If you are working on a kitchen renovation, planning for one, or wanting to refresh your kitchen at all, I have come up with some budget friendly ideas that you can use to make it look more luxurious.

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1 – Replace Floor Mats with Long Runners

If you have floor mats around your kitchen, maybe in front of your sink, your stove, or your kitchen island, I would replace those for long runners.

Something that is going to span the length of your floor space to make your entire kitchen look larger and more tailored in its design.

You can implement an accenting color scheme this way, add texture and interest to your flooring, and it adds a nice soft furnishing detail that every designer kitchen has.

2 – Upgrading Your Countertop Essentials

Another very easy upgrade you can make to any kitchen is upgrading your countertop essentials.

These are going to be things that are left out on your countertop at all times, all of your functional pieces. These could be your spoon rest, trays, soap dispensers, canisters, your wooden spoons, anything that you want to have out at all times should be integrated into your kitchen design.

Try to create one cohesive look across your kitchen so that if these things are left out, they still look good on your countertop.

All of these small pieces can actually be used as styling décor around your kitchen.

So cutting boards are a great piece, they’re functional but they also add a ton of warmth to your kitchen, so having them out on your countertops, and using them as trays or leaning them against your backsplash, always adds a lot of style.

you can also swap out your kitchen towels to something a little bit more stylish.

Having stylish countertop appliances that really work with the overall design helps them blend into the space, so you don’t notice them as clutter on the counter.

Canisters are a great way of storing those everyday products—maybe your tea bags, your coffee beans, or your coffee pods. Store them away in stylish canisters. It really goes a long way. Any items that you want left out on display, make sure they work with your space.

3 – Your Countertop Finish

When it comes to countertops, one detail you should consider is the finish. You’re going to have to pick between a polished finish or a honed finish.

I would always recommend going with the honed finish. This is going to create more of a matte, leathered, velvety look as opposed to shiny.

Shiny really shows all of the imperfections, so if you have any marks and spills and crumbs, the shiny surface will always show that a lot more.

So, I always recommend going with a honed finish. I think it’s timeless; it feels amazing; it looks a lot more elevated, and it is going to create more of an expensive look.

The more natural look you can get from the stone, the better. As soon as you add shine on it, it starts to look a little bit manufactured, so taking that down and going for a honed finish is really going to give you that elevated look.

4 – Upgrade Your Kitchen Lighting

You should always have three types of lighting in your kitchen;

• Integrated lighting
• Task lighting
• Mood lighting

Integrated Lighting

Integrated lighting could just be your under cabinet lighting that really lights up your countertop space—that’s always going to be the first level of elevating your kitchen design through lighting.

Then you can take it to the next level by implementing lighting by your toe kicks. You could implement lighting inside of your cabinet. You can integrate motion-sensor lighting.

You can obviously plan for all this when you’re doing a full kitchen renovation, but if you’re working with your existing kitchen, you can also do this through strip lighting, through motion sensor lighting, stick-on lighting—you can find all these things on Amazon.

Task Lighting

You should, of course, have all of your task lights, which are going to be your ceiling lights—the lights you can flick on and your kitchen lights up. These are going to be your pendant lights and ceiling lights.

Mood Lighting

Lastly, you should absolutely have mood lighting in your kitchen.

I love to use my kitchen in the evening to bake and really create a cozy space in there, and mood lighting would help achieve that.

These could be small lamps that are very easy to add into corners of your kitchen to help add an overall calm lighting feel.

You can also add sconces, which will add a beautiful design element but also some gorgeous, calm mood lighting. You can do the same with picture lights that are really going to help you frame out beautiful design features.

I think all of these lighting fixtures together will make for a beautiful lighting design in your kitchen. So, if you’re missing any of these types of lighting in your kitchen, make sure you add them in for that designer look.

Related: 9 Interior Design Styling Secrets You Should Know | Design Hacks

5 – Cabinet Design

If you’re working on a kitchen renovation and planning out your cabinet design, make sure you implement these two types of upper cabinets.

1. Upper Cabinets That go All The Way to The Ceiling

Firstly, upper cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. So starting from your backsplash up into your ceiling will be all cabinets.

You can break these up into different types of cabinets—maybe small ones on top, large ones below—or these can be large, long doors.

This is going to make your kitchen look huge instantly. So it’s definitely a finishing detail that I think every designer or expensive-looking kitchen has.

That gap between upper cabinets and the ceiling is just a huge dust collector. It’s really a waste of space, and you can create more storage opportunity by turning that into more cabinets.

2.Countertop Cabinets

Another style cabinet that is seen in all designer kitchens now, is the countertop cabinet.

So, these cabinet towers go from the ceiling all the way down to the countertop. This creates a little bit more dimension to your kitchen design so that it’s not just a strip of upper cabinets and a strip of lower cabinets. These also coincide with appliance garages.

6 – Appliance Garage

Appliance garages are the thing to have in your kitchen if you’re going for a designer elevated look.

You can hide your toaster, your blender—all of the mess—behind the garage door. It will instantly clean up the look of your kitchen without you putting any effort in.

So if you can include an appliance garage, you are absolutely winning when it comes to kitchen design.

7 – Panel-Ready Appliances

Now, typically in custom designer kitchens, the only appliance you ever see is the oven. Every other functional appliance is hidden away, which is typically your fridge and your dishwasher. These are best to get in panel-ready options.

So, if you can get a panel-ready fridge, a panel-ready dishwasher, you can create the look of full cabinetry across your kitchen and hide those appliances away. These are going to be unfinished appliances that you can add that cabinet front to.

These are also going to be a little bit more flexible as well, because you can always change out that panel for a new look when you change your kitchen. So, I think it’s the most ideal option. It’s definitely more money upfront, but it is going to give you more flexibility, stability, and longevity in your kitchen design.

8 – Backsplash

There are three design elements that you need to choose for your kitchen design: your cabinets, your countertops, and your backsplash.

There’s a ton of backsplash options out there, and I think people can start to skew their kitchen design when it comes to the backsplash.

It’s really the first thing you see when you walk into your kitchen, it’s at eye level, and it can either be distracting or it can aid the kitchen design.

I think the best option right now is a slab splash. I love the way they look; it really creates a clean, timeless, just simplified look to your kitchen. And it can either draw a ton of attention to it in a bold way, or it can make your kitchen look very clean and simple.

So, it depends on what kind of stone you go for. But continuing that countertop finish up onto the backsplash helps simplify your design.

I think slab splashes can also make your kitchen look a lot larger, cause the continuous line of the stone just fully expands throughout the space. So, it really helps expand the look of your kitchen if you’re going for a larger look and feel.

I think a lot of individual backsplash tile tends to look trendy; it’s something that you feel like you might need to change every so often. So, I think a timeless, classic, safe look is actually going with a slab splash.

Related: Timeless Interior Design Trends: 8 Styles You’ll Love Even 5 Years from Now.

9 – Add Decorative Details in the Kitchen

Now, your kitchen does not just have to be a functional cooking space—it can also be a decorative, cozy, inviting space.

It’s usually the center of your home; it’s somewhere where you gather all the time. So, I think it should be treated just as any other room in your home.

These soft details are going to totally tie together kitchen design and make it look a lot more finished and decorative and overall more luxurious.

10 – Decorate in Moments

Think about styling moments and vignettes around your kitchen to make it look more decorative through vases and florals and trays.

You can integrate all of these elements that you’d use throughout the rest of your home into your kitchen to tie it all together.

Kitchens have a ton of hard, shiny surfaces, so if you can soften that with some soft furnishings and decorative details, you’re going to end up with a more luxurious design.

11 – Elevate Your Kitchen Design with Statement Elements

Now, obviously, you want your kitchen renovation and design choices to last for as many years as possible.

You really want to choose those timeless finishes that feel a little bit safe, but sometimes you can get a very designer, elevated, expensive look if you go for very bold finishes.

You could go for a moody color—black, or bright colors that will really add a huge designer touch to your kitchen.

You can pick an interesting, bold stone that’s going to stand out and really be the art piece of your kitchen. You can use funky lighting, a really bold floor—you can choose these design elements to really make a statement, and I find that statement kitchens tend to look a lot more expensive and less builder-grade, obviously.

So, if you’re someone that’s up for it and really wants to make a huge impact in your home, go for a bold kitchen design. It’s going to leave you with a more elevated look for sure.