The next time someone scoffs because you’re looking at books about apartment decorating even though you live in a rental, set them straight. Just because you live in a rental apartment doesn’t mean you have to live in some sort of bizarre, design-based indentured servitude; renters should be able to bring their own personality into their decor.

Even if you’re saving up to buy your dream home or you’re only going to be living in the city temporarily, you still need to live your very best life right now, and apartment decorating can be a big part of that. Feeling good about your home and its aesthetics puts you in the best frame of mind. Conversely, feeling bad about your space (no matter how temporary it is) can be a huge emotional drain. The good news is, apartment decorating is easy — these rental-friendly home improvement ideas can take as little as an hour or a weekend to complete. Try them; you’ll be surprised at how much these simple changes can transform your space.

Give Your Walls a Makeover

That fresh, renewed feeling that you get when you give your apartment’s walls a fresh coat of paint isn’t just your imagination. Sprucing up your walls is one of the most effective ways to give your space a brand-new feel.

• Paint: Hopefully, you’ve confirmed with the landlord that you can paint the walls of the space before you’ve moved in. Even a bright, crisp white color like Benjamin Moore’s Atrium White can make your space seem cleaner, more high-end, and spacious. Accent walls can be effective, too.
• Wallpaper: Temporary wallpaper is a real thing that really, really works. Really! Brands like Tempaper are extremely popular with owners and renters alike, thanks to all the mind-blowingly gorgeous patterns they offer. If none of their patterns work for you, you can upload your own design, and they’ll make it for you.
• Decorate: Hang up beautiful photos. If you can’t (or don’t want to) stick things directly to the walls, picture-hanging strips allow you to hang items up to 16 pounds in weight.

Replace Those Fixtures ASAP

Nothing screams “rental” like a dome light. Dome lights, old sink faucets, fluorescents — these are the hallmarks of spaces that people only give scant attention to. The good news is that renters can easily swap out these items for new ones, which means that you can simply put the old fixtures back when you leave.

• Lighting: Get rid of the ugly lighting. It can make a decent room look like an interrogation room. Cover it with affordable buys from retailers like Home Depot. Check out the one on 23rd Street in the Flatiron District; its lighting section is filled with both modern and traditional lighting options, much of it under $100.
• Faucets: You may think a faucet is just a faucet, but replace a dingy one with a shiny new one, and you’ll wonder why in the world you never did it sooner. It will seriously make it look like you went and did a little bit of reno on your bathroom.
• Flooring: Try out temporary flooring like that sold by Eco Woods. You haven’t heard of Eco Woods? This gorgeous snap-and-go wood flooring product can transform a shabby bathroom floor into something straight out of a Swedish spa. Simply snap it into place, and you’ve got a brand-new room.

Image Source: Flickr/Bruno Trombetta

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