‘I’m the queen of design hacks’: The Big Interiors Battle judge Dara Huang’s tips for luxury on a budget
My design clients might get the whole shebang but when it comes to my own home, I’m the hack queen.
I’m always thinking about where I can buy or recreate the same thing cheaper. Everybody likes luxury, but it’s about mixing and matching and knowing where to spend. A rug, for example, often has to be bespoke if you want it to look just right.
What’s great about The Big Interiors Battle is that it emphasises that you need to start with a clear concept, but otherwise our contestants are working with tiny budgets. It’s important that it all feels relatable.
People don’t think about things like how to conceal your television and all these tips and tricks. On the show you see those ideas come to life.
Commission bespoke joinery on a budget
Joinery doesn’t have to be expensive, particularly if it’s cut on site – but there are brilliant ways to fake it.
I’ve got the classic Victorian living room with a bay window, and I asked my handyman to build a cupboard for my son’s toys in an alcove. Instead of building a full closet framework on the inside – it’s the inners that are really expensive – he made a two-by-four stud work-style frame and then just added plywood doors and a couple of nice knobs. You open it up and there’s no carcass inside.
Go supersize on your textiles
I’ve got really into making beds, with a simple white duvet, double-stacked white pillows and then some sort of decorative pillow in front, like a sphere or a lumbar shape.
My big tip for a luxury-feel bedroom is to have a blanket at the end of the bed that’s one size up, so if you have a double, order a king size. Choose longer curtains too, so you get that bustle at the bottom – luxe textiles always touch the floor.
If you don’t want to buy anything new, then always make your bed. There’s so much mental comfort that happens when you come into a room and it’s made.
Recreate period features on the cheap
Take off-the-shelf fixtures like cornicing and skirtings and use them in creative ways. A lot of people don’t realise that so much of the cost of these luxury features is in the installation. You can buy a great ceiling rose for less than £200.
I’ve used dado rails in my flat to fake wood paneling on the walls. I even went one step further and tried a condensed foam version, which was about £3 a metre. You can pick up this sort of thing in B&Q.
Use lighting to create ambience
I always get questions about colour, but rarely do people think about creating ambience. Pendants don’t give off great light, so in a bedroom especially you’ll also want a lower, indirect light that will help your brain start to shut off.
Try adding a £15 stake light to the pot of a good-size houseplant. You get this lovely glow through the branches.
If you’re renting like me, consider adding decorative wall lights but not wiring them in. I’ve got art lights in my living room and they look fantastic.
Bring in big artworks
The ultimate hack for making a place look expensive is huge artwork — as big as practically possible. If you’ve got the confidence to ad-hoc an abstract piece of art, you can get canvases that are one-and-a-half metres by two.
I always go for a really thick linen one from Jackson’s because a super thin canvas says ‘cheap art’. Then you don’t need a frame.
Organise wires and hide clutter
If you don’t want to spend any money, the best thing you could do is to sort your wires out. I’m a big wire freak — I’ve just designed a bed for my new furniture company, Dara Maison, with plug points on the headboards and side tables with wireless charging. Try to untangle your wires and create a system so they’re not on show.
Make sure you’ve got a good clothes hamper and a few big twill baskets or similar. Instead of lining up everything on a shelf, I organise all my bits in little wicker boxes. Display the beautiful jewellery and the books and hide the crap.
The Big Interiors Battle starts at 8pm on Friday 21 April on Channel 4.
