Living in a rental can sometimes stifle the interior designer in you that has big dreams of accent walls and hanging light fixtures. Don’t worry, there are rental-friendly home decor ideas that can help you express yourself to your heart’s content.

Understandably, you don’t want to antagonize your landlord by drilling holes in the walls or painting the place against their wishes. So do you continue living in a space that doesn’t match your personality just because you don’t own the place? No, absolutely not! With a little bit of creativity, you can spruce up your rental apartment or condo tastefully without losing your security deposit in the process. 

Here are some incredibly easy and smart rental-friendly home decor ideas that will transform your living space instantly. 

Try a Homemade Shiplap Wall

Many people like to have a rustic, cozy, quaint vibe going around their house. The best way to achieve that is by putting a shiplap wall that gives your home a rustic feel. Doing that in a rented house can seem out-of-bounds. After all, irreversible changes to your landlord’s property aren’t typically welcome. Thanks to the command adhesive tape, you can install a faux shiplap wall in your apartment to keep things nice and homey.

To complete this project, take wood planks and cut them into rectangular pieces, each 3-5 feet long. You can get them precut as well if you don’t want to do the heavy lifting yourself. 

Paint the wood planks white on one side and let them dry. Once they are completely dry, put commanding strips at the corners of the unpainted side on each piece. Lastly, paste the parts one by one covering the entire area, and voila, you have your very own shiplap wall. 

Paste Removable Wallpapers

Another quick and easy way to jazz up a wall is pasting removable wallpaper. It allows you to bring snippets of your personality to your house without making any permanent changes. 

The design possibilities are endless: black and white checkerboard, sunny yellow, geometric patterns, and more. Now you can have unique accent walls without hours of painting. If you don’t want to work the wallpaper magic on all the walls in a room, you can pick one focus wall and spruce it up. 

Use Wall Decals or Stickers

Like wallpapers, stickers and decals allow you to enhance a wall’s appearance. If you want a wall to be super fascinating and perhaps tell a story, you can use stickers to add characters or designs to it. You can use decals, too, but pasting them can be a little tricky. 

Unlike stickers that you stick and the job is done, decals are transferred from a sticker to the selected surface. You use backing paper to get a print on the wall. Nonetheless, a decal can brighten up a wall brilliantly. 

Introduce Some Fancy Planter Stands

Incorporating plants is one of the most common methods for sprucing up one’s space. It’s especially useful for renters as it transforms the interior decor without costing much. 

To make your plants look a bit more tasteful, use sleek wooden stands to put planters. 

If you don’t want to invest in furniture pieces to place plants, you can DIY decorate your planters. Here are some ways you can do that

• Paint 
• Make a checkerboard 
• Use a rope to wrap a pot. Doing so will add texture to the entire space. 

Purchase Some Washi Tapes

Washi tape is arguably the best invention of modern times, especially for those who like to experiment with aesthetics. The best part of a washi tape is that it can breathe new life into anything. Be it a pencil case, a mobile phone, or a wall, you can perk each of them up using a washi tape. 

To enliven your rented home, use washi tapes to make designs on the walls. You can make abstract illustrations on a room’s accent wall or transform all the walls with it. With that said, be careful when working with a washi tape because designs can start to look too busy fairly quickly. Make sure you’re committed to the idea before you decide to decorate your walls with playful stripes. 

Lay Down Some Cool Rugs 

Rugs are excellent at perking up the dullest of places in an instant. Not just that, they can also tone down over-the-top aesthetics. Simply put, if you need to fix up your home’s interior without making any significant changes, invest in an elegant rug. 

You can also place matching cushions here and there to take your home decor game to the next level. 

Hang Photos or Art Pieces From String Lights

String lights can transform a room’s ambiance with just a push of a button- quite literally! But you can do more than just light up a room with string lights, clip photos, and art pieces to personalize the space. 

This trick is particularly useful for parents with young kids who love to doodle and make cards. If you have young little ones in the house, you can hang their drawings to cherish them while decorating your home in the process.

Put Up a Leaning Ladder

A leaning ladder offers plenty of space for placing/hanging ornaments and showpieces. You can use each step to showcase a decor item and bring so much charm into your rented house.

Try Minimalism

Less is more, right? 

If you haven’t tried minimalism yet, it might be time to give this decor style a chance. Minimalist styling can work wonders when it comes to spicing up a place. It doesn’t require much investment and it keeps your interior looking tasteful. All you need is a few furnishings, some soft decor items, and voila, you have a chic apartment. 

The Takeaway

Just because you live in a rented property doesn’t mean you cannot make it feel like home. With our rental-friendly home decor ideas, you can transform your living space.

If you’re looking for more renter-relevant content, check out our other informative blog posts here.

Time to find a new rental home? Dwellsy is here to help.