Want to elevate your kitchen’s look without breaking the bank? Discover ten simple yet effective ideas to transform your kitchen into a luxurious space without expensive renovations.
Easy and Affordable Kitchen Upgrades
Let’s start out with something easy that you can implement into your existing kitchen without demolishing, renovating, or really doing anything expensive. If there are floor mats around your kitchen, maybe in front of your sink, your stove, or your kitchen island, replace those for long Runners. Something that’s 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. You can add texture and interest to your flooring, and it just adds a nice soft Furnishing detail that every designer kitchen has.
Having different individual floor mats and rugs around your kitchen can make your space look a little bit messy and cheap, so going for a large Runner would really help tie your space together and make it look more elegant. You can get durable washable Runners that still maintain a great style but add that practicality into your kitchen, so if it gets dirty, you can throw it in the wash.
Upgrade 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. This 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. A lot of this has to do with removing packaging and odd colors that don’t go with your overall color scheme, cuz those things are going to start to call attention and take away from the overall kitchen design. Go for neutral Essentials that are going to help tie your entire space together. This is going to make your space look a lot more tidy and organized even if all of these essential pieces are left out on the countertop. All of these small pieces can actually be used as styling Decor 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, using them as trays, or leaning against your backsplash always adds a lot of style. You can swap 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, 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.
Countertop Finish
When it comes to countertops, one detail you need to consider is the finish of your countertop. You’re going to have to pick a polished finish or a 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 this will always show that a lot more. It is timeless, it feels amazing, it looks a lot more elevated, and it’s going to create more of an expensive look. The more natural look that you can get from the stone the better. As soon as you add shine on 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.

Kitchen Lighting
You should always have three types of lighting in your kitchen: integrated lighting, task lighting, and mood 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.
You should of course have have all of your task lights which are going to be your ceiling lights, the lights that you can flick on in your kitchen lights up these are going to be your pendant lights and ceiling lights. Lastly, you should absolutely have mood lighting in your kitchen. This could be small lamps that are very easy just to add into corners of your kitchen to help add an overall calm lighting feel. You could 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, and 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.
Upper 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. 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 every designer more 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.
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. 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.
Panel-Ready Appliances
Now typically in custom designer kitchens the only Appliance you ever see is the oven.
Backsplash Options
There’s 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 people can start to skew their kitchen design when it comes to their backsplash. It’s really the first thing you see when you walk in, it’s at eye level, it can either be distracting, or it can Aid to the kitchen design.
The best option right now is a slab splash. Continuing that countertop finish up onto the wall just helps simplify Your Design. Slab splashes can also make your kitchen look a lot larger, cuz 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. Individual backsplash tile tends to look trendy. A Timeless classic safe look is actually going with a slab Splash.
Decorative Touches
Your kitchen doesn’t 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 it should be treated just as any other room in your home. Bring in all of the decorative details that you love into your kitchen. This could be through art. You can also do this with your window treatments like Cafe curtains or Roman Shades these soft details are going to totally tie together your kitchen design and make it look a lot more finished and decorative and overall more luxurious.
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.

Bold Finishes
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. This could be your cabinet color. 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.
Conclusion
In summary, elevating your kitchen’s appearance doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Simple changes like updating floor runners, countertop essentials, lighting, and considering bold finishes can transform your kitchen into a more luxurious and inviting space.