The hesitation to make a major investment in the decoration of a rental property is understandable. You’re eventually going to vacate the house or apartment, inevitably leaving behind things that cannot be carried over to your next place.
But this should not deprive you of having the beautiful and personal living environment that you deserve. What if you are going to be a rental resident for an extended period of time? Should you put off enriching your living space until you finally get to live in your forever home?
Fortunately, there are a lot of affordable and reversible ways that you can decorate your rental. With a little bit of diligence and a long-term mindset with your purchases, you can personalize your space as if you owned it.
Wall Treatment
Nothing quite impacts the look of your home like doing some wall treatments. Painting would be most people’s first choice but sometimes it may not be possible due to the stringent rules set by some landlords.
Before doing any major modifications, you should call your landlord or letting agency to ask how much can you change. Depending on where you live, there may be some rental property laws in place that oblige owners to regularly redecorate or do some maintenance and replacements to keep the rental property in good condition. In New York, for example, the landlord must repaint the property every three years if it’s located in a building with three or more apartments. In such situations, the landlord may even offer to pay a portion of it.
You don’t need to paint all the walls to change the scenery to your liking. Painting an accent wall or just a portion of a wall can achieve the desired effect without spending too much. If painting is off-limits, there are some excellent peel-and-stick wallpaper options that can be as effective.
They are usually very easy to install and you can apply them to any surface like an accent wall behind your headboard or a nook in your living room. When it’s time to move, you can easily remove them and any residue can be cleaned with a wet sponge.
Window Treatment
A lot of times, window treatments in rental properties are the cheapest the landlord could have gotten away with. If you move a lot, it would be expensive to dress the windows every time as it may not be possible to fit the curtains or drapes from your previous house to your new one.
Don’t worry, because there are workarounds for this! In many situations, getting affordable modern blinds for your kitchen, living room or bedrooms can drastically change the aesthetics and make it feel more homey and personalized especially since there are so many options to go with.
You can also use tension rods in the right spots with some lightweight sheers to crank up the cosiness and give the space a more residential look. The good thing about pressure rods is that their size is adjustable, they are super easy to install and leave no trace after removal.
Flooring
One of the simplest ways to transform your apartment is to use rugs to cover the flooring. Rugs can be used in a variety of ways to change how a particular space looks and feels. For example, you can use area rugs to define and separate spaces especially when your home has a more open design. You can use runners to give the illusion of elongating a particular space as well as cover narrow hallways. You can use a throw rug to make a tight living room appear more spacious.
If your rental is fully carpeted, you can still layer it with rugs although depending on the colors, texture, and thickness of the carpet, it may take some effort, money, and experimenting to get it right.
For bad flooring in the kitchen or bathroom, there are plenty of peel and stick floor tile options with different finishes and materials that go right over the existing flooring. They are often very realistic, durable, and easy to remove using the right tools.
If your rental has outdoor spaces (e.g., a balcony or a patio) with worn-out flooring, you can easily refresh their looks by treating the floor with temporary decking tiles. These tiles come in different finishes and their non-permanent interlocking connections allow for easy relocation which makes them perfect for renters.
Lighting
Walls, floors, and windows may be the key components of any interior, but proper lighting is the complementary element that seals the deal. The good thing about light fixtures is that they are effortlessly replaceable and you can store away the old ones to put them back when you move out.
You can choose chandeliers and pendants that go well with your other décor elements to get rid of those bland standard lighting fixtures that are usually used in rental properties. You can use LED light stripes to create a setup around something in particular that you may want to highlight.
There are also a variety of rent-friendly lighting options that provide accent luminescence to your space like torchiere floor lamps, tripod lamps, flank lamps, and tree lamps which in addition to lighting, add style to the room as they come in a huge range of designs.
