Well, hey there and welcome to today’s design conversation, and this one is one of my little tips and tricks and hacks episode that I wanna share with you. And I’ve got three easy design tricks to uplevel your home, make it look more custom so it will stand out. Now you can choose to do all of them. Go gangbusters there or pick one to start with.
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All of them will give your home an elevated look and none of these are too complicated or expensive. A total win-win. Now if this is for your investment property, like your Airbnb or medium term rental, just know that Airbnb competition is so steep right now as so many people have stepped into the market in recent years.
You need to make your home stand out or be left with unbooked days and less money in your pockets. So anything you can do to give your home an edge is definitely worth it. Alright, let’s dive in with.
Design Trick #1: Customize Your Drapery and Window Treatments
The first of my three design tricks, which is to customize draperies or window coverings. Now, before I share this tip of how to customize them, I want to share why you should add or have window coverings in the first place if you don’t have them in your home already.
For your investment property, I am going to say, please, please, please put in window coverings like Roman shades or draperies. They add another layer to your room’s design. They add softness, they add a new texture, and if they have a pattern they add more pattern to your space. All of those things, elevate the look in your room and make it look more complete. It also makes it look more custom and more high end. Having custom draperies made is expensive, which is why I have this design hack for you so that you can do it on a budget.
Now, here is the trick. You can get some inexpensive, plain, solid drapery panels from places like Amazon or Wayfair World Market. Or you can get them on sale at higher end places like Pottery Barn.
How to Customize Your Window Coverings
Then, what I want you to do is buy a decorative trim. This is something that you can also get on Amazon, Wayfair. You can go to a Joanne Fabrics or a Calico Corners or other different fabric stores, and you’re going to add a piece of this decorative trim to the edge of your drapery panel, preferably, and actually the leading edge is best.
Now, you might be saying, what is the leading edge? Well, when you have a drapery panel hanging to the side of your window, you have one edge that’s close to the glass and the other edge that is not close to the glass. Your leading edge is the edge closer to the glass. And that is where I want you to put this decorative trim. See the photo below from Eastern Accents, which is a company that sells made to order luxury bedding and window coverings.
How to Attach Decorative Trim
There are two ways that you can add decorative trim to your panel for this design trick. You can sew it on, or the easiest way is to iron it on. That is likely the most simple way to do it. There are iron on tapes you can buy from Amazon or Joann Fabrics. See below for one from Amazon.
You simply lay your drapery panel out, place a strip or two of iron on trim, then place your decorative trim on top. Make sure they’re lined up. I like to use pins to make sure it doesn’t move drapery pins, but you can go kind of rogue and just do it free for all.
Now, anytime you’re ironing anything on, I like to put a protective cover over what I’m ironing, just so that the heat from the iron doesn’t damage what I’m ironing. Simply use an old t-shirt, a towel, or an old sheet.
Now you might be wondering where to add this decorative trim on a drapery panel. Either put it on the edge, or place it about an inch or a couple inches away from the edge. Both options work. It depends really on the width of the decorative trim and your personal preference.
Design Trick #2: Raise Your Shower Curtain
Let’s move to the next design trick which has to do with your shower curtain. If you have a glass door, this is not going to apply for apply to you, but if you have a shower curtain, I want you to do is hang that shower curtain high, just like I want draperies, which I didn’t mention before, but I have mentioned in another podcast episode.
I prefer drapery panels going right up against the ceiling or the crown molding makes your window look taller. The same is true for your showers and it will make your bathroom look taller. Your ceilings look taller, so I want you to hang your shower curtain higher. I like to leave six inches or so from the ceiling so steam has a place to go.
But here’s the thing I want you to avoid, which is a common mistake. A standard size shower curtain is 72 inches by 72, and you think, great, I’m gonna hang this nice and tall. So you hang it closer to your ceiling a few inches away. But then the shower curtain is hanging a foot off of your floor. That’s the mistake I want you to avoid. You must use a longer shower curtain. If you have a standard shower curtain, again, that’s a 72 inch by a 72 inch, and you hang it higher, the bottom is going to be too high off the floor.
You want the bottom of your shower curtain to be just an inch or two off of the ground, so you’re going to need to buy a taller shower curtain depending on the size of your ceilings, how tall they are. You might have an 84 inch, a 96 inch,108 inch, and what this does is it’ll guarantee that your shower curtain is nice and long and hangs far enough from the ceiling to allow your steam to get in, but nice and high to make the spaces look taller.
If you want to be extra fancy, add some decorative trim to the edge of your shower curtain. How cute would a pom-pom trim be in a bathroom?
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Design Trick #3: Add a Mirror to Make Your Space Look Lighter and Larger
Let’s move on to design trick number three, adding a mirror to make your spaces look brighter, lighter, and larger. Anytime you have a darker space or a darker corner in your home, Consider adding a mirror, one with a clean, simple frame will work the best. Nothing too ornate or else it could look too heavy.
I like to keep the frame simple, as I mentioned before, and especially here because it in these two instances, because an ornate mirror would distract your eye from the reflection in the view. And I’d rather the reflection in the view be what you’re looking at rather than a very ornate mirror frame. But that is your personal preference with your design style.
I like to keep it simple, but again, having that reflection will immediately lighten up any space and make it feel larger. Check out the example below from a client’s beach home. Before, they had a small piece of art on their wall. But after we added three custom mirrors which reflect not only the ocean view, but the natural light from the windows across the room. It instantly brightens their space.
There you have it…three simple design tricks to uplevel your home or investment property. I am dying to know which one do you want to try or will you try all three?
Leave a comment and let me know!
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