foreign [Music] explore common design problems under a microscope I’m Kiva brand you may be wondering how I got the title of style scientist well while I was finishing up my Natural Sciences degree I started designing my home as a creative Outlet soon thereafter I traded pipettes and microscopes for paint swatches and tape measures and I fell head over heels in love with interior styling can we all agree that everyone wants a tasteful high-end home one that is so stunning that when you first walk in all you can say is wow well we all want a luxury home but we don’t allow the luxury budget so in today’s episode of style scientists I’m going to share how to achieve that Luxe look for Less let’s get into it the first tip of the day is to size up your pillow inserts let’s face it nobody likes a saggy pillow I mean have you ever seen a saggy pillow in your favorite Furniture Gallery I’m guessing not so what do we want to do what I want you to do is to size up your pillow insert that means that if you have a 20 by 20 pillow cover you want to put a 22 by 22 or 24 by 24 pillow insert inside of that cover you’re going to have to shove it in there and it’s going to be a little bit of a fight but I promise you your pillows are going to look so much more high-end and very robust this also means that you are going to be wasting those pillow covers you’ve already purchased the pillow covers tend to be a lot more expensive than the pillow inserts and sizing up a pillow insert will only cost you a few cents or maybe a dollar more than you were expecting the best part about this is that even when you lay on these pillows now they won’t sag this means that you’re always going to have that luxury look and you aren’t going to have to fluff your pillows all the time so there’s little to no maintenance this is a great way to get the luxury look on a budget next I want you to start layering your throw pillows in terms of different colors textures and sizes say you have a lumbar pillow which is 12 by 20 and a square pillow that is 20 by 20. because they are different in size they can be really similar in terms of pattern or color but if you have two pillows that are both 24 by 24 you really want to mix them up maybe choose one that is made out of a different material choose one that has a fun pattern or a fun color you just want to switch it up so that there is some more visual interest when you look at this image you can see that they actually created a ton of visual interest using these throw pillows not only are the throw pillows different sizes but you will see that you have green pillows and blue pillows plus this blue lumbar pillow has this really cool triangle a pattern that is so interesting to look at another example of this is this series of Lumbar pillows they are all the same size but they’re all extremely different because they have different colors and patterns these are so fun to look at and they make a great example out of this point the next tip is to add some more lighting to your cabinets and bookcases and pretty much any surface that you’re styling when we’re dealing with bookcases and cabinets we love to add decorative accents but sometimes when we add these decorative accents they get lost because it is so dark and dim in those cabinets so instead of leaving them dark and dim we want to add some lighting you can always add LED light strips or under cabinet lighting to really illuminate a space this doesn’t have to be super expensive at all of course you can find some hardwired options but when you go to more affordable stores they have tons of peel and stick light bars that you can add to any cabinet and you can take them off when you’re done with them another way to make your home look luxurious and increase the moodiness of the home is to add more table lamps one of my favorite places to add some additional lighting is actually the kitchen when you think about the kitchen you have a lot of overhead light and you have task lighting which can be very sterile so to soften up the space and make it more inviting I love to use a little table lamp on the back counter I just place this table lamp really close to my cookbooks and the few decorative accents I have in the kitchen and it really really makes a difference plus you have a little soft light to add at night time when you don’t want all that overhead light and you want to sneak into the kitchen to grab a cookie or something this is one of my favorite design tips the very next way to achieve the luxury look on a budget is to buy some embellished artwork so if you don’t know what embellishment is it basically means that a piece of art has texture so when you’re out shopping for art just look at it really closely and make sure that the art is kind of jumping off of the piece of paper because that is what’s going to distinguish a piece of art that kind of comes across as luxury for something that looks just like a print now if it isn’t in the budget to get an embellished piece of artwork or you just can’t find one you can DIY it you can use pretty much any material you want to create texture people do this with newspaper with spackle with sand you can use pretty much any material you can get your hand on to embellish your artwork now if embellished artwork just isn’t for you or you’re not a huge fan of paintings you can always buy other forms of three-dimensional artwork this is just something that looks a lot more luxurious than something that’s completely flat look for wall hangings and tapestries and things in Shadow Boxes they always look very very high-end the very next way to make your home look luxurious on a budget is to actually double stuff your duvet covers so have you ever walked into like one of your favorite stores and that bed looks so fluffy it looks like a cloud and you’re like how on Earth did they do that well they actually use two duvets instead of one now I know that duvets can be very very expensive so what I want you to do is use your existing duvet and then also buy a really affordable one so something down alternative something just really budget friendly if you’re a hot sleeper and having two duvets on your bed just is not going to work what you can actually do which might be a little bit more expensive is just have two duvets and two different duvet covers this way you can fold them down on one another and get a really really nice and fluffy look that is guaranteed to blow your guests away now this next way to make your home look luxurious is actually free what I want you to start doing is folding hospital corners so in a bedroom there isn’t much you can do in terms of design so every detail matters folding Hospital quarters really gets you a nice crisp look to your bed that you would see in a luxury hotel plus it is really nice and snug so you can get a good night’s sleep and now I’m going to give you the tips on how to fold the perfect hospital corners first things first you need to lay your top sheet on the bed and Tuck the bottom portion of that sheet the part at the foot of the bed underneath the mattress when you do that there should be a sizable overhang on the left and right sides of the bed now I want you to grab the overhang on one side of your bed and pull it away from the bed this way you should kind of have a top portion and a bottom portion I want you to take the topmost overhang and actually lay it on top of the bed it should be folded kind of in a triangle shape so now that we have that top portion kind of hanging out on top of the mattress when going to take that bottom portrait and tuck it underneath the mattress we want it to be nice and taut so we can get those crisp clean lines once we’ve done that then we’re going to take that overhang that was just chilling on top of the mattress and pull it down and tuck it underneath the mattress as well and to take it to the very next level I also want you to steam your bed linens I know you just had to fold the hospital corners but those two together are the ultimate combo for a luxurious looking bedroom the next way to make your home look luxurious on a budget is to pill shave your furniture so if you don’t know what pills are they’re basically like the beads of fabric that get stuck on your clothing but this also happens to your furniture you’ve probably noticed this on your favorite sofa or your old accent chair what I want you to do is actually pick up a pill shaver they have handheld ones and they have electric ones I actually love to use an electric one just because they seem to do a better job and they’re only about 13 online they’re not going to cost you more than 20 bucks and you get so much use out of them just grab that pill shaper and remove all of those pills then you’ll finally have a nice and flat surface once again I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve literally brought a piece of furniture back to life thanks to a pill shaver the very next tip is to actually add additional curtain panels to your curtain rods curtains are decor and I love to use them in every single client space now something that you always see in luxury spaces is they actually have several curtain panels on a rod not just two sometimes they have four six depending upon how big that window is I’m telling you more curtain panels equals more drama and drama and luxury go hand in hand so I want you to start adding more curtain panels or getting curtain panels that are a lot wider so that they look really nice and thick I know that this can be pricey so be sure to shop for curtains at a place where they sell two panels for fifty dollars or something like that you can always find really affordable curtains online and remember you can always go to your local fabric store and make them yourself the very next way to make your home look luxurious on a budget is to establish Symmetry and what I mean by that is that I want you to have a focal point in a room and just things of equal weight on either side so a common example of this would be a grand mirror and a living room with two bookcases on either side one of my favorite things about symmetry is that it actually makes a searching for furniture and decor a lot easier because since we’re trying to balance the space in a symmetrical way we’re getting two of one thing or we’re getting things that are really similar in terms of height or shape so that they complement one another so not only does symmetry make your home look luxurious it also makes it way easier to decorate we shared several tips today on how to achieve the luxury look for Less what tip are you going to apply in your own home be sure to let us know down in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe so that you can catch the next episode of style scientist I’ll see you next time [Music] Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji78JLcq5eg
