How To Make Your Apartment Look Expensive | 12 Cheap & Easy Ways to Elevate Your Space

If you want to amp up the look of your space, you are going to want to check out these 12 amazing tips on how to make your apartment look expensive.

Having an apartment that looks expensive without being expensive is something that everyone wants to accomplish, right?!

There's little tips and tricks that you can do to instantly take your apartment to the next level with decor.

I am showing you how to make your apartment look expensive while sticking to a budget. These are my favorite tips + hacks I swear by that can instantly elevate your apartment into looking like you spent way more money on decorating it than you actually did.

This post is all about how to make your apartment look expensive.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR APARTMENT LOOK EXPENSIVE

Tip #1: Get king size pillows for a queen bed

Recreate this apartment:

In my apartment, I have two queen size beds but I use king size pillows on both of them. This instantly makes the bed look more grand and expensive. Surprisingly, you can find king size pillows at really good prices. I got mine from Costco in a set of 2 for $20. Queen size pillows would have cost nearly the same price but these make the bed look so much more full and almost "hotel-like."

I also have these amazing silk pillowcases on my bed that were only $10 from Amazon. They have a zipper so that the pillows don't stick out of the cover and just look all around more polished. I highly recommend these, I've washed them a million times and they are holding up amazing, especially for the price.

Tip #3: Get rugs that ACTUALLY fit your space correctly

Recreate this apartment:

A rug that is too small for your space can instantly make your room look cheap. To be honest, I even messed up on this with my living room rug (see if you can figure out why...hah! hint: the left side ).

Here's how you know what size rug to get for your space:

1. The front legs of the furniture should be on the rug.
2. The rug should have 6 inches on each side of the furniture.
3. For a living room, you will usually buy a 8x10 rug, 9x12 rug, or 10x14 rug.
4. For a bedroom, make sure the front legs are on the rug but that the rug doesn't extend all the way to the nightstands.
5. The rug should have at least 8" of space on each side of the bed.
6. A typical rug size for a queen bed is 8x10.

Tip #4: Get two comforters to make your bed look more fluffy

Recreate this apartment:

Everyone wants their bed to look like a hotel bed, and a way to get that extra fluffy look is to add two comforters into your duvet. I got comforters from Amazon and really like them. I just literally sandwich them together into my duvet cover. I then used this Amazon Essentials duvet cover to really make the bed look complete.

This will give you that fluffy look that hotels have.

Tip #5: Get pillows that are choppable

Pillows do HUGE things for a room and you can easily tell a cheap pillow from an expensive pillow. To make your room look expensive, get down-pillows that are choppable. I know I know, some people are against down pillows but if you look at the top interior designers, I can almost promise you that all their pillows will be chopped.

It's really easy to test a pillow to see if it's choppable. Fluff it out, and karate chop it. 

HomeGoods has really good choppable pillows. Target is just beginning to sell choppable pillows so there definitely are a few affordable places to find them.

Tip #7: For bottles that are displayed, have them look pretty/match each other

I personally like to have my dish soap out on my counter and obviously my hand soap to make my life easier, so I make sure to get dish soap that looks pretty. Just imagine how much better this looks versus having a Dawn dish soap bottle out there.

I get the Method brand from Target which come in all different colors to match your space. I actually just ran out of and refilled it with Dawn soap because I think dawn soap smells better but this way my soap looks pretty enough to keep on the counter.

Interested in purchasing items you saw in the video? Click here to see where I bought everything in my first apartment.

Tip #8: Add large scale art/mirrors

Recreate this apartment:

Picture frames and mirrors on your wall that are too small can ruin the entire scale of your room. In my opinion, the bigger the better. In this little nook next to my fireplace, I wanted a mirror that was BIG. This mirror is from Target - I actually picked up a smaller version of it that was 28in and the difference of how it looked versus this one that is 34" is crazy. If you're ever doubting yourself on artwork or mirrors, go with the bigger size. 

Additionally, instead of investing in large scale artwork for my living room, I DIYed one instead. The piece that I tried to copy was insanely expensive and I knew I could make a similar version for much cheaper.  I ended up making the huge canvas for under $35. If I were to buy it, it would have been over $900! 

You can see how I created this whole wall by checking out this post here - How To Decorate Your Apartment Living Room Wall While Sticking To A Budget

Tip #9: Use matching pillows on the bed, but NOT on the couch

In your bedroom, use matching pillows. In your living room, DON'T use matching pillows. Using matching pillows in your living room screams "I just bought this couch from a department store + got them for free." I love getting a variety of pillows and pillow covers for my couch. My favorite places to get pillow covers right now are Woven Nook, Amazon, and Target.

On your bed, using matching pillows can make the room look super pulled together. On my bed, I used three 26x26 pillows and got the pillow covers from Amazon. I love these because one, they're big and make the bed once again feel more grand and expensive, and two, they're so big that even when my bed isn't made perfectly, they still make it look really good.

Tip #10: Get larger nightstands

Recreate this apartment:

This is another tip I learned from stalking interior designers on Instagram. I noticed that in the majority of the bedroom pictures, the nightstands were really large. Almost like they were dressers more than nightstands.

To get this look in my bedroom for cheaper, I found these baby changing tables from Walmart for less than $200. That's a really good price for nightstands in general and it was much larger than other nightstands I was finding, just like my favorite interior designers.

Tip #11: Add metallic items

By adding a few metallic items to a room (sparingly.. don't overdo it!), you can make the room feel a bit more luxurious. Wether it's a mirror, vase, or picture frame, a little bit of metallic is an easy way to elevate a room. 

I love the way this living room is so simple but added the small metallic detail in the lampshade. 

Tip #12: Fresh flowers and greenery

Fresh flowers can instantly make a room look more expensive. The bigger the bouquet the better. I personally try to keep fresh flowers in one of my rooms but it does get expensive. There are definitely a ton of great fake flowers and greenery that look real that can definitely be something to invest in. 

This is especially great for the summer time to liven up a room or add some fresh color and scents.

This post is about how to make your apartment look expensive.