Apartment Design Ideas
How to Decorate a Rental Apartment
One of the biggest struggles for homeowners and renters is creating that living space that truly represents them. A space that makes you feel at home, that makes you happy. For renters, they have the added struggle brought about by the limitations of things that may be considered permanent fixtures. Add to the struggle the fact that this is a temporary living situation, and spending loads of cash in a place that is not your own in the first place may sound like a bad idea.
Living in an apartment exposes you to things like limited natural light, ugly carpets and lacklustre painted walls. If you are a self-proclaimed serial renter, you ought to look at these limitations as challenges that offer you a platform to try out some unique apartment decorating ideas that work on any rental space – here are a few apartment design ideas that will help spruce up your rental and make it feel more like home.
1. Put Up Things on the Wall
Hanging items and framed wall art on your walls is the number one way of personalizing a rental – no matter the size. Do not be afraid of driving nails into your walls, after all, that’s what spackling is for. Have photos of your favourite places you’ve been to, to tell a story or of your family, bringing in an element that is uniquely YOU to the space.
Putting up contemporary wall art allows you to showcase your personal decorating style. DIY wall art like oversized wall art is an even better option – art you’ve created is the perfect addition to your space, especially a rental.
2. Add Personality with Decor
When renting an apartment as a long or short-term residence, you need to have decor that reflects your personality. In some situations, there may be limitations on what you can do to your home’s interiors. If this is the situation for you, consider letting your creativity free and assemble decor that creates a visual depiction of your personality.The resource for a renter is decorative items that reflect your personality. For instance, there’s a huge diversity in designer lamp shades, and you are free to choose one that reflects your sense of humour or exudes sophistication.
A few cheap home accessories from picture frames to bookends included in your apartment design ideas will offer your visitors a glimpse of your style sense; photo pillows are also an excellent way of personalizing your rental. Your personal design style should lead you as you choose furniture for the apartment. You’ll likely find an amazing collection of accent chairs that are a perfect match for your personality. Also, accent tables are available in an assortment of styles; explore flea markets where you will get the best deals on chairs and table to transform with unique embellishments or new cushions.
3. Paint
Most rental apartment decorating ideas don’t cover painting; however, just because it’s a rental does not mean that painting is out of the question. If your landlord allows it, you have no excuse for not creating an environment that has your personality written all over. However, you need to be aware of what is and is not allowed in your lease; for instance, the exteriors may be off limits, but interior painting okay – with stipulations that you return the rented space to its original colour while moving out.
Should you and your landlord come to an agreement, make sure you get it in writing. It’s not necessarily formal, a quick letter of agreement including a sample of desired colour changes you want to make will suffice. Ensure that you have a copy of the agreement in your files; you may need to refer to it, down the road, when moving out.
Your choice of paint colour might be limited to neutral tones; it’s best if you ask what exactly neutral means. Is it neutral white, off-white, or taupe? Also, find out the specific paint colour to which you need to repaint the room; check if there is leftover paint, ask your landlord to give you more specific information or a sample. If the lease requires that you return the apartment to its original paint colour, you have to set aside a substantial amount of time before moving day to complete the painting task. The main goal is restoring the apartment as part your lease agreement and landlord’s satisfaction to avoid legal tussles or loss of your security deposit.
4. Temporary Wall Treatments
If you can’t paint the walls of your rental, consider using temporary wall treatments for a whole room or an accent wall. You can get removable wallpaper, vinyl decals or even fabric for your apartment’s walls. Vinyl decals are available in an assortment of options like stripes and polka dots; you can get much more creative with striped vinyl decals.
All the options above are great ways of adding colour and pattern to the wall. The best thing about temporary wall treatments is that you just need to peel them off when it comes to moving out, without damaging the original paint colour.
5. Get Creative with Storage
Rentals never have enough storage space. If there is a decorative storage solution you spotted during your short stay at a sublet airbnb, for example, replicate it in your rental home. For instance, turn the coat closet into a pantry, the guest closet into a craft storage room or even use vertical storage like shelves in the bathroom to get more space!
I hope, you enjoyed reading and will be leaving a little inspired.
Feel free to let me know, I love feedback!
Klaudia
#pinteresting
