Decorating Tips

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Due to their flexible nature and affordability, more adults are seeking houses for rent instead of properties to own. Of course, renting a home isn’t all sunshine and roses. You have to deal with landlords who can be a bit too strict or who won’t sort out repairs quickly enough, Then, there’s the fact that you can’t really put your own stamp on rental properties like you can with a home you own.

If you’re a tenant and you want to make your place feel a bit more like it’s yours, but you don’t want to get on the wrong side of the owner, here are some landlord friendly decorating tips you could try out:

Buy Beautiful Furniture

You might not be able to decorate your home by adding wallpaper the walls or carpet to the floors when you’re living in a rental property, but you can bring your own furniture along to make the place more like your own home.

A lot of renters don’t bother to buy beautiful. Expensive furniture until they decide to buy their own home, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t buy a pretty pink couch or a really cool chair right now. If you do, not only will you improve your home’s décor right now, but you won’t have to worry about furnishing a property in the future, when you have more financial commitments to worry about.

If you can’t afford to buy nice new furniture, check out Craigslist or Goodwill for older pieces and then upcycle them into something amazing!

Replace the Light Fittings

Replacing the light fittings in is such a simple thing to do,  but it can make a huge amount of difference to the way your apartment looks and feels. Getting rid of that bog standard light shade and replacing it with a pretty patterned one will give the room a non-permanent boost, brightening the place up considerably.

If you have an amiable landlord, asking his or her permission to switch out the whole light fitting would be even more amazing, and many landlords will be more than happy to oblige because, after all, new lighting fixtures will make their property more appealing when you leave.

Try Out Temporary Wallpaper

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Temporary wallpaper is ideal for renters who are looking to inject some more of their own personality into the property. It is basically wallpaper with a sticky back, which can be used to affix it to the wall for a period of time and be easily removed without causing any damage when you move on.

If you can’t find any temporary wallpaper you like, you could even make your own by affixing normal wallpaper onto frames and then using a nail-free method to hang it up in panels.

Stick on Self-Adhesive Tiles

If it’s the kitchen or bathroom you’re looking to spice up, invest in a set of self-adhesive tiles. They come in a variety of colors and styles, and like temporary wallpaper, they aren’t permanent and won’t leave you minus a security deposit when you decide to move.

Hand Your Artwork

You might think that hanging your own artwork is a big no-no in rental properties due to the fact that it can leave holes and marks on the wall. However, there are now a number of nail-free hanging solutions, which make it possible to adorn your walls without losing your security deposit. If artwork isn’t your thing, you could use the same fittings to hang beautiful fabrics from the wall in place of temporary wallpaper, instead.

Designer Drapes

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If your landlord is really strict and he won’t allow you to hang anything on the walls at all, even when you’re using safe fixtures, and easy way to add some color, texture, and pattern to your apartment is via the drapes. You can buy so many beautiful designer drapes now that you hardly even need any other accessories to brighten the place up. Just make sure you choose a pair of floor to ceiling curtains, to maximize the amount of color you bring into the place. Basically, it’s just like creating your own feature wall without paint or wallpaper!

Tie the Room Together with a Rug

If you’ve moved into one of the many houses for rent in your area, and the flooring is less than attractive, don’t worry. A good rug will sort that out. You can find any number of rugs which will fill up a whole room with beautiful colors, designs, and textures and best of all, they can be easily rolled up and taken with you when you move on. Choose your favorite colors, and the place will instantly feel a bit more like home.

Switch Out the Handles

When you’re renting a property, you can’t do much about the kinds of cupboards and cabinets you’re stuck with, but you can make them look better. If you don’t want to lose your security deposit, painting and varnishing them is probably a no-no, but switching out the handles and knobs is a possibility. Choose some pretty knobs and replace the old ones for a dramatic change. Just make sure you hold on to the old ones so you can replace them before you leave if it’s something your landlord is likely to get bent out of shape about.

Dress Your Bed Well

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When it comes to making the bedroom feel more your own, the bed is the thing to concentrate on. After all, the bed takes up the majority of the space in the room. So, by choosing cute sheets in colors you love you can bring some warmth, vibrancy, and personality to what would otherwise be a pretty dull and uninviting space.

Don’t stop there though – fill the bed with pillows, cushions, throws, and anything else you can think of that looks good and boosts the room’s personality.

Plants and Flowers

Plants and flowers are great for renters because they’re both very beautiful and very portable. If you’re not at all green fingered, start off with succulents, which look amazing and need very little looking after at all, or opt for fresh cut flowers, which can simply be replaced when they inevitably wilt and die.

Wall Decals

If you aren’t fussed about changing the walls of your rental property completely, but you would like to add a unique touch or two, using wall decals to create a focal point is a great idea. You can get decals of famous musicians, beautiful trees, cartoon characters and even just pretty designs, so there are plenty of options available to you should you decide to go down this route.

Washi Tape

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Washi tape is this fantastic Japanese tape that features beautiful origami paper inspired designs. It can be used to transform the look of doors, walls, window ledges and well anything else you can think of really. It’s especially great for creating striped patterns within the home, and it will peel off without causing any damage when the time comes for you to move on to a new place. It’s really good for making children’s rooms look cuter, in particular.

Tapestries

Hanging tapestries, using a safe method that won’t leave holes in the walls is an effective way of covering up ugly walls on a budget because you can buy very large tapestries very cheaply. Indian tapestries are a particular favorite because they’re just so colorful and detailed, but there are lots of other options out there too.

Projectors

If you are lucky enough to have a projector, then it’s so easy to spice up plain whole walls by simply projecting a favorite image or series of images onto the wall. If you don’t have a projector and you can’t afford one, you can buy low-cost projector toys that simply project stars, the moon or rainbows onto your walls. Like washi tape, they’re good for making kid’s rooms more interesting, in particular.

Bookcases

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Bookcases are good because they take up a lot of wall space, without having to be attached to the walls, and you can paint them in a lot of interesting colors or fill them with lots of bold, bright books and accessories, thus adding a huge amount of color to an otherwise dull space.

Digital Photo Frames

If you love displaying lots of photographs of your friends, family, and pets, but you don’t want to risk damaging the walls, investing in a digital photo frame, which can be kept on a table and set to cycle through your photo albums is a great alternative that won’t get you into hot water with the landlord.

Accessories

Last but by no means least, filling your home with lots of meaningful accessories is a perfect way to inject warmth and personality into your home. Whether you’re into Buddha statues, fairy ornaments, crystals or antique cameras, scattering them liberally around your home will make a lot more difference than you might imagine. If you’re on a budget, you can find lots of cool accessories for very little at thrift stores or on Craigslist, and that way you can donate them without feeling guilty when you get bored of them and want a change!

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Girl on Fire

Photographer at Loudmouth Photography

Brandy is the wife to a carpenter/musician and the mother of 3 amazingly awesome homeschool/unschooled girls. Brandy is a Photographer as well as a Coach for the Weebellion as part of Rolling Rebellion Jr. Roller Derby. Brandy is passionate about many things and suffers from a very painful and degenerative neurological disease called CRPS/RSD.

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