Issue Date: March 16, 2008

Six simple steps that'll make your rooms shine

HGTV's "Design Star" champ tells you how to make your place look like a million -- for far less.

When you flip through glossy home and lifestyle magazines, you may get inspired to make your house look like a million dollars. But there's a problem: You don't have a million-dollar budget.

Fortunately, you don't need one. You only need a sense of style and creativity, says Kim Myles, the reigning champ of HGTV's "Design Star," a reality show that focuses on decorating challenges. Myles specializes in tiny touches that elevate a home's interior look -- often on a tight budget. She can look around a room and immediately see how lamps, wall color, furnishings and use of space can be easily upgraded to eye-catching levels on the cheap.

"Design Star" is a reality show in which the contenders take part in weekly challenges, after which they're voted off in turn by judges and viewers until only one is left standing. The grand prize is a weekly design show for the winner, and Myles will now host "Myles of Style" on HGTV, starting this week (March 16 at 10 p.m. ET). She'll also appear this season on "Design Star," which launches in June. She spoke with USA WEEKEND Magazine about six things you can do to make your house look like a seven-figure home.

1. Start with something simple, like your coffee table -- seriously. "People don't realize how a coffee table can make all the difference in the world. Most of these have basic wood finishes. But if you focus on the legs and base, say, and paint it a high-gloss black, you provide a sense of elegance for less than $10. As for the surface? Find a design or pattern online that you find appealing, then print it out and reproduce it on the table with something decorative. I like taking simple gold thumbtacks and then pushing them into the top of the table in a damask pattern. It's very baroque-looking."

2. Expand your space. "Ever notice how five-star hotel lobbies seem so luxurious? It's because there's so much open space. I urge people to invite a friend over for an afternoon in which you both remove furniture and items in a room. But I'm not talking about putting important pieces of furniture on the curb. Get rid of anything that you don't love dearly or doesn't serve a clear purpose. Unload that magazine rack from Aunt Lillie that you never use. When you've done away with unnecessary items that take up 20% or 30% of the available space, you've opened up the room."

3. Don't blow your budget on wall hangings. "For many homeowners, their greatest dilemma is what to do with the walls. How do you fill them up? Don't spend a bunch of money for paintings. I like to take inexpensive but artful fabrics. You stretch them out, then frame and hang them. You can cover a lot of space with this, and it looks classy."

4. Light up the room. "Everyone forgets about the ceiling, but the central light there can be a great source of inspiration. Take a piece of string and tie one end to a pencil and the other to the center mount of the lighting hardware. Then, extend the string and use it with the pencil as a way to draw a perfect circle around the light fixture. Fill in that circle with a metallic kind of paint. I like gold or silver. It's elegant, and, because it's metallic, the light bounces off of it to create the effect of greater light in the room. This turns a simple fixture into a great feature."

5. Add floral life to your look. "Many people have trouble with flowers, so they buy silk ones instead. I say stick with living plants to create natural energy. If you get them at your grocery -- I'll buy African violets there for $3.99 -- you can make a big difference while not spending much. The key to making them last is to repot them after buying. By the time they get to your grocery store, their roots have already reached the pot's limit, and that's why the plants start dying. Get a bigger pot and put the plant in that, and it will last a good, long time."

6. Use spring's hottest hue. "It sounds counterintuitive, but gray is really in. It looks very stately and retro, a color conducive to a '40s style of glamour. It's a neutral color, so it works well with anything else you do in the room. Try buying some old black-and-white movie posters, framing them yourself and putting them in the room. That goes very well with gray."