Walter and I are lucky enough to have a nice rental home. It’s clean, our landlords are amazing, and the space has been well maintained. However, it’s not exactly our style as far as paint colors, accents, etc. All of the little things that you would change if you owned a home, but have to work around when you don’t. Here are some tips that we have used to make the space feel more our own!
Rugs add SO MUCH color and interest to a space. A great idea is to get one of these area rugs, that are a little less expensive than more decorative ones, to cover up carpeting or just to use as a base on another flooring. Then, you can buy a smaller decorative rug and layer it on top, or keep your eye out for a few smaller rugs with complementary color schemes to layer on one another to give appearance of a large area rug.
Gather a collection of items for a big, colorful gallery wall. Find different paintings, photos, fiber art, and wall objects to cover up a wall that you don’t like or to gain a new color scheme in a room without having to paint. If you’re scared of putting nails in the wall, command strips are your friend!
Speaking of command strips, you can unscrew the back of decorative cabinet knobs (or snip them off with pliers!) and attach them to boring cabinets with - you guessed it - command strips!
There are tons of websites with beautiful removable wallpaper! You can choose to do an entire room, or if it’s not in your budget, focus on an accent wall to draw the eye!
Utilize shelving! Any built ins should house beautiful pieces of interest, colorful books, plants, whatever! Look on apps like LetGo and at thrift stores for additional bookshelves and shelving. We have floating shelves and a giant rattan bookcase that I bought off of Facebook marketplace, in addition to a built in, and we use ALL of that space for additional decor that reflects our personalities.
Grab super decorative window treatments! If you can’t find anything that you like, it’s rather simple to buy fabric and make your own!
Peel and stick tile is also available for kitchen backsplashes, bathroom floors, almost anything that you can imagine.
Freestanding mirrors REALLY open up small rental spaces!
Whereas decorative dividers provide privacy and break up spaces!
Update your space with inexpensive refreshes like throw pillows for the couch, a new rug in front of the kitchen sink, hand towels, or a new shower curtain! It can change your home’s entire vibe when you feel trapped by the things you can’t change.
Indoor plants add life to a space, and you can have fun with color and texture by choosing fun planters to put them in!
Pay attention to the design of EVERYTHING in your home. Your toothbrushes and toothpaste stay out on the bathroom counter, so make them pretty to look at! Choose the fun dish and hand soaps. Store dry goods in beautiful glass containers and be total organization goals. Every detail counts when so many things are out of your control!
Make your rental your own ad if worse comes to worst, use your security deposit as the payment you make to your landlord to do whatever the heck you want as far as decorating. Amy Sedaris said that, and we all know how PERFECT her rental is - so take her advice!!
