The majority of people at one time or another in their lives will rent an apartment. Affordability is most often at the top of the rental checklist as a potential tenant. Only too often, our tastes and our bank accounts are nemeses and as such we are stuck with places that do not necessarily reflect our personalities or at the very least even mutter the words “welcome home”. You are lucky if you find a landlord that has no qualms with decorating the apartment with permanent fixtures such as drilling holes into walls and floors. For the rest of us who do not have lady luck on our side, here are a few tips on decorating a leased apartment.

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Floating Shelves

Floating shelves are a great and inexpensive way of displaying pictures and ornaments. They are also easy to change and move around when the apartment is due for redecorating.

If you can’t Paint the Walls

Paint the furniture. There is a very large community of DIYers on the internet. Websites like paintmewhite.com give a step by step overview of painting and breathing new life into old furniture.

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Work with It

Older buildings are often spacious and charming yet their finishing’s usually dated and this often poses a decorating challenge. Instead of closing your eyes or turning your head whenever you walk by that cringe-worthy spot, work with it. For example if your bathroom has weird colours, pick a colour you like and work with it.

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Furniture Feng Shui

Before you start moving your furniture around and trying to place it, take a minute and imagine the space without any furniture. Then in your mind’s eye start populating the space with the different pieces and see where the best places will be to place your pieces to create an even flow in the rooms.

Curtain Magic

Update the apartment walls without the permanency of paint or wallpaper by hanging several sets of drapes along the wall. This also gives the illusion that there are windows behind the curtains as opposed to bland walls.

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Tapestry Headboard

Normal headboards may be awkward to carry up the stairs into your rental apartment or may be too big and bulky making the room feel smaller. A good idea is to use any type of fabric including a floor rug as a headboard.

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Lighting

Good lighting can completely transform the energy and the look of a room, and its source doesn't always have to be a hardwired ceiling fixture. Investing in lamps to place on end tables, nightstands, side tables, floor lamps will illuminate dark corners and also give your space a romantic feel.

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Adhesive hooks

Most rentals prohibit people from using maskers and nails. If that is the case with you, try hanging your pictures on plastic hooks with super-strength adhesive. When it is time for you to move out, simply pull off the hook, clean the spot and leave the wall undamaged.

Extra Closet Rods

Rentals are notorious for not having enough cupboard space to hang clothes. Create more space by adding adjustable closet rods.

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The floor is your Fifth Wall

Treat the floor as another wall where you can throw a beautiful rug to give the room more personality. A trend that has taken over in America is FLOR tiling. The beauty of FLOR tiling is that you can change the patterns around to suit your tastes.