Renter-Friendly Design Ideas

A Helpful List of Interior Design Tips and Hacks for Renters

Whether the apartment you’re renting is large or small, design choices can make all the difference in turning it into a home of your own.

Breathing life into your living space isn’t the hardest task, but it’s a complicated one. It requires research, a little bit of elbow grease, and a lot of creativity. The only real limitation to designing and customizing your home is when you’re renting it. The changes and choices you make likely won’t be permanent, but that doesn’t mean you can’t liven up your space and turn it into your dream home.

For renters looking to improve their homes without breaking the bank, we’ve decided to put together a helpful list that you won’t want to skip. Here are some extremely helpful interior design tips and ideas for renters.

Shelves, Shelves, & More Shelves

When you’re renting, one of the most limiting things you can deal with is space. Unless you’re living in a multi-wing mansion, there’s never enough space to store or display everything you own. That’s why shelving is arguably the most important detail you can use throughout your home. Depending on the style of the shelf, you can add necessary and attractive storage to any room in your home. From a small spice rack in your kitchen to a floating entertainment center in the living room, attaching shelving to your walls can not only be a great accessory, it can also be a gorgeous accent to your home.

Like sconces and crown molding, shelving can elevate an empty room to a layered space with unique design choices. Not only that, you can save valuable floor space with just a few useful shelves!

Plants!

House plants aren’t just beneficial, they have the potential to be a gorgeous addition to your home’s interior. They can be the centerpiece in the middle of your table; they can be the large and colorful accent in the corner of the room. Spider plants, snake plants, lilies, ferns – each one can add some much-needed decor – and they’re healthy for you!

Studies have shown that house plants have the potential to improve air quality, lower stress levels, add humidity, purify your air, boost your mood, provide allergy relief, reduce fatigue and anxiety, improve your productivity, and even aid in getting better sleep. It might be tedious to water them regularly, but the studies show that they’re very much worth it.

Rugs and Chair Leg Pads

An unfortunate issue with renting is having to refrain from damaging anything in your home. It’s a difficult ask, especially when it comes to moving furniture. Even pushing back your dining room chairs as you get up can cause costly damage to your floors. That’s a bill you, or your security deposit, will end up paying.

Rugs, and to a lesser extent chair leg pads, can help you solve that problem before it even starts. Not only do rugs add interesting designs and styles to your home, but they can also prevent furniture or even spills from damaging your floor. If you’re unable to use an entire rug, chair leg pads installed on your chairs avoid floor damage and keep you from having to deal with the annoying screeching that comes with moving them.

Adhesive Strips and Hooks for Frames & More

That previously mentioned shelving sounds pretty useful, but how are you going to hang them if your rental company prohibits the use of nails? That’s a seemingly difficult question with an easy answer – adhesive strips and hooks! Every home improvement store now has a wide selection of nail alternatives that you can use.

The amount of weight they can carry varies, so be sure to check the fine details on whatever product you buy. A strip that you can use to hang a small frame is not going to work for heavy shelving. It’s also important to note that most of these adhesives deteriorate over time, so monitor their strength to keep your frames, shelves, TVs, and more from falling off the wall.

Display Art & Temporary Wallpaper

Adding personality and character to a space can be hard when you’re limited in what you can install and change. Everyone wants to imprint their identity onto their home but might not have the ability to do so. Display art, and even temporary wallpaper, can change that.

From posters of your favorite band to prints from your favorite artist, wall art can create visual splendor in even the simplest of rooms. Studies have also shown that wall art can improve mental health and inspire creativity, making it another extremely beneficial way to spruce up your space. Temporary wallpaper can have the same effect. Instead of choosing a basic color from your local store, find and install a unique wallpaper design that captivates you and serves as a conversation starter for anyone you welcome into your home.

Window Treatments and Covers

Not only can window treatments add some fashion sense to your spaces, they can help you save on your electricity bill. Shades of any kind can help with energy efficiency, allowing you to adjust the light levels in your home and even keep your home cooler in the Summer. Some spaces have small windows that are easily covered, but other spaces can have large bay windows that leave everything from your living room to your bedroom exposed to sunlight in the early morning. A properly sized window treatment can not only accentuate your styles and design choices but can help you avoid those unintended early wake-up calls.

Colors Are Your Friends

Color theory is the ideology that different colors can represent or embody different emotions or feelings. That’s especially true when it comes to the interior of your home. Regardless of the ones you personally enjoy, any colorful design choice can imbue your home with the life you’ve always wanted it to have. That doesn’t mean everything in your bedroom has to be blue, but it means you can explore what fixtures in your home complement each other and style your space accordingly.

Accent Walls

Put that color theory to work with an accent wall. Painting an entire room is not only tedious work, it’s a major decision! You’re going to be living with that color for a long time, and most of that room’s decor is going to reflect it. Accent walls aren’t new, but they are becoming a major trend. When you paint one wall a different color than the rest of the room, you’re creating an accent wall. It creates a vibrant and lively look to any space while also giving you a more diverse color palette from which to design the rest of your space.

Most renters are apprehensive about making changes to their home’s interior. Every change has the potential to be a costly mistake, but that shouldn’t keep you from creating your space. With just a few design choices, your personal space can reflect your personality.