To ask what makes a home look luxurious/posh/modern?

[minniemummy0]

No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to get our home looking as nice as some of my friends. There’s just something I can’t put my finger on. So far I’ve worked out some common things - such as new, clean, plush carpets, or candles burning. For some reason they all seem to have an L shaped sofa. What makes you really feel “wowed” by someone’s home??

Lol! None of those stately homes with their family portrait lined banqueting rooms are remotely posh.

But those canvases have hefty frames around them!

Lol Rosewhiterips, what are ‘genuinely middle class people’!?

Does having a dark gray sofa lock me out of the middle classes? (And do I go up or down ?)

Books. Lots of books. Pictures that aren't from Ikea/chain stores (as PP have said, don't have to be expensive - just not ones that everyone else has...there was a distinctive Ikea one that four different friends had at one point)

I love my cousin's house which is an old cottage full of faded and non patchy stuff. I also like white, clean, light space. But I agree with many people on here about avoiding all the matchy matchy stuff etc. I do like a mix of modern and industrial, books, rugs, wooden floors. I don't like anything that makes me feel like I am in a hotel or an episode of Footballers' Wives. But hey, we are all different

that should read matchy not patchy

IKEA sells some good quality furniture we've had the emerald green velvet Stockholm sofa for over five years and still looks great. I have an antique kilim I bought in Istanbul which is in pinks and oranges it shouldn't work but somehow it does.

We're moving house and I am having to let go quite a few lovely old inherited individual pieces (rugs, desks, occasional tables etc) which have until now lent an eclectic touch to other cheaper stuff we've acquired over the years. Kilims, for example, too dirty and worn beyond repair. Two bureaux - the new place (plain 1960s bungalow, in my gullible eyes mid-century wonderful) won't have room for either and they would look out of place.

I came from a bohemian background / family home and try and make our home feel similarly homely but it's hard on a tight budget when all the lovely inherited stuff is worn and filthy. We had a quote a few years ago to restore a holey and dirty antique Persian rug - they were going to send it back to the village where it was made - but no way could we afford such wild extravagance. Ditto the beautiful old horse hair stuffed sofas - my mum had stripped the leather down to reupholster but was she too old by then so they stayed in their hessian undergarments and we sent them to auction, got a fraction of their value.

But it's those sorts of individual pieces that give the sort of look I like, except not filthy and in tatters. To buy the same restored will be forever beyond our budget.

Things I agree on:

Bookcases - should be hip-height and line long walls or connecting corridors. Or if you have high ceilings, a full wall and a sliding ladder.

Books, books, books - fiction, non fiction, the more random the subjects the better and ideally in several languages and written by family and friends (or ancestors if you don't know any living writers).
Ditto original artwork - pictures, ceramics, sculpture, tapestries, rugs.

White walls. White walls. White walls.

Wooden floors (preferably original and solid - laminate just doesn't do it for me)

Antique white cotton or Irish linen bedlinen, with 10000000000 thread count - never labelled but you can tell (modern high thread count is like tissue in comparison).

Travel trunks (preferably inherited and covered with ancient stamps and peeling labels from countries that no longer exist) as coffee tables.

Ancient brass taps.

Window seats, (internal window shutters a much sought after bonus)

Long, good quality lined curtains, preferably vintage.

I shudder when I think of all the stuff we've got rid of but we just don't have the space.

Dame I agree with you on Abigail Abern, I’ve been to her house for one of her masterclasses and own lots of her faux flowers. I took on board her advice on the magic of playing with scale, as well as using circular shapes (such as a round mirror) in a room full of squares and it really works.

Love your house whatever it is - all styles can look wonderful if their owners love them and embrace that style of living. We are in a Haussmanien apartment in Paris at the moment, but have lived in an Edwardian house in London and a mid-century gem in Berlin. I loved them all in their own way. I don't agree that new-builds are a non-starter - anywhere can look fabulous with a bit of love. You don't need to spend a fortune either - look in magazines and on-line to get ideas and then copy those ideas within your budget. Just don't buy it all from the same shop at the same time - we've got some cheap bits and pieces mixed in and people are astonished when I say they come from IKEA. But love your house and be proud of it - no need to apologise about what it is not, celebrate it for what it is.

I went to a lovely house, lent to my DSis, years ago, for a weekend, and could not get over the decor. It was all very nice, clean and comfortable, but every room was absolutely stamped with the season in which it had been decorated. The owner (I didn't and don't know him/her personally) had clearly bought a fashionable look to do that room, right then. There was no sense of a personal or family aesthetic. My house is probably much shabbier, but it's our house and the aesthetic choices have clearly evolved.

No kids :)

We have wooden floors throughout the house and very high ceilings, omg the bloody echo in the house is driving us to the brink of insanity. I never thought I would want carpets ever, but I long for them now in the hope it would muffle the noise in the house.

IKEA sells some good quality furniture we've had the emerald green velvet Stockholm sofa for over five years and still looks great. I have an antique kilim I bought in Istanbul which is in pinks and oranges it shouldn't work but somehow it does.

Pink and orange go well with green. Think of the colours in nature, orange marigolds or gerberas, and pink peonies or cherry blossom, against the green of the foliage.

Our sitting room is a mixture of things but people always comment that it has a lovely feel to it.
Original fireplace with black slate surround fire and art nouveau tiled insert and real fire
Polished wooden floorboards
Two big squishy cotton loose cover sofas and armchair - chalk white with green and pink scatter cushions
One Danish retro sofa and armchair chair - emerald green velvet with hot pink scatter cushions.
Two low coffee tables
1970s Guccini standard lamp
Art deco big red glass ball table lamp x 2
Paintings
Large tall glass vase full of pussy willow
Two walls are all glass
White walls

It sounds hideous but I love it. It looks over the garden and is really big. It is sunny and peaceful and not overlooked. I don't think anyone could call it stylish but all the bits sort of work togethet by chance.

Oriental/Petsian rug as well.

Persian although the cats do lounge on it.

Sounds lovely Lulu. Think the general consensus is that a home should be personal, evolved over time and not too precious or perfect. Some people couldn't give a shit about decor and that's fine too - I love interiors and they give me enormous pleasure.

It depends on whether by "posh" you mean luxury footballers wives/hotel style, or upper class/upper middle style? From your mention of plush carpets and everything looking perfect it sounds more like you're after the footballers wives look. No idea how to achieve that!

If you mean "posh" UM/UC then you need wooden floorboards, rugs, a mixture of modern and more traditional art, pictures etc. Lots of book shelves, antique furniture mixed perhaps with more modern functional furniture, a piano, preferably grand. Television hidden away in another room, or pretty small. The types of chairs that belong with their backs to the wall. It's all a bit muddled, lived-in and eclectic I suppose.

I also think that if you are looking to impress visitors then you need to focus your attention on the rooms visitors see. That means making sure your hallway is up to scratch - none's house looks it's best if you are greeted with a heap of shoes, pile of coats and stack of junk mail and papers. For that reason I also think it's important to make sure your loo is up to scratch and definitely clean and fragrant. Your sitting room sounds lovely Lulu - you obviously love it and I always think you can't beat a garden outlook. Sadly that's something I don't have at the moment, but I'm learning to love my window boxes which I have at every window - they can tidied (or even replaced) in an instant so much lower maintenance than a garden - still very jealous of yours though

Lillian makes good points. As a guest I always notice (and appreciate) a nice towel and some lovely soap in the downstairs toilet. Neither need be that expensive but they do make a difference.

Carpets are your answer, Alpha. Our house would be unbearable without them. If the next occupants want to live with 17 century floorboards with howling gales blowing through all the cracks, good luck to them. It's not for me.

Space is the ultimate luxury. Crowded, cluttered rooms don't look posh or luxurious, whether you are a footballer's wife or a dowager duchess. It's the old rule, finish dressing, and then remove the item you like least.