve its style. Taking some old reclaimed wood and having it fashioned into a few exposed wood ceiling beams will add instant character, at a modest cost. When it comes to style and luxury on the inside of a home, it isn’t all about furniture and accessories. Most homeowners can’t just have their homes fully remodeled in the blink of an eye. So, if your quaint, two-bedroom starter home has to stay structurally untouched, look to how you can illicit changes that will cause a sort of illusion. Use paint to make rooms look bigger and light to make them feel more open. Adding contrast between floors, walls, and ceilings usually make homes feel different on a structural level.
Keeping Your Home’s Temperature Regulated
First and foremost, central heating and cooling does not come standard in all homes. There are houses that have efficient heating systems, but they fail to offer cooling of any kind, save for a ceiling fan or two. There are also homes that have heating and cooling, but neither works especially well to keep the home at a stable temperature. Having a home HVAC system swapped out for a working unit or upgraded is the easy part. Knowing what kind of heating and cooling system will make you the most comfortable and create the most luxurious environment is where things get a little challenging.
A simple, sleek, modern HVAC system powered by solar panels would potentially make your home very efficient at energy usage. Combine that with heated flooring and some added insulation, and your home would be very glamorous indeed.
Having Your Home Upgraded with Smart Home Technology
Along with upgraded heating and cooling systems often come features that are fully dependent on upgraded technology. Homeowners are taking advantage of all of the features that smart homes bring. Imagine being able to remotely turn the thermostat up or down in your living room, so when you come home it is at precisely the right temperature. Or, if you and your spouse have different preferences when it comes to the ideal interior temperature, you can have the part of the home you are present in set to your standards while the room your spouse is in stays set to their ideal temperature.
Companies like West Coast Heating Air Conditioning and Solar give homeowners control over how their homes obtain energy, in addition to allowing them to fine-tune temperature settings. Have a solar panel installed by West Coast to permanently reduce your energy bill. Ask them to hook your new solar panel up to a smart home system, and you will have total oversight of the heating and cooling system in your home remotely. How luxurious is that?
Making Your Kitchen More Luxurious
While newer technology and state of the art features generally coincide with what people consider to be luxurious, luxury isn’t always associated with the kitchen. Undoubtedly, the kitchen can be one of the most technologically advanced areas of the home. There are new refrigerators that literally enable users to see what is stored inside – without the door being opened. New ovens and stoves can be accessed via smart home systems, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other technology, so you can pre-heat and turn off and on your kitchen appliances without even being home.
Combine new kitchen technology with marble tiling, granite countertops, kitchen islands, and beautiful cabinetry, and you get a luxurious space that gets lots of practical use. Whether you only use the kitchen to heat up take-outs, or you prepare four course meals regularly, having more luxurious trappings doesn’t hurt.
Approaching the Bedroom with Luxury in Mind
If you count the amount of time you spend sleeping in your bedroom, it can swiftly become the one room in your home that gets the most use. People frequently prepare to go out in their bedrooms, choosing clothes from their closets, rifling through the toiletries stacked on their dressers. You may have a television in your room that you use just before bedtime, or a nightstand that stores the book you are currently reading right before you drift off to sleep.
If you are like most, your bedroom likely features a bed, some furniture for storing clothing, and a few other essentials. If you think of the bedroom as just a place for you to sleep at night, it is probably not very luxurious at present. In the bedroom, texture and color are key. Think of what would make you feel most relaxed in your room – is it a fuzzy area rug, or perhaps baby blue walls? Buy good quality linens that have a high thread count. Use drapes to make the room more beautiful and also effectively block out light when you want to change the mood.
Turning the Bathroom into an Enchanting Getaway
Remember, bathrooms in mansions, penthouse suites, and expensive hotel rooms are very luxurious as well. The bathroom in your home might not ever feature gold fixtures or diamond encrusted mirrors, but they can still be quite swanky. A bathroom remodel might need to occur in order to get those bathrooms up to par, but a savvy homeowner can also make use of a few shortcuts. Less is more in the bathroom, so if you have a shower that can be used without a shower curtain, you probably want to omit it.
Ensure that all of the accessories present on vanity are simple, monochromatic, and high in quality. So, swap out those colorful soap dishes in the shape of tropical fish and get some porcelain ones instead. Focus on scenting your bathroom with salts, potpourri, incense, and candles so that it feels relaxing and clean. Light colored linens always help the interior of modern bathrooms ‘pop,’ while earthy colors and intricate tiling also convey luxury.
Focusing on Furniture
When it comes to making a home more luxurious, furniture is where you can make up the most ground. Furniture doesn’t have to be expensive in order to look luxurious. In fact, reupholstered and even DIY pieces can highlight a home in truly outstanding ways. Resale and thrift shops regularly sell vintage, antique, and custom furniture that would be almost impossible to find anywhere else. If you want the furniture in your home to look luxurious, thus elevating its interior style, you have to go slow and be very patient.
Every piece of furniture won’t be found at a single store or in a single weekend. You may need to make it a mission in life to head out to garage sales and thrift stores on a weekly basis until the transformation is complete. Look online for leads on vintage and one-of-a-kind furniture. Be open to the potential that each piece of furniture might have. Sometimes, it will take a bit of TLC in order to get every piece to measure up to its full luxurious potential.
Making Common Living Areas Functional and Glamorous
Living rooms are not all used for the same purpose. If you have a recreational room, a family room, or even an eat-in kitchen, your living room might only come into play when you have guests over. On the other hand, plenty of people head straight for the living room after work or school. It can be the area where the family congregates for meals, television time, or just to hang out. As such, the living room has to be devoted to comfort as much as style. The couches and chairs should look good and feel great to actually sit on for longer stretches. The coffee table should be functional, allowing for you to put down a drink or play a board game. Decide on if you are going to use the living room at about the same rate as you are using it now, more, or less. This is important as you potentially will get new furniture and change around the layout of the room.
Style is definitely subjective, but most people know what luxury is when they see it. Simply put, luxury goes beyond the call of duty. It is extra, as in it does more than just the basic expected duties. A luxurious bed is going to feel good when you lay on it, get you to fall asleep faster and deeper, and enable you to wake up fully rested. Luxury bathrooms might feature a bidet as well as a deep, tiled soaking tub, a chaise lounge, and overhead showerheads.
So, while these specific elements have a pretty precise definition of luxury, it isn’t always so easily explained. Luxury is a feeling, an element, an essence that you feel when you are surrounded in warmth and comfort. It is knowing when you are being completely pampered, and you feel good inside and out. Having a home that features more luxury elements can be great for your mental health, your physical well-being, and your overall happiness. Luxury can make your home a nicer place to come back to, making it easier for you to get out of bed in the morning and work as hard as you to do maintain your lifestyle.
