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Decorate your home without the need of a hammer or drill and without damaging your walls with 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips, which hold up to 7kg. Visit go.3m.com/loveyourwalls/ for decorating inspiration and the chance to win some great prizes. |
If there’s one thing that annoys me more than the painfully slow scoring process on The Block, it’s people saying you can’t or, worse still, there’s no point, in making an effort with your interiors if you rent your home. AAAGGGHHHH. Nonsense!
Of course there’s a point. One of the main things I hope to get across in this blog, is how much joy and fun you can get from making your home a nest, filling it with things that make you smile or perhaps feel calm and secure, or remind you of a great holiday. It can be as simple as the lovely feeling of your home being very “you” or feeling so super cosy that there’s nowhere you’d rather unwind after a busy day at the office. And it doesn’t have to be hard, expensive or permanent.
Here are my top 5 ways to add some personality and you-ness to your rented home. Because we all deserve to love our home and get the feel-good vibes that go along with that, whether we own or not. And let’s face it, it’s increasingly bloody hard to get on the housing ladder, especially in Sydney!
1. The last time I looked, rugs, furniture and accessories were all removable and therefore able to be moved from room to room or home to home, or even packed away and saved for a future home if they don’t work in the next place. There is no reason why you can’t invest in these items because they can move with you. Be smart and buy key, larger pieces in neutral colours.
2. Put up art and framed photos using 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips. These aren’t just for small frames. You can use them to hang frames weighing up to a whopping 7kg. No limits! Creating a gallery wall of photos or hanging a favourite art print above your bed are now options without leaving so much as a mark on your landlord’s walls. Winning.
3. Change curtains and blinds. I have never EVER lived with the supplied curtains or blinds in a rental. I remove them, put them away safely somewhere and replace them with whatever I like. I simply put back the originals when I come to move out. You can also change the shower curtain if you have one.
4. Try removable wallpaper. There’s the vinyl self-adhesive kind (try Wallcreations or The Wallsticker Company) or the real paper kind (read about my experience with Publisher Textiles, tried and tested!) and you can damn well have that feature wall if you want it!
5. Ok, so this one isn’t temporary but bear with me. Depending on how long you’re likely to live in your rental and how important your interiors are to you, weigh up whether you might be prepared to spend a little money on things you won’t be able to take with you when you leave. This isn’t for everyone, but I’ve done this myself. In one apartment I HATED the kitchen floor so much I offered to pay half for a new one and the landlord said yes. In another apartment, when I moved in, I realised quite how badly the place needed a lick of paint (but it certainly wasn’t bad enough that you could argue it HAD to be done). I offered to pay half to have the small place painted and the job was done within a week. Happy days! I can’t tell you what a difference it made and I didn’t regret a dollar. Yes, you won’t get that money back but if you, like me, are really fussy about what your home looks like, you might consider it’s money well spent.
Having both rented and owned, I don’t think there’s been much difference in how much love has gone into my homes’ interiors. How about you?
Love to hear your tips for making your mark on you rental! Please share in the comments.
This post is part of a Nuffnang native advertising series.
Decorate your home without the need of a hammer or drill and without damaging your walls with 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips, which hold up to 7kg. Visit go.3m.com/loveyourwalls for decorating inspiration and the chance to win some great prizes.
Comments
I love renting, I’m busy putting my stamp on a new place, working with the design of the home to make it ours. First thing that always happen when we move – I replace the shower curtain! Then I put up our pictures, although they always take a few weeks to find their final home. I had birthday card bunting I made for the girls so I strung it around their curtain rods, instantly making it feel like it was their room even before the boxes were unpacked. My oldest daughter has a sleep out room with old horrible blinds so they all came down this weekend – a hunt through the clearance baskets at Spotlight produced beautiful curtains that have made her room look fabulous and more luxurious than the “porch shack” look it had going on. Thanks for your great tips 🙂
Have to agree when renting the 3M hooks are the best! It makes such a difference to get rid of blank walls. I also find using rugs really changes up the look to a room as well as just accessorise accessorise accessorise!!
My first rented place said absolutely no adhesives on the wall and specifically named Blu-Tack, 3M ‘and similar’ products… so much for that. But I still used them on tiled and polished surfaces.
Another thing I do is use the tops of door frames: hard to damage, no one can see it. You can use nails and string a fishing line across to another doorframe then hang things off it. I also use a flat tack stuck into the top of the actual doors and hang posters using poster holders on both sides.
Great tips, Ads!
I totally love this! I own my own home anyway but these tips are great for people like me who get bored every few months and want to mix things up. Thanks so much!
I made a large feature wall in my rental by hanging a stylish curtain rod on the wall, I bought some beautiful fabric, sewed a rod pocket along the top and hung it from the rail, fabulous feature wall I could take down and take with me
This has been really helpful as I’ll be moving into my first rental house in a month’s time. I actually just did a similar blog on the use of wall decals & removable wallpaper too! These are great in a rental property as they are easily removable and some are even reusable.