There are certain decorating trends from the past that may be lingering in your home now. These were probably trending at some point in time but now they are only taking away from the appearance of your home. Make just a little bit of adjustments and you’ll see the difference!

Curtains That Don’t Touch The Floor | You want your curtains to just be touching the floor, or else it will look like you’ve purchased curtains that were too small for your space. Also when you’re getting curtains, you want them as close to the ceiling as possible, higher curtains make a room feel larger. Big homes are of course correlated to luxury, so if you want to achieve that feel in your home, you’ll want to make your home feel as big as possible. Width matters as well, they should extend at least a few inches on either side.

Not Styling Your Furniture | It’s okay to buy IKEA furniture, but you have to style it. If you don’t add your own twist or decor, it will just look that much more like an IKEA set. You want it to be affordable but also look nice at the same time. Add some art, some decor, and style and arrange that furniture. You can also buy the IKEA dresser but throw some nicer handles on it. We want people to know we spent time thinking about our home, curating the objects we chose, and representing ourselves. 

Buying Cookie Cutter Art | The third thing that is going to make your place look cheap is that you’re buying the art that everyone has. In those luxury homes, they searched for just the right art for each room. Art is something that should be specific and unique to your home, not just what everyone else is buying. You don’t have to try to convince people that it’s an original or you commissioned it, but you want something that’s going to look amazing and that’s perfect for your home.

Buying Rugs That Are Too Small For Your Space | This is definitely something that will make your place look cheap, and it’s an easy fix. A small rug that doesn’t fit the space is going to look like you just went out and bought the first thing you could find. It can actually also make a room look smaller. You want the rug properly scaled to fit in your space, but you also want the furniture in the space to touch the rug. Measure before you shop!

Be Done With The Plastic Furniture | Leave the plastic furniture in college! Obviously plastic furniture is cheap, it breaks, you can see through it. You can have it in your closet or use it for storage, but no one wants it out for everyone to see. It isn’t furniture, it’s just storage for private places. 

All Leather Furniture | We know it might have been all the rage at one point, but if your entire living room is all leather furniture, that’s just not it anymore. Not saying that you can’t have leather pieces, because that will of course work. However leather tends to be dark, it makes a space look smaller, it’s just not going to work for everything to be leather. Leather isn’t ugly, we just can’t crowd it in one space. We won't buy one leather piece, we want it to stand on its own. Too much of the same thing is going to look cheap. You don’t need to throw it out, but just spread it apart. 

Having Cords Exposed | We all struggle with this one. But having all the TV cords flung all around for everyone to see, just looks bad. Take 5 minutes to just clean some of these up, run the extra extension cord, because the truth is, the big mess of cords… looks messy! 

Light Fixtures Not Appropriately Sized | Things like chandeliers are meant to be a statement, and when they’re too small for a space, they come off looking cheap. This also applies to lamps on tables, proportions are everything, you can't have a large lamp on a small table. 

Clutter and excess | Less is more, especially when it comes to the amount of “stuff” on view in your home. Too much of something can be a distraction on the things we should be focusing on in your home. When someone walks into my home I want them to notice a beautiful art piece, or a unique piece of furniture, not the abundance of things on my counter. Stay simple and stay tidy.