7 ways you’re making your home look cheap, according to a luxury interior designer

“I think the No. 1 thing that they do is that they don’t use the proper scale of furniture or accessories or rugs in their space,” Rehman said when asked how people most often make their homes look cheap.

If you don’t have much floor space, it might be your instinct to fill your home with small pieces, but Rehman said that may actually end up making your space look less put together.

“People think that just because you’re in an apartment, you have to buy small-scale furniture, and that’s not true,” he said. “Go buy the big couch, buy the big rug, buy the coffee table that’s oversized because what people don’t realize is that scale makes your space feel bigger.”

It’s better to put a few big statement pieces in a room rather than multiple small items if you want to create a luxurious feel, according to Rehman. 

“There’s a fine art of not cramming your space with too much stuff and underdoing it to where all the furniture feels like it’s miniature,” Rehman said. 

Many people fill their bathroom counters with products, but Rehman told BI that’s a quick way to make your space feel cheap. 

“Put your shit away,” Rehman said plainly. “Do not have all your products on the countertop. Especially if you’re dealing with a smaller bathroom, that empty visual space is your friend that makes your bathroom feel high-end.”

For instance, on your counters, it’s better to have a few products you use every day rather than every item you own. 

“It makes it feel bigger. It makes it feel cleaner. And honestly, when everything is organized, it’s so much easier to get ready in the morning and get ready at nighttime when you know where everything is,” Rehman said.

“When you’re dealing with a bathroom, really be intentional on what’s out and what’s hidden and put away,” he added.

And if you don’t have much storage space, remember to invest in functional items with aesthetic appeal, such as coordinating soap-bottle sets. 

As Rehman told BI, people often think matching sets will look good in their bedrooms because they see them set up in furniture stores.

“It looks so good when you walk into a store, and everything matches because they set it up in a certain way, but the second you take it home and you put it in your bedroom, it literally just looks like you went to a big box store, picked up that room, and dropped it into your house,” Rehman said.

“It has no personality, it doesn’t look collected, it doesn’t look designer, it doesn’t feel high-end at all,” he went on to say. “Instead of doing that, the same exact money that you’re spending on that, spend it on mismatched pieces that are cohesive.”

Rehman advises people to look for pieces that complement each other rather than buying a set, as they will make the room feel thought out and welcoming.

Although comfort is important for pieces like couches or beds, Rehman finds that people often focus too much on how a piece of furniture feels when shopping for their homes.

“When people are going to buy furniture, they focus so heavily on the comfort and they don’t focus on the style,” he said. “They end up buying this big bubbly couch that has lots of padding and it has like a built-in cupholder and the USB chargers. That’s great for maybe a movie room, but in your main living room where you’re entertaining, you want to feel sexy, and you want to have people over, and you want to create different moods. That is not the place for that kind of furniture.”

Prioritizing comfort above all else also frustrates Rehman because there are so many affordable, comfortable pieces with aesthetic appeal, he said. 

“In today’s market, there’s been so much innovation with the world of design and furniture that finding things that are stylish and comfortable is so much easier than it was five years ago,” he said. “Just take that little extra step and go find things that are the best of both worlds.”