LUXURY FINISHES NEEDN’T COST THE EARTH
The tricks to make a modest home look like a million bucks, writes CATHERINE MASTERS
You don’t have to throw away all your stuff and hire the best interior designer to give your home a chic, expensive look — but it does help to know where to start.
We asked some top interior designers for tricks of the trade on how you can make your visitors go “wow” when they walk in a room.
Glorious flowers always make a room look high end, but they can cost, says Philly Lyus of DMI Home Stagers in Auckland.
Instead of paying out for a florist she suggests you go foraging and collect some beautiful big green leaves to put in a vase, because fresh always look lovely.
Got some great cushion covers but the inners are flat and miserable? Buy feather inners so your cushions have a plumped-up, luxurious look.
“It doesn’t show through but it’s the way they sit,” says Lyus.
“If you put a feather inner inside a cheaper cushion cover, once you get the beautiful inner you can ply it a bit more and it tends to look a bit more luxurious.”
Fabulous art can look stunning, of course, but to keep costs down instead of going for small and significant, find an amazing photo and get it blown up, then spend the money on buying a great frame.
In the bedrooms you don’t have to get expensive bedframes — but do get a headboard.
“We never do a bed without a headboard because it definitely gives that luxurious, gorgeous feeling.
“You can pick them up quite cheaply now. A few hundred dollars can get a plain linen one and it just frames the bed.”
Auckland designer Anna Cuthbert, of Cuthbert Interiors, says to go for a mix of textures and add surfaces which reflect the light.
“You don’t want ‘same, same’. You want to introduce, whether it be velvets or fur or chenille or sateens, different things that are going to make it look more luxurious.”
You might think about getting a coffee table with a polished marble surface for its reflective qualities, for example, and then introduce layers of texture.
And you might choose some darker colours for the walls instead of white on white because colour can give a rich, luxurious ambience.
Mix and match expensive objects in a room with cheaper pieces, so don’t be afraid to try lower end suppliers — but don’t buy all your stuff from the same place. “If every place has one gem you’ve got a great collection.”
If you are going to shop this way, Cuthbert warns it’s essential to put some time into the search.
“You can’t just walk into the first shop and expect to find what you’re looking for.”
Where to start, though? Go online first, says Cuthbert. Have a look on Pinterest and click on the images you like so you can start putting together a style you like.
Cuthbert’s next piece of advice is attend to lighting. Lighting can transform a room and it can direct the eye towards the nice and away from the not so nice.
You can use uplights to accentuate features of architecture in a room, a pendant light to highlight a beautiful coffee table, or a directional light to put the spotlight on a painting.
“If you’ve got a side table and a beautiful lamp and three or four lovely dishes or accessories, highlight them.
“You want to make them the feature — draw your eye to the important and take your eye away from the things that aren’t.”
And, if you have an ugly view out a window dress the window with a roller blind then put up curtains.
If you’re still not sure what to do, Cuthbert recommends getting in an expert.
Many designers will charge for a consult only, which might only cost a few hundred dollars but would be money well spent, she says.
“That could be coming in and saying put this colour on the walls, you should select five cushions for this sofa in this colour palette, and you should find a throw that looks a bit like this.”
”You don’t want everything ‘same, same’. You want to introduce, whether it be velvets or fur or chenille or sateens, different things that are going to reflect the light to make it look more luxurious.”