Rental-Friendly Easy DIYs

If you’re renting a place for the foreseeable future and you aren’t allowed to make permanent changes (as is common in rentals), check out these easy DIY ideas that will let you spice up your space without creating any permanent changes (or damage) that will cost you in repairs.

Furniture

Choose interesting furniture! In rooms that feel bare because of blank walls, consider adding furniture that is exciting and colorful. Go thrifting and paint some of the furniture you find with bright, cheery colors that will add character and quirk to any room. Furniture is also key when it comes to creating more storage space. If your rental feels small, consider investing in pieces that have lots of extra room, like hollow ottomans or benches with cubbies in them. These are also items that you can choose to have tons of character and add dimension and taste to your home.

Removable wallpaper

You may not be able to paint your walls, but removable wallpaper is an easy and cheap choice to decorate empty rooms. Choose a print you like and cover an entire room, or maybe just an accent wall. Wallpaper has changed from the days your grandmother had tacky flowers in every single bathroom, so don’t worry. A unique pattern or solid bold color could completely transform a space, and when you leave, all you have to do is peel it off!

Strategic hanging

Even though you can’t drill holes in the wall, removable plastic hooks have utterly dominated the temporary decoration arena recently. There are transparent ones, tiny clasp hooks, and even enormous ones that can hold up to a few pounds of weight. Get creative with these! Hang artwork, drape tapestries, and even put up hanging potted plants with the help of these impermanent devices. They’re not exclusively for dorm rooms anymore!

Plants

Speaking of plants, invest in some! They are a fantastically impermanent way of adding life and color, and drastically improve your living space as well. With their air-purifying properties, your household will be clean even in terms of the oxygen you inhale. Another option is to start your own small herb or vegetable garden. You don’t need a yard for this, just a few pots and a space with plenty of sunlight. If you have a small balcony, this would be a great option for both decor and sustainability. Consider it a money-saver in the long run!

Fun carpets

Who said you need to have boring, beige carpets plaguing your home? Think in color! Have an unexpectedly exciting carpet or throw in areas of your house that could use it, like in your kitchen or bathroom. This will throw drudgery out the window and make you happy to spend time in your home. If you’re feeling brave, buy a big colorful rug for your living area or dining room! Coordinate the colors with the furniture you have, or buy a rug and then plan the furniture around it. Either way, branch out and explore different color palettes that you wouldn’t normally expect in a home, and see just how much fun you can have with it!

Throw pillows

Accent pillows on your sofa are an amazing way to both decorate and tie the room together. As mentioned above, if you have a colorful rug or carpet, try coordinating details and colors to make the room feel whole and also extremely comfortable, depending on how soft the pillows look. Don’t hold back, and add as many as you want (as long as people can still fit on the couch).

Decorative shelving (also storage)

Cute shelving is a great way to add both decor and storage space in a rental. Invest in cute but affordable pieces that you can transform in any way you want. Ikea pieces are generally very easy to assemble, and you can customize them in interesting ways, like adding your own handles or painting them a different color. Shelves can hold a great many things, and you can diversify and make them cute by adding your own small decorations or mini potted plants that will break up the monotony of rows of books and the like and add character and taste.

Washi tape

If you know what washi tape is, consider yourself lucky. It’s an easily removable tape that comes in countless colors and patterns and is great for decorating smaller spaces or adding color accents that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. If you have a small piece of wall, add colorful stripes or cut out cute patterns from the tape to decorate. You can also outline and accent your doors, drawers, and shelves with washi tape, adding just the right amount of depth and dimension to your spaces.

Leaning mirror

If you have always craved an enormous mirror to admire your outfits in but you now have nowhere to hang it, never fear! Just lean that big old thing against a wall and let it serve as both an outfit trial-and-error spot as well as its own definition piece of interior design. Mirrors add a modern twist to spaces and also make them feel a lot bigger, since they reflect the space they’re in and add to it. You can choose a great frame, and even use the top edge as a small shelf to put cute little ornaments or mini plants on. Or, hang your next day’s outfit from the edge so you’ll be ready to roll in the mornings.

Leaning pictures/art

On the same trend of leaning large frames, do the same thing you did for your mirror for large art pieces! Tastefully leaned works of art or photography can do wonders for your space. Consider propping them up on dressers or shelves that you already have so that you can avoid hanging them from the wall but still display them in a place that will catch people’s attention. And if you really have your heart set on wall art, try pinning up prints without frames in a fun pattern on a wall to create a sort of mini-art gallery that won’t ruin your rental.