How to Create a Stunning Focal Wall for Your Living Room _ Julie Khuu

So to me , something as simple as concealed storage .

So baskets for things , closed door cabinetry goes a long way towards being a little , a bit more practical .

So keeping the stuff that's maybe not super attractive because you do need it realistically .

It's because you don't live in an architectural digest magazine , but you're still able to maintain the rest of your space looking really beautiful .

Ok .

Next up is going to be really unique items , personal items preferably .

Now again , I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that everything in my home is some completely like beautiful found piece that is not manufactured and found at like an IKEA .

I'm not going to tell you that you're probably looking around my background right now being like , yeah , we know that that's not , and that's fine .

But like , that's not because , like , I don't know , that's not real for most people .

But I would say that if you can find some pieces , just some that just tell a little bit of a story and reflect sort of who you are .

You know , if you're a vintage person , if you're an antique person , if you're a thrift shop person , go have at it .

If you know , you like to travel and you like to bring home souvenirs and you want to just play that , go for it .

If you're a photographer and you want to frame your own stuff , amateur photographer though , you may be and you want to like take some beautiful shots and then , you know , print them out and then put them and frame them and put them on your wall , all that stuff , I think goes a long way to making your space feel a lot more personal .

And again , it's going to tell that story of who you are .

I think , you know , some people say design doesn't matter in which case , go live in a hospital for a few weeks and then tell me design doesn't matter because it matters , right .

Go live in a prison and tell me design doesn't matter .

It does design matters .

And so to me , you know , having a space that you love that tells your story does matter .

Obviously , that's why I do what I do .

And II , I obviously believe that , but I think it's really important that it also reflects who you are .

And that means , you know , taking pieces that you have found that you really enjoy and showing them .

Because I think one of the best parts of a design too is that unlike , say , clothing , which reflects who you are as well .

You get to welcome people into your home and they get to kind of experience who you are in like a really real honest way .

They get to come and spend time in your home .

They get to experience you first hand on a kind of a practical basis .

It's kind of like just like layering an outfit , you know , like you've kind of got multiple pieces and then you've got kind of your jewelry and you've got whatever and it just sort of kind of really elevates your outfit and makes it feel a lot more interesting .

The same is true with wall treatments .

It typically just kind of fades into the background and provides a nice backdrop for the rest of the space .

Now , wall coverings also work like beautiful wallpapers .

You can use everything from really simple , like a nice gorgeous grass cloth all the way to some like a really funky jungle print or some sort of really interesting print that you love something geometric , maybe lots of different options on the wall treatment side that you can do as well as you know , vertical slat walls , stone .

I mean , if you've got the budget for it , of course , gorgeous , like lots of different gorgeous wall treatments that you can do , going to make your space feel more interesting , gonna feel a lot more expensive and a lot more custom and tailored to you .

OK .

Next up on my list is going to be to create vignettes in your space .

So in the context of interior design , a vignette refers to a sort of carefully curated arrangements of different displays of really interesting objects and furniture and sort of decorative elements within sort of a defined space , right ?

But I think the stuff that's reserved for the garage , the lighting that's meant for a garage is not lighting that should be brought into your home .

I would also say something that people don't talk about enough when it comes to color .

Temperature is being consistent .

So what I cannot stand , what literally gives me a headache is , is when I see a lamp that's got a really like warm golden light , but then you've got another lamp and it's a really bright white and now you've got mixing lighting temperatures .

Oh , that gets me , you know , at least be consistent , get something , get bulbs , whether it's the Phillips U or the whatever or you just get a consistent lighting temperature and use that throughout the space .

Find something that you like .

I would veer it less on the hospital lighting and more on the nice warm , comfortable lighting .

That's just my personal preference , but be consistent with your lighting temperature .

Also put things on dimmers .

So yes , dimmers are really important because you can kind of set some ambience , you can kind of set the mood a little bit in your space because oftentimes a max brightness is not attractive for anybody .

Ok .

It's just not .

So I think going for something where you can dial back some of the brightness is going to be huge .

So getting coffee table books in areas and interest that you understand , not necessarily just the Tom Ford book or the Chanel book everybody else has , but a coffee table book that really speaks to you or multiple just little objects that you really enjoy and sort of tell the story of kind of who you are and you know , they might be in the color palette that you've chosen for the rest of the space and just make it feel really type and coordinated .

This is in my opinion , one of the ways that open shelving can be really well utilized because it is creating kind of a wall unit that is very curated and not something that sort of feels really haphazard .

My personal take , hot take as it may be , some people might not agree is a lot of the like ugly stuff that people practically actually have in their home .

Oftentimes they're better suited to put behind closed shelving and open shelving , which you should limit because I don't think you have that much nice things .

To be honest with you , the , the open shelving should be reserved for these sort of pieces that kind of tell a little bit of a story and are really beautiful and they sort of are balanced in their compositions .

You've got some pieces that are high , some pieces that are low , you know , it's , it's balanced .

You don't necessarily have a whole bunch of objects on one side and then nothing on the other .

You know , they sort of vary in size .

They've got lots of different textures and colors happening there .

I just really sort of tell a story and I think that these vignettes really sort of are what people see when they see on Instagram and they sort of see in some of these design shows and they go , God that looks beautiful .

Why does it , and why does it my home ?

And oftentimes that's it , it's , it's a , it's an area of the home that is curated and special and interesting .

And I think that really makes the place feel premium and a lot more expensive .

Ok .

Next up on my list is going to be keep it clean and organized .

I feel like this one should be kind of obvious but surprisingly kind of like not really , but also speaking to what I was mentioning earlier of like the not so pretty stuff that you have , which might be practical and super important to have .

And I get that if you can store it or you can find places for it so that you're organized , it's gonna go a long way to make your space feel more expensive and more kind of custom and tailored to you , right ?

It's gonna look a lot more beautiful because it's not gonna have clutter .

So clutter is not , you don't have to be a minimalist , right ?

So putting things on dimmers is very , very important using ambient lighting , task lighting and accent lighting , very very important .

So having the one light in the center of the room , probably not going to be enough .

You want to make your space feel like more expensive , a lot more interesting , have a dynamic lighting plan where you got lots of different lighting types in necessary .

I mean , maybe not a lot .

So you don't need like 12 , but like , you know , have a few different sources for light can really make a big difference .

Also , if your space is really dark , maximize that natural light .

If you can , natural light is fantastic , it's wonderful .

If you can maximize it , I would in any way you can .

So that means not covering it with these heavy drapery panels .

If you already don't have a lot of lighting , there , be very aware of how much light lighting you have .

And also adjust accordingly to try to get as much of it as you can because my natural lighting is beautiful .

Let's be honest , I would also say in terms of lighting , got a lot to say on the subject .

I would say that choose interesting lighting , it literally lights up .

You want to talk about a focal point in the room .

There you go .

Like your lighting really makes a big difference .

And I would say swapping out that tired old boob light that I have told you to swap out 10 times before .

But you never actually did time to do it .

Time to swap out the boob .

It's not doing you any favors .

Find something a little bit more interesting .

There's and you don't have to spend a lot of money .

This is an area , by the way where I would say yes , there's gorgeous designer lighting .

You don't need to spend a lot of money on lighting .

It can look a lot more expensive by just shopping for some beautiful lights .

I can link some down in the description that I think are really beautiful , semi flush mounts , flush mounts , pendants , whatever .

They're all fantastic .

There's great ones at lots of different price points .

This is an area you don't have to spend a lot of money , but it will make a big difference in making your space look more expensive .

Ok .

Next up , it's going to be large scale art and mirrors .

So I think that a lot of times the scale of art is off and people like to choose really small pieces .

Oftentimes I think this is budget and I get it if you can Diy , go for it , grab an old canvas from home goods , that's probably hideous .

And then do it yourself and like paint over it .

And again , you know , if you want to go to some artist or an art gallery and you want to buy something super expensive and you're like , oh , this art is by , look at this amazing artist behind me , then you go for it .

But if you don't have the budget for it , but you want to look the part , go with some really cool prints , there's cool prints that are out there .

Photography is fantastic .

Lots of different places that you can get great art that is not as mass produced .

Like it's not the Amsterdam photo from IKEA that we've all seen a bazillion times .

It's a little bit more interesting than that .

Something a little bit more uniquely your own personality .

That can be fantastic too .

So gallery wall can help you cluster to sort of fill some space .

But a large scale art piece is really going to make a big difference .

I'll also say mirrors , same sort of category mirrors also have the advantage of opening up a space which is awesome if you have a say a smaller room and you know , you don't really know , you want to make it a little bit bigger .

I would , you know , put a large mirror there , you can lead it up against a wall absolutely gorgeous if you have the space for it .

And this actually is an area where a home sense or whatever can actually make a lot of sense .

Going with a larger scale mirror .

Just be careful not to point mirrors into each other .

OK .

Be mindful of that .

So make sure that it reflects who you are .

And you know , if you can have some personal objects maybe mixed in with some , you know , mass produced stuff can be fine .

I think it helps , you know , make your place like a lot more expensive , a lot more customized to you and more authentic to who you are .

And I think that goes a long way to making your space in my view feel really expensive .

Ok .

Next up is going to be lighting upgrade your lighting , people underestimate lighting .

And I feel like I do talk about lighting a lot on the channel and for good reason because lighting is very important .

We , we tend to stress about like getting out the paint swatches .

To determine , ah , do I go with Chan to simply light ?

The truth is honestly , sometimes a lot of it , it just comes down to lighting , how lighting affects the rest of your space is massive .

You can take a mediocre space and make it fantastic in my view by just simply swapping out some of the lighting .

So , when I'm talking lighting , I'm talking about a few things , I'm talking about color temperature .

So choosing something that is a little bit more on the warmer side , you know , rather than choose , it's fine .

If you want to choose like a brighter white , that's ok .

We all have our preference .

That's ok .

No one wants to see the mirrors bounce back and forth .

It's like a , I don't know .

It , it's very matrix .

II I don't like it .

So I would say be careful of that .

But other than that large scale art , large scale mirrors makes your place look a lot more premium .

Trust me .

Ok .

Next up is going to be make your living room more expensive scents and flowers .

Um If you are sensitive to scents because there's always that person in the comment , I see you .

I hear you then don't put it in .

You just don't have to take this advice .

That's why does anybody take any advice ?

Like I don't know , they just do .

So that's cool .

But uh you don't have to , you know what I mean ?

Like if you don't , if you're allergic to scents , don't put them in .

Also mindful of your guests .

You know , if you have some like really heavy incense or something , maybe that's overwhelming everybody .

We're not trying to recreate some like no , but you might want to just like freshen your space up with a nice scent .

If that's , you know , something subtle , something subtle , a beautiful candle my favorite .

I'll also link which I love .

I've bought that candle like many , many times .

Find a scent that really speaks to you .

It could be citrusy , it could be cinnamon .

It can be beget .

It can be , I don't know , I've run out of cents .

You know what I mean ?

Like it could be floral , whatever you wanna do and find something that works for you .

It's loose .

But you see the connection , I would consider both of those great options to make your space feel more expensive .

And my last one would be to really take into account having a cohesive color scheme .

So taking a step back when you're designing your living room and thinking of the color scheme before you start going to home set , why do I keep picking on home sense today ?

You guys , well , they deserve it rather than just going shopping and just like buying a bunch of crap .

I hope it works .

Have a plan , like have a plan for what you're going to do .

You know , I cover this in my course .

By the way , Shane , let's plug link below , but it's basically like finding a cohesive color scheme that works for you .

Sort out your wood tones , sort out your color palette , find inspiration from wallpaper that you love , art that you love and really stick to that color scheme .

It doesn't have to be like two or three colors .

You don't have to go for like a monochromatic beige space .

You can go for something that's got 567 colors if you want , you've got maybe your primary , you've got some secondary colors and some accent colors , really dive deep and understand your color scheme before you necessarily go out and shop because I think that goes a long way to making your space feel really cohesive and tied together because oftentimes walk into these designer spaces and we're like , why does all this work ?

And it's because they're repeating the same colors throughout the space .

There's a rhythm in the design because your eye is drawn to these colors around the room and it makes the space harmonious , it feels cohesive , it feels put together .

And that to me is a big part of making a space feel more expensive that plus some personal touches , some beautiful space planning and you've got a gorgeous space that looks well designed that looks expensive in premium .

And we're not talking about buying expensive or as blankets , which I've already made fun of in a video .

We're talking about good old fashioned practical interior design tips that honestly really do make the space feel put together and more expensive and that's what we're all about here .

So I will see you all in the next video .

Thank you all for this one .

I'm going to link here to some living room , design mistakes video that I did , which is I think my most popular video on my channel , to be honest .

So now that you've listened to what to do , maybe look at what not to do and then uh go from there .

So I'll see you all in the next video .

Thanks a lot .

Bye .

And again , you know , if you want to go to some artist or an art gallery and you want to buy something super expensive and you're like , oh , this art is by , look at this amazing artist behind me , then you go for it .

But if you don't have the budget for it , but you want to look the part , go with some really cool prints , there's cool prints that are out there .

Photography is fantastic .

Lots of different places that you can get great art that is not as mass produced .

Like it's not the Amsterdam photo from IKEA that we've all seen a bazillion times .

It's a little bit more interesting than that .

Something a little bit more uniquely your own personality .

That can be fantastic too .

So gallery wall can help you cluster to sort of fill some space .

But a large scale art piece is really going to make a big difference .

I'll also say mirrors , same sort of category mirrors also have the advantage of opening up a space which is awesome if you have a say a smaller room and you know , you don't really know , you want to make it a little bit bigger .

I would , you know , put a large mirror there , you can lead it up against a wall absolutely gorgeous if you have the space for it .

And this actually is an area where a home sense or whatever can actually make a lot of sense .

Going with a larger scale mirror .

Just be careful not to point mirrors into each other .

OK .

Be mindful of that .

No one wants to see the mirrors bounce back and forth .

It's like a , I don't know .

It , it's very matrix .

II I don't like it .

So I would say be careful of that .

But other than that large scale art , large scale mirrors makes your place look a lot more premium .

Trust me .

Ok .

Next up is going to be make your living room more expensive scents and flowers .

Um If you are sensitive to scents because there's always that person in the comment , I see you .

I hear you then don't put it in .

You just don't have to take this advice .

That's why does anybody take any advice ?

Like I don't know , they just do .

So that's cool .

But uh you don't have to , you know what I mean ?

Like if you don't , if you're allergic to scents , don't put them in .

Also mindful of your guests .

You know , if you have some like really heavy incense or something , maybe that's overwhelming everybody .

We're not trying to recreate some like no , but you might want to just like freshen your space up with a nice scent .

If that's , you know , something subtle , something subtle , a beautiful candle my favorite .

I'll also link which I love .

I've bought that candle like many , many times .

Find a scent that really speaks to you .

It could be citrusy , it could be cinnamon .

It can be beget .

It can be , I don't know , I've run out of cents .

You know what I mean ?

Like it could be floral , whatever you wanna do and find something that works for you .

A diffuser can work and senses can work .

Candles can work , find something that sort of makes your space feel a little bit more fresh and interesting and just subtle .

It's one of the senses that is so often ignored .

Right ?

And there's a reason why the old like realtor trick where you bake cookies , no one does that anymore .

I want to go to an open house and have some baked cookies for me , but I've never had a cookie at an open house .

So these realtors are really phoning it in because that was always an old realtor trick .

But I haven't had a cookie in a long time .

Something to think about .

You know , you don't have to bake the cookies .

But like there's a reason why people do that is because it is an , it's a scent .

It , it's one of our senses that is so often ignored and it really does help you because I would say a scent transports you unlike any other scent .

Do you know what I mean ?

Like if you smell someone's perfume that they used to have like , oh it like takes you back , doesn't it ?

So scent ?

You know , it's really important to consider scent in your living room in your space , especially because you're gonna be doing a lot of entertaining there .

And I would say it's just something to consider fresh flowers .

I'm gonna put in sort of the same category here .

Not only are they visually appealing and beautiful , but also can provide a little bit of scent as well .

So that's why they're kind of in the same category .

It's loose .

But you see the connection , I would consider both of those great options to make your space feel more expensive .

And my last one would be to really take into account having a cohesive color scheme .

So taking a step back when you're designing your living room and thinking of the color scheme before you start going to home set , why do I keep picking on home sense today ?

You guys , well , they deserve it rather than just going shopping and just like buying a bunch of crap .

I hope it works .

Have a plan , like have a plan for what you're going to do .

You know , I cover this in my course .

By the way , Shane , let's plug link below , but it's basically like finding a cohesive color scheme that works for you .

Sort out your wood tones , sort out your color palette , find inspiration from wallpaper that you love , art that you love and really stick to that color scheme .

It doesn't have to be like two or three colors .

You don't have to go for like a monochromatic beige space .

You can go for something that's got 567 colors if you want , you've got maybe your primary , you've got some secondary colors and some accent colors , really dive deep and understand your color scheme before you necessarily go out and shop because I think that goes a long way to making your space feel really cohesive and tied together because oftentimes walk into these designer spaces and we're like , why does all this work ?

And it's because they're repeating the same colors throughout the space .

There's a rhythm in the design because your eye is drawn to these colors around the room and it makes the space harmonious , it feels cohesive , it feels put together .

And that to me is a big part of making a space feel more expensive that plus some personal touches , some beautiful space planning and you've got a gorgeous space that looks well designed that looks expensive in premium .

And we're not talking about buying expensive or as blankets , which I've already made fun of in a video .

We're talking about good old fashioned practical interior design tips that honestly really do make the space feel put together and more expensive and that's what we're all about here .

So I will see you all in the next video .

Thank you all for this one .

I'm going to link here to some living room , design mistakes video that I did , which is I think my most popular video on my channel , to be honest .

So now that you've listened to what to do , maybe look at what not to do and then uh go from there .

So I'll see you all in the next video .

Thanks a lot .

Bye .