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

Rehman, 24, is an interior designer and the owner of the Bilal Rehman Studio based in Houston, Texas.

Rehman designs for people of all incomes, but he got his start in luxury decor, specializing in high-end spaces. His studio is also opening an immersive gallery to spotlight up-and-coming artists. 

“I have an appreciation for the world of luxury because of the attention to detail and the craftsmanship,” he told Business Insider. 

Rehman turned his expertise into a viral sensation with his TikTok, where he shares his home decor advice. 

A video he made about common ways people make their homes look cheap got over 17 million views. Rehman expanded on his advice for BI, sharing ways people miss opportunities to make their spaces look luxurious in almost every room of their homes.

“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. 

Rehman said kitchens often look “cluttered” and cheap when you fill your cabinets with flatware, dinnerware, and glassware that don’t match. 

“It doesn’t look cohesive or expensive. It starts to look like you went and dug through a bargain bin to find all these pieces, but for the same price, you could buy a really beautiful matching set of mugs or plates or appliances to elevate your space,” Rehman said. 

He also advises people to think about aesthetics as well as function for any item that is going to live on their countertops, pointing to Smeg toasters as an example.

“There are cheaper alternatives of course, but Smeg is a great player in the game of taking something that is utilitarian and making it artistic,” he added. “I have a chrome Smeg toaster on my countertop and I love it. It’s just so pretty to look at, and it’s taking something so basic and making it elevated.”

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. 

For people who don’t live in luxury homes, it may feel like there’s nothing you can do to elevate your bathroom, so you simply throw a shower curtain up and find the most affordable bath mats for under your shower and toilet. 

But Rehman said thinking strategically about your choice of bath mat can actually make a huge difference. 

“Don’t buy a whole bunch of different bath mats, like the small bath mats that are meant to go in front of the toilet or the shower or the sink,” Rehman advised. “Instead, try to get a large-scale rug or a large-scale runner that really creates this unified piece in your bathroom and makes it feel clean and simple.”

Rehman knows some people might feel hesitant about putting a real rug in a bathroom, but he encourages people to remember there are a myriad of water-friendly materials rugs come in. 

“Just get a cool rug from Ruggable and throw it in your washing machine every couple of weeks,” he added. “That looks so much better in the end than all these mismatched mats that are moving all over the place.”

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.

Rehman said many people miss out on an opportunity to elevate their exterior spaces by not approaching their decor as they would with their home’s interior spaces.

“Don’t be afraid to accessorize your outdoor space,” he said, encouraging people to use rugs and layers outdoors. “Put art on your brick on the outside of your house.”

“You’re going to walk outside, and there’s going be a seamless flow from the inside to the out,” Rehman added. “It just makes your space feel so much grander and so much more put together.”

He also recommends using the natural colors of the environment of your exterior spaces to influence your decor choices, as it will make it easy for your purchases to make a big impact. 

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.”