5 Tips to Make Your Home Look Expensive
I read a lot of articles that cover topics similar to this one that focus a lot on curtains, lighting, flooring, couches, throw pillows etc. Most of them mention art in passing. Some don’t mention art at all. So I thought it would be helpful to add to the conversation by talking about art directly.
And just to say it right up front here, when most people read the word art they immediately think wealth. So let me just say right at the jump that one of my favorite original pieces of art in my home I bought for $5.
Carry on.
1.Buy a large piece of art
Yes a gorgeous couch can make your home look expensive and designer. But it probably is expensive and designer. You know what isn’t but looks like it is? A huge piece of art.
I’m talking a print here if we want to honor the look expensive but don’t actually be expensive. Prints are great. Prints are stigmatized and they shouldn’t be. You can buy absolutely enormous, oversized art to dominate a wall and make your guests think you are wildly wealthy.
Do I hate the misconception that art = wealth? Yes. Use it anyway? By all means.
2. Buy a bold piece of art
For some reason, bold, eye-catching art (either in subject matter or visually) signifies wealth. It definitely signifies confidence in your choices which I think we equate with wealth.
A bold piece of art is going to carry the room. It’s going to give that wow factor. It’s going to halt people. That’s what you want.
3. Custom art
For this you do need a little bit of a budget, but a lot less than you think you do. Go find a local or emerging artist whose style you love and resonate with, and whose price point works for you, and strike up a conversation about a commissioned piece.
Make it about you, but not really about you. I mean, I guess sitting for a portrait is the old way of wealth and if you’re about that go for it. But I more mean something that is really meaningful to you and that you co-created with an artists.
The story you’ll get to tell about it is worth a million, and conveys real luxury.
4. Embody the role of art collector
For better or for worse the art world is really illusive and exclusive. People don’t really know how to access it.
Learning how to buy and talk about art proves you know how to access that, which comes with a level of insider status and the air of being well-connected. And let’s face it, being well-connected is its own form of wealth in so many ways.
When you also know how to buy art that is aesthetically gorgeous, and it amplifies who you are and what you believe in, it’s going to look highly tailored.
5. Sophisticated art
Sophistication gives the sense of luxury. Buy sophisticated art. I don’t mean high-brow, just classy, tasteful, perhaps a touch intellectual. Be ready to have conversations about it.
Would you like a little more help in getting your home to look the way you want? I support new collectors in discovering what they like in art, and curating their collections. I invite you to take the first step and fill out an application to work with me.