If you’re a tenant you know you have to keep the floors, cabinets, walls, and other finishes of the property you rent, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give it their personal touch. You can upgrade your rented space to make it feel more like your own with a little creativity. Our top recommendations for rental-friendly upgrades are:
11 Easy Ideas to Decorate a Rental Home
1 – Use and Abuse of Contact Paper
Contact paper is a great way to decorate and personalize surfaces. With practically endless designs to choose from, the sky’s the limit with contact paper!
Unfortunately, some contact paper is impossible to remove so make sure you’ve chosen a removable type, and test it in an inconspicuous area.
2 – Give your walls new life with removable wallpaper
Oftentimes rental homes come with plain and dull walls. You can negotiate with your landlord the possibility of painting the walls to your liking and covering the expenses, but in case they are not too fond of the idea, or you don’t want to spend that much, there’s always the option of using removable, peel-and-stick wallpaper. There are many design patterns available, so you’ll definitely find one that aligns with personal style.
3 – Invest in Mirrors
Mirrors not only help us to get ready for the day ahead, they can also give a nice touch to your rental unit without spending much money. From a full-length, wall mirror, to mirror wall stickers to create a fun pattern, mirrors can add personality to any corner in your rental.
4 – Use Floating Shelves
Discreet, sleek, and useful, floating shelves are a great way to show off your favourite decoration: from plants, small statues, and even action figures. Floating shelves can also give you more room to organize your daily items in your kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room, especially if your rental home is a small studio apartment.
(Ikea)
5 – Create a gallery wall
Boring and plain walls are a thing of the past. You can create a small gallery on one of your living room walls by displaying the things that matter to you the most: from paintings to family photos to movie posters. A gallery wall is an easy way to give life to a blank wall and show off your personality to your guests.
6 – Give your bathroom a renter-friendly upgrade
You can create a bathroom of your dreams (or close to it) without doing any drastic changes. Using the floating shelves that we mentioned above is a great start, but you can also add modern towel and toilet paper holders, or use contact paper to give a touch of colour to the walls and countertop. You could also give life to a tasteless floor with tile stickers, or add updated lighting fixtures and installing a new mirror.
7 – Transform your studio apartment with room dividers
Create separate spaces, add privacy, and decorate at the same time using room dividers. You can turn your tiny studio apartment into a 1-bedroom, and even create a small home office area.
8 – If changing lighting fixtures is not possible, use floor lamps
Floor lamps come in many shapes, design styles and sizes, and can add a nice touch to any room without messing with your rental lighting fixtures.
9 – Refresh your backyard
If you rent a home with a backyard, make the most out of it by planting a small garden using small planters you can take with you when it’s time to move out, and by adding removable furniture and lighting to spend time outside. If you want to add a luxury item to your rental backyard, consider investing in an inflatable Jacuzzi.
10 – Change your kitchen faucet and showerhead
In many rental units many of the appliances are not aesthetically pleasing for many tenants, and the kitchen faucet and the showerhead fall often under that category. If you’re willing to make a small upgrade, changing the kitchen faucet and the showerhead for modern ones that match your taste, is a great way to give these spaces a personal touch and make yourself feel more comfortable in your rental.
11 – Cover an ugly carpet with rugs
Just because you’re a tenant doesn’t mean you have to stick to an old-fashioned carpeted floor you don’t like. A quick way to fix an ugly floor is covering it with an area rug to make the space feel more welcoming.
Make your rental feel your own is easy
As you can tell, there are a lot of options to choose from to make rental friendly upgrades. All it takes is a little patience and creativity to transform your rental home into a place you’d love to return to relax after a long day.
If you are looking for a new rental in Calgary, we can help. We have property rentals in all parts of the city at competitive prices. Find out more about our services, and check out our listings here.
