DIY Solutions for a Rental Home
When you are renting a home you need to look for easy ways to add your personal touch without damaging walls, etc.
10/01/2019
pinterest.com/pin/556053885232787879/
When you're renting a home and want to add your own personal touches, you need to look for ways to incorporate decorative touches that won't cause problems with the landlord or letting agent. We compiled a list of affordable do-it-yourself projects that you can use to make your rental property feel more like a home. You will find that most of the projects shown here don't require a lot of fancy tools to make, or you can pop into secondhand stores or salvage yards to see what items you can find to add your own personal touch to the living spaces of your rental home.
1. DIY Personal Touches
Every home needs that extra special personal touch to make it feel like home, but it can be difficult to achieve this if the landlord has plenty of restrictions that you have to meet. But it is possible to get that signature touch - with just a little imagination.
Adding your own personal touch can easily be achieved using a variety of pieces. Just shopping for the perfect piece of furniture and then adding your own style using paint is considered as a personal touch. Plus, you not only save money on secondhand stuff, you also get to pick the perfect pieces and finish them to suit your room decor.
When shopping around for pieces for a rental home, put on your thinking cap and consider how these pieces can be incorporated into a particular room. This wood bookcase was picked up at a yard sale by Christie of Confessions of a Serial DIYer and she then gave the piece a makeover that made it suitable for storage in a bathroom or child's bedroom.
Stamping your style onto a rental home can be achieved even with small projects. Why not consider giving dated furniture a makeover with paint and then covering chair seats with fabric that pops. You might not be able to paint the walls, but you can easily add colourful details with fabric and paint.
pinterest.com/pin/72690981459552633/
2. Arrange Furniture for Best Effect
Moving around from house to house sometimes means that you have to try and fit your furniture into different places. You don't always want rooms crammed to the brim with oversized pieces, or cavernous rooms that look empty, so try and arrange what furniture you have to best effect. You could also browse online for secondhand pieces that only require a bit of TLC to have them looking good again, and they will help to fill up empty rooms.
pinterest.com/pin/224828206374773855/
When you are house hunting for a suitable rental property, make sure that you existing furniture will fit nicely into the rooms. You don't want to go to the expense of buying new furniture every time you move to a new property, unless you plan on a long-term occupation.
pinterest.com/pin/182044009922658147/
If you're lucky enough to find a rental property with larger than average rooms to fill, colourful or patterned rugs are great at bringing a cohesive look into any room. Keep to a specific style and make sure any rug is large enough for furniture to be placed around the edges.
pinterest.com/pin/809522101747420359/
Since you aren't able to hammer into walls, you can use furniture to display art and mirrors. It won't cost you much to knock up a pine table with PAR pine that you can buy at any Builders store, and it's so easy to make affordable pine resemble more expensive features with wood stain.
pinterest.com/pin/515802963542763204/
Trestle tables are extremely easy to make, or you could even buy a couple of pine trestles at your local Builders Warehouse. Finish off with a pine top, repurpose an old door, or have thick glass cut to size. It's as easy as that you make a trestle table that you can use to display artwork, show off accessories, or to show off a mirror.
3. Add Colour, Pattern and Texture
Just because the landlord won't let you hammer in nails doesn't mean you have to feel restricted when it comes to decorating a rental home. We've already looked at quite a few ways to make any house a home - even a rental property. Think about how you can use colour (in art and accessories) to add colour, bring in patterned cushions, or combine colour, pattern and texture by using the right fabrics for windows and soft upholstery.
pinterest.com/pin/274367802277821337/
No matter whether you live in your own home or you rent your home, adding fabrics is an excellent way to bump up the vibe. Local fabric stores offer a wide selection of upholstery fabrics that you can use to bring in small or large doses of eye-catching detail. Where possible, tie your window treatment in with the style and colour of a particular room - use patterned fabric to bring in more detail, or plain fabric if you need a small dose of colour.
Most landlords won't let you hammer nails into a wall - not even one nail - but that doesn't have to prevent you from displaying your wall art.
There are so many ways that you can display art in a rental home, especially if you aren't allowed to hammer nails into walls. Think about using furniture to display your artwork for an eye-catching feature. If you don't have a piece of furniture you can use, make up your own furniture (as shown below), or check out our idea for using a Sofa Table (top of page).
Not everyone wants to go to the expense of owning their own property, but it is nice to know that even if you prefer to rent, you can still make any house feel like home.