How to Make your Rental Feel Like Home

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Living in a rental apartment is not always ideal. The chances of finding a flat that is affordable and decorated in your style, are quite small. So, the next best thing you can do is decorating your rental to make it feel like your own. Sure, you may not be able to change things like furniture, wallpaper, and flooring, especially if you’re on a budget, but you still have a lot of options. 

So for your convenience, we put together this guide to provide you with simple techniques and ideas, while still making sure you will get your security deposit back at the end of the lease.

The Best Ways to Decorate a Rental

Floors

Let’s start from the ground up. A few rugs can truly tie a place together. And they are really easy to move, so it doesn’t matter how often you change the place you live. Aside from their aesthetic appeal, they offer practicality. It’s cozier to walk on a fluffy rug, and if the floor is wooden, they will bring the noise down both for you and your neighbors.

Another option you can go for is rollable wooden mats. They are way easier to keep clean than a carpet and lend a modern look to any room while creating a cozy atmosphere in the home.

Furniture

Rentals often come with furniture, and it may not always fit your style. This doesn’t mean you can’t make it your own. Lining your cabinets and shelves is a quick way to give them personality and cover any spots that may be present from wear and tear.

Another option with furniture is thrift store shopping and backyard sales. You can grab pieces for cheap and with a little extra inspiration, you can make them your own in no time. Storage is often overlooked when it comes to style, but it can help a lot. Putting all your favorite books, knick-knacks, and possessions on display will immediately make a room your own.

Get some quality sofa covers and throw pillows on them. It would work even better if you’ve matched them to your rugs and curtains. That’s a decorative combination that can turn around any room.

Walls

It goes without saying that some of the walls might need refreshing, and landlords tend to be lenient toward some sprucing up with fresh paint, as long as it’s nothing too crazy. However, you can get really creative with wallpaper without applying it to the wall. Just grab a frame big enough to cover an entire portion of the wall and stretch the wallpaper of choice onto it, then prop it up. Putting it behind a heavy piece of furniture that will help it stand against the wall is a good idea.

If you don’t feel like doing DIY projects, a wall tapestry would do a fine job and will lend just as much cosy feel to your rental as a rug on the ground. Why not have both in fact?

As we mentioned before a good set of drapes for your windows to hide the vertical blinds that often come standard with lease homes, is a great idea.

As for wall art, we generally do not recommend putting nails or drilling holes in the walls as that can put your security deposit in jeopardy. We’ll talk a bit more about that in a minute. However, if those are already present, by all means – use them! You can, however, use your shelving and surfaces of the furniture to prop up paintings against the wall.

Lighting

There’s not much to be said about lighting but this in no way diminishes its impact. A good standing lamp isn’t hard to transport from place to place, but you’ll really appreciate the atmosphere it can create. The same goes for any sort of mood lighting that isn’t the ceiling lamp.

The ceiling lamp itself is also a subject of decoration. Paper light shades come in different shapes, sizes and colours nowadays and are extremely easy to install on all kinds of fixtures. String lights on your window frames can do wonders 

Maintain the property clean and tidy

Nothing says abandoned property with no soul more than an apartment that is filled with unnecessary clutter and dirty surfaces. Even if you still don’t feel like it’s your home, try to clean up regularly. It will help you get to know the place and you will avoid dirt build-up that is so hard to remove. 

At the end of your rental period, one of the things you will probably have to do is hire a company for an end of lease clean, so that you can prove to your landlord that it’s been professionally cleaned. However, even they sometimes cannot remove years of grime build-up. So to avoid all of that, just keep it clean and tidy. Let your temporary home breathe. 

What to Avoid When Decorating a Rental

To preserve your security deposit intact we suggest following these simple rules:

  • Do not drill holes of any kind! It might not seem like a big deal, but depending on the age of the building, the material of the wall, or even the place you drill, a tiny hole can end up as something much bigger and hard to fill. 
  • Always consult your landlord before using paint on anything. Sprucing up rental property may be a noble cause, but not everybody would appreciate the effort. 
  • Never do modifications that you can’t easily revert to the point it looks like they’ve never been done. Keep in mind that the property must look the way it did when you moved into it.

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