Decorating your new apartment is always a fantastic way to help feel comfortable in an exciting yet unfamiliar space. The walls provide a gigantic blank canvas upon which you can showcase several of your most favorite aspects of your aesthetic. But what to do when your new place is a rental, and you’re worried that changing the paint or putting nails in the walls is just the fast-track to losing your deposit?
Well, luckily for you, there are several great, rental-friendly ways you can personalize your walls without permanently changing anything! Read on to discover how you can spice up those blank walls without risking your landlord/landlady’s wrath.
Read Your Rental Agreement
Before putting any nails in the wall or spending your entire savings account on removable wall hooks, check your rental agreement to see what your landlord allows in terms of wall décor. You may be surprised at how lenient he is.
Some landlords will allow tenants to change paint colors, while others won’t let so much as a needle-sized hole in the wall. You won’t know the limitations or allowances for your place until you carefully read that section. And if your agreement doesn’t mention anything about paint colors or how many holes you can put in the wall, talk to your landlord and see what he will allow.
Once you’ve determined what your landlord will or won’t allow, you’ll be able to draft a game plan for decorating your walls.
Hang a Few Mirrors
One of the best ways to decorate walls in any home, rental or not, is by adding strategically placed mirrors to your walls.
Mirrors add a lot of value to any space in a couple of different ways. They make your rooms feel bigger than they are by doing what they do best: reflecting existing space. The mirror’s reflection subconsciously tricks people into thinking the room is bigger than it appears.
They also increase brightness in your spaces. Because mirrors, by their very nature, reflect whatever is shone into them, placing them in front of a light source like a window or lamp causes them to reflect that light back into the room.
Try a Tapestry
Tapestries are a fantastic way to harmlessly cover a large section of wall space—especially if the wall is an eyesore badly in need of a paint job, your rental agreement bars you from giving it.
They come in a range of styles, materials, and sizes, so finding one to suit your tastes isn’t very difficult at all. You can go for something white with a basic, off-set pattern as a quieter backdrop, or go full-on statement piece with fabrics that display scenes, animals, or portraits to add an extra artistic flair.
Pro tip: try to find machine wash-friendly tapestries made of cotton or linen fabrics for easy cleaning.
Consider Removable Wallpaper
Removable wallpaper is another great way to hide your walls harmlessly. It’s super easy to use and generally comes in a peel-and-stick format that makes putting it up and taking it back down relatively effortless.
It comes in thousands of different colors, patterns, and even textures for an added dimensional pop if that’s what you’re into. You can even get smaller pieces and decorate with gridded sections for an added design element if you’re so inclined. Polka dots, diamonds, and stripes are particular favorites when it comes to this method.
If you choose to do full wallpaper, you have to be careful about where you decide to put it up. If the preexisting wall surface is textured, the removable paper will have a tough time sticking to it. Similarly, if the wall has any bumps or weird hollows, the paper won’t sit flush, causing it to bubble over time.
Hang Curtains
Standard blinds are pretty much a given in most rental homes today. And while they aren’t quite an eyesore, they’re bland enough to warrant a little spicing up.
Try hanging curtains alongside your windows to add more color or texture to the space, or hang them in corners to soften the room’s squared-off edges.
Pro tip: hanging curtains directly above the top of your windows makes the room feel shorter. Try raising your curtain rod five to eight inches above the window to help lengthen the room.
Light Up Your Walls
Another fun way to decorate your walls and put them to practical use is by adding lights to them. Apartments generally don’t come with enough overhead lighting, to begin with, so finding fun, visually exciting ways to incorporate more light into your spaces is always a good option.
There are many rental-friendly plug-in wall sconce options on the market today if you’re looking for a more concentrated light source over your bed or a reading area. Still, rope lights, string lights, and fairy lights are becoming increasingly popular for their practical applications and visual aesthetic.
Try hanging the lights from floor to ceiling across a section of the wall to make it more of a statement or behind your headboard to add a soft glow to your room.
Go Green
Plants have always been a fantastic way to bring more life into your home—literally and metaphorically. They bring color and vibrancy to many different spaces, and you don’t have to invest much time into their upkeep if you pick the right plants.
Plants like ferns and ivy are great hanging plants to start with because they’re relatively low-maintenance and tend to drape over their pots nicely, extending their visual appeal past a single spot on the wall.
Pro tip: try hanging a spider plant—they don’t drape quite as long as ivy or ferns, but they remove allergens from the air to give you a better night’s sleep.
As you can see, there are a ton of great options when it comes to decorating your walls—even when renting. So, if you’re feeling creative, visit this site or go ahead and try one, two, or all of these tips to help your rental feel more like your home.
