If you’re wanting to enhance and elevate your home, as well as make it look more put together, even if you’re on a budget, one interior design enthusiast shared her top tips to achieve this
Making your house feel like a home can be a difficult and often daunting task, especially if you don’t have a big budget for it. While we all want our homes to feel like us, it’s often hard to notice the things that can do with an upgrade.
Luckily, one interior design enthusiast has come to help. With almost 300,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, Mel Lloyd has become a go-to person for any interior and home tips as she often makes videos about the best ways to clean or decorate your home – even if you have to stick to a smaller budget.
In one video, she went on to share her top six tips you can elevate your home to make it look more luxurious and put together, even if you’re on a budget.
“How to elevate your home (on a budget),” the text said at the start of the video.
Mix your lighting
Mel’s first tip was to mix the different light sources in your home so you have several options. Not only does this help give you a choice with how much light you want to use in the room, it can also make it look more expensive and coherent.
Having several, smaller lamps within a room that go together will help enhance the ambiance within the room, according to designer Dara Huang.
She also suggest opting for a mix of wall lights, floor lamps, ambient lights for shelving, and table lamps, for the best effect.
Add architectural details
Next up, Mel suggest adding architectural details in your home in order to make it look more exciting and less bland.
In the video, Mel is seen doing some DIY in her home as she added some panelling on one of her walls in a bedroom all by herself before painting it all the same yellow colour.
This made the room look like it had more going on, without having to spend money or expensive paintings or décor items.
Layer textures
For her third tip, Mel urged viewer to layer textures in your home, such as when making your bed. In the video, Mel is seen adding a forest green blanket to the end of her bed that’s in a different material and texture from the white bedding.
Mixing textures in interior design involves combining different materials and patterns to create a visually interesting and layered space.
The key is to balance contrasting elements like smooth and rough, matte and glossy, or soft and hard, to add depth and character
Upgrade your hardware
A cheap way to give your kitchen or furniture an upgrade without having to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds is to simply change out the hardware on them.
In the video, Mel is seen having changed out the knobs on her kitchen cupboards to simple gold ones that matches the rest of her hardware.
This is a great way to make your home look more coherent, especially if you have matching material for all your hardware and other items with similar metals in your home.
Add statement mirror or art
Empty walls can quickly make a whole room look empty and cold. While panelling can be a great alternative for some rooms, as mentioned before, Mel also suggest adding a statement mirror or artwork to make it look more put together.
In the video, Mel shows off the big mirror she has standing on top of her mantelpiece in her living room, as well as a big painting she’s hung above a chest of draws.
While mirrors and art can be expensive, especially when buying them new, it can be worth going into charity shops or vintage shops to find some unique items that suits your home.
Flowers and greenery
For her sixth and final tip, Mel suggest adding an element of greenery into your home, whether it’s a bouquet of flowers or potted plants.
According to home stylist Allisa Jacobs, you should use different sized plants in order to make a room more interesting, including taller plants to help move your eyes up and make the room feel taller in height.
You can also add plants to a space to add dimension to a room, with Allisa explaining that “plants provide sense of movement, life, and depth”.
