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Spruce Up Your Home With These Easy, Cost-Effective Decorating Tips

  • November 1, 2022
CreativaStudio / Getty Images

CreativaStudio / Getty Images

Make your home look like a million bucks by only throwing down a couple hundred. You can do so with some tips that align with the idea of “budget-luxury” fix-ups.

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Born out of the TikTok community, hashtags for #budgetluxury and #cheapestthing showcase how to look like you have a lot of money with any level of income.

There are tips for buying the least expensive items from designer brands to look like they’re part of your go-to style, and ideas for how to spruce up your home without investing a ton of funds. The latter is an especially ideal practice if you have rental properties or Airbnbs you want to make look more appealing.

Insider talked to one pro, Clare McLaughlin, who is a hugely successful TikTok star with 1.1 million followers and more than 25 million likes on her videos covering the budget-luxury trend. And she has the knowledge for it, too, having earned a master of fine arts degree in interior design and living in the luxury capital of the U.S. — New York City.

As she told Insider, the key is “being resourceful with your current living situation, and shopping on a budget for little upgrades that will make your home feel more expensive.”

One of her biggest tips is a surprising one — trying to show off with luxury knockoffs actually defeats the purpose. Budget pieces that have a faux luxury look, such as inexpensive linens with fancy lettering — what McLauglin calls “luxury signaling” — will come off as tacky. Instead, stick with basic designs that are made well.

Another big tip: Don’t buy anything that matches. Furniture in coordinating sets for

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Things to think about when doing home renovations

  • July 18, 2022

Renovations can be a massive challenge whenever you are doing them yourself as a DIY project, or are hiring professional contractors to do the job. There are a lot of horror stories involving contractors and home renovations that essentially become ugly and eyesore heavy money pits that never get completed and become a big problem for the home. 

In order to ensure that you don’t fall victim to the problems of home renovations, and that you get a good renovation that will be done without any issues or problems, you do need to put in some work and ensure that you are asking the right questions and that you are taking the correct precautions to get the job done well.

1. Starting Renovations Too Soon

Maybe people tend to have a problem with rushing their renovations. They simply buy a house and plan to do all of these grand renovations, without even living in it first. That’s like going into a clothing store and buying everything without even trying it on first. While the strategy does work for some people, it doesn’t have a 100% success rate, and renovations the second you buy the home is a massive problem as well. 

You should live in the house for at least a little while before starting your renovations, to figure out what you want to keep the same and what you want to remove. Who knows, once you live in it for a while, you might find that the rough shackle kitchen you wanted to tear down and modernize is actually rustic and charming. You wouldn’t have known that if you had taken a hammer to that kitchen the second you moved in.

2. Hiring The Wrong Constructor or Contractor

If you don’t want to do a do it yourself renovation,

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