Any decor advice to former homeowners who are becoming renters again?

[HSMom2One]

I have a feeling that there are others on these boards that have gone through the same thing, so I'm asking for ideas. After being in our own home for the majority of our marriage, dh, dd and I are going to become renters soon. We live in the PNW and most rentals here don't even allow customized interior painting, although it varies with landlords. I'm just wondering if anyone has up-to-date suggestions on how we can personalize the place so it feels homier and a bit less temporary. If all goes well, we'd like to find a house that we could stay in for about 5 years.

 

Do you have any tips or tricks to transform a rental into a homey space?

 

Thanks!

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Mergath]

Our landlord does let us paint, but beyond that, we pretty much just do the stuff you'd do to decorate a house you own. Hang lots of pictures, lay down area rugs, and cram books into every available corner. :p

[HSMom2One]

It's just going to be so weird to not be able to change something if we want to. Waaa!

[NotSoObvious]

Ugh. It's been a hard change for us.

 

If there is something you want to do, just ask. The worst they can do is say no.

 

Create new spaces, make it as livable as possible, decorate like it is your own.

[HSMom2One]

I do hang a lot of pictures in every home I live in, plus I decorate in all the usual ways. I was just hoping someone had some special tips. Years ago I remember reading that you could tack king sized sheets or fabric on the walls instead of wallpapering when you're in a rental. I'm not into wallpaper that much anymore, but the idea's been in the back of my mind.

[milovany]

I sell Uppercase Living vinyl and have tons of photos at my FB page if you want to take a look (click). You don't have to have FB to see the photos. People will tell me they're renters so don't want to put things on the walls, but that's the beauty of the vinyl words/phrases/embellishments, really. It's a pretty inexpensive way to make a nice, fun, personal impact. I have some custom phrases here and there throughout the house (things I say or house "rules", etc.) -- nothing huge, just something to bring a smile. There are lots of different ways to apply to accessories so you can take it when you go, too. for $25-$50 you can get one or two things up, for $100 or less, you can put 3-4 around your house to inspire you or make you smile. If you want to check out my website, it's www.wallthatandmore.com. Let me know if you have any questions.

[regentrude]

I did not really find much of a difference. The inside of our own house looks pretty much like the inside of our rental apartment looked like - our main "decoration" are our full wall book cases. Same book cases, same knick knacks, same furniture, same pictures. You personalize through your "stuff".

[Sara R]

The blogger the Nester at Nesting Place is a popular home diy blogger and renter. She started a sub-blog called Content to Rent that has some philosophical pieces and some practical advice. In addition, she painted her rental (without the specific permission of the landlord...) and added a temporary beadboard backsplash in the kitchen.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I consider interior when renting. I love places that are neutral but often I will buy curtains to help. Ds had a mustard yellow room so we bought new curtains to help personalize the room. We had purple rooms in one place.....nothing matched. Oh well. I buy new couch pillows to coordinate if possible. Rugs help. Our current place just happened to match the color of our couches! But ask about painting. Our last rental said no painting but it had been painted white throughout....so if we had painted they wouldn't have known when I moved out and had repainted it white again....the paint was in the garage :-) Did I mention we had one place with a dark green half bath? It was a nasty green in a bathroom....ahhH!

 

curtains, pictures, rugs, comforters, pillows....get things to personalize the space to make it yours.

[indigomama]

We are not allowed to put any nails in the wall, so we have not been able to hang a lot of our bigger decor pieces. I admit, it's made it hard to make this place feel like home. For smaller things we have used 3M command hooks, but it's not the same as nails. So, make sure you ask if you can use nails/screws before you rent if that's important.

 

Rugs, curtains, pictures, and painting your furniture are ideas. I'm still trying to make our rental feel homey---it's hard.

[RoughCollie]

When you get the lease, you don't have to sign it as is. Discuss the nails and paint situation with the landlord. If he agrees, put it in the lease. You can write it in, and both of you must initial it. Or you can do like I did -- determine you have an illegal lease, and draft a new one yourself. It is a contract between two parties, and you are one of them!

 

I have covered walls with fabric. It was a long time ago. I nailed wooden slats (very thin wood - not thick or fat, just long; don't remember what it is called -- from Home Depot) to the top of the wall along the ceiling and along the baseboard. After I hemmed the fabric all the way around, simply by ironing it (no sewing), I stapled it to the wood. Home Depot cut the slats to the right lengths for me.

 

The reason for the wood on the top and bottom was so the fabric would be taut. I only did one wall. If I had done more than one wall, I would have overlapped the fabric onto the adjacent wall by a few inches, and repeated the process with the next wall. I suppose I would have put one of those thin wood slat things down the wall at the corner on the adjacent wall side, and stapled it so the flap from the first wall was under the slat, and the new wall's fabric was over the slat.

 

This was in the 1970s. Maybe by now there is an adhesive available that you can use that won't damage the walls. Actually, this project didn't damage the walls. I used very few skinny, short nails to attach the slats, far fewer than the number of staples I used.

 

Also, nail holes can be repaired with Spackle before repainting, so I'm not sure why a landlord would be so fussy about that. In your negotiations, point out that you are an artist, and a mature woman who certainly will not turn the walls into Swiss cheese. If you prevail, make the lease doesn't say you can't use nails!

 

Discuss painting the walls before you sign the lease, too. You can tell the landlord, who now knows you are an artist and a mature woman who will not paint them black (will you? :w00t: ), and that he can pre-approve the colors.

 

Whatever you do, do not think you and your landlord have come to a meeting of the minds, and leave it out of the lease! It's a contract -- you can put anything in it you want (if he agrees, and that works both ways). Do not believe anything the landlord tells you -- verify everything you can.

 

Do not sign a lease that is written in arcane legalese. Our landlord's lease was unreadable. It gave me a headache, so after I read the first few paragraphs, I looked up landlord-tenant law. Sure enough, PA has a plain language law regarding leases. So I wrote another lease, and he signed it.

[indigomama]

There was no negotiating room at all in our lease. And we moved sight unseen to another state, in a small town with heavy competition for rentals. Rents/rentals are ridiculous considering the location but they are in high demand because there are still strong jobs here.

 

Most of the house is plaster, that was the main concern of the landlords here about any holes. Some of the other walls are cheap painted over wood paneling.

 

Sometimes as a renter it is very hard to make it homey. Just doing the best we can. And warning OP about looking into leases if she can.

[vonfirmath]

It's just going to be so weird to not be able to change something if we want to. Waaa!

 

Up until this year, we have been renters for most of our married life. Including in Newcastle in the PNW. We are not HUGE painters. But I have not found anything I wanted to do to someone else's place that they would not allow me to do (at one place I'd have ripped up the carpetting and put down linoleum in the dining room. And put in a back porch. But not in a place that someone else owned!)

 

Are you planning to sign a 5 year lease? Because otherwise, they can kick you out at any time after you your lease expires, just giving you notice (we had that happen when the owners decided they wanted to sell the house.)