Why Decorating a Rental Apartment is So Frustrating
Moving into a new rental apartment is always exciting for about ten minutes, right up until you stare at the blank white walls and realize you aren’t allowed to do anything with them. Most landlords have incredibly strict rules in the lease. No painting, no drilling, no massive nail holes. If you break the rules, you say goodbye to your security deposit when you move out.
Because of this, most renters just give up. They hang one cheap poster with tape, leave the rest of the walls blank, and live in a space that feels like a doctor’s waiting room for an entire year. But living in a rental doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your personal style. You just have to be a little smarter about how you get things on the walls.
There are actually dozens of ways to completely transform a boring, white rental apartment without ever picking up a hammer or a drill. You can add color, texture, and massive pieces of art without doing any permanent damage. Here is exactly how I tell people to decorate their rentals so they get their deposit back in full.
1. The Magic of Command Hooks (When Used Correctly)
Everyone knows about Command strips, but most people use them wrong, which is why their pictures always fall off the wall in the middle of the night and shatter. If you use them correctly, they are the single greatest invention for renters.
The biggest mistake people make is skipping the prep work. If you stick a Command strip to a dusty wall, it is sticking to the dust, not the paint. It will fall down. You have to take a paper towel, put a little bit of rubbing alcohol on it, and wipe the spot on the wall where the hook is going. Let it dry completely for five minutes. Then press the strip against the wall and hold it there for a full thirty seconds. Don’t hang anything on it yet. You have to wait an hour for the adhesive to cure before you put any weight on it.
Also, pay attention to the weight limits on the package. If a hook says it holds three pounds, do not hang a heavy wooden frame on it. If you want to hang a large, heavy frame, use the heavy-duty velcro strips. Use four strips, one in each corner of the frame. The velcro locks together and distributes the weight evenly. When you move out, you just pull the little plastic tab slowly straight down, and the strip pops off without taking any paint with it.
2. Peel-and-Stick Wallpaper is a Lifesaver
If you hate the sterile white walls in your apartment, peel-and-stick wallpaper is your best option. It is exactly what it sounds like: a giant sticker that covers your wall.
You don’t need messy glue or water. You just peel the paper off the back and smooth it onto the wall. If you mess up and it goes on crooked, you just peel it off and stick it back on. You can cover an entire accent wall in a couple of hours, and it completely changes the vibe of the room. When your lease is up, you grab a corner, peel it off like a giant band-aid, and the wall underneath is perfectly fine.
The only trick with peel-and-stick wallpaper is the texture of your walls. It works perfectly on smooth drywall. If your landlord painted over heavy texture, the wallpaper might struggle to stick to the bumps. If your walls are heavily textured, buy a single roll first, test a small piece behind a door, and see if it holds up for a week before you spend a bunch of money on enough rolls to cover the whole room.
3. Washi Tape Wall Art
Washi tape is a Japanese paper tape that is usually used for crafting and scrapbooking. It comes in hundreds of colors and patterns. The best thing about it is that the adhesive is extremely weak, which means it will never, ever damage the paint on your walls.
You can use washi tape to create massive geometric patterns directly on your wall. If you are creative, you can tape out the shape of mountains, abstract triangles, or a fake headboard behind your bed. It takes a little bit of patience and a ruler to get the lines straight, but it costs almost nothing and looks incredibly modern.
You can also use washi tape to create fake frames. If you have a bunch of un-framed photos or postcards, tape them to the wall, and then use black washi tape to create a border around them. It gives the illusion of a gallery wall without having to buy expensive frames or use nails.
4. Lean Your Art, Don’t Hang It
Who says art actually has to be attached to the wall? If you buy a massive, heavy mirror or a huge canvas painting, you probably shouldn’t trust it on a Command strip anyway. Instead, just lean it.
Take a giant floor mirror and lean it against the wall in your bedroom or living room. It makes the room look much bigger by reflecting light, and it requires zero installation. You can do the same thing with large pieces of art. Sit a huge framed poster directly on the floor and lean it against the wall. It gives the apartment a very relaxed, cool, artist-studio vibe.
You can also lean smaller pieces of art on top of your furniture. If you have a long dresser or a TV stand, prop three or four framed photos against the wall on top of the furniture. Layer them slightly in front of each other. It looks very intentional and sophisticated, and you didn’t have to put a single hole in the drywall.
5. Tapestries Are Not Just for College
When you hear the word tapestry, you probably think of a cheap, psychedelic cloth hung in a dorm room. But tapestries have actually grown up. You can buy incredibly beautiful, high-quality fabric hangings that look like real art.
Hanging a large tapestry is the fastest way to cover a massive blank wall. Because fabric is so light, you only need two tiny thumbtacks to hang it. A thumbtack hole is so small that most landlords won’t even notice it when you move out. If they do, you can fill the tiny hole with a dot of white toothpaste, and it disappears instantly.
Look for tapestries that feature vintage botanical prints, abstract modern art, or high-resolution photography. Avoid the tie-dye mandalas if you want the apartment to look like an adult lives there.
6. Use Tension Rods for Curtains
Most rental apartments come with those terrible, cheap plastic mini-blinds. They collect dust, they look awful, and they let in too much light. You can drastically improve a room by putting up real curtains, but landlords usually don’t let you drill curtain rod brackets into the wall.
The workaround is a tension rod. A tension rod is the same thing you use to hang a shower curtain. You just twist it until it wedges tightly inside the window frame. Buy a heavy-duty tension rod, stick it inside your bedroom window frame, and hang a set of nice, heavy blackout curtains on it.
It completely hides the ugly plastic blinds without damaging the wall. When you move out, you twist the rod the other way and take it with you. It takes literally two minutes to install.
7. Put Plants on the Walls
Plants are the ultimate cheat code for making a rental feel like a real home. They bring life and color into a sterile space. But if you don’t have enough floor space for big pots, you can put them on the walls.
You can buy small, lightweight planters that attach to the wall using Command strips or tiny nails. Stick a few of them on a blank wall in your kitchen or living room and fill them with trailing plants like pothos or string of pearls. The vines will grow down the wall, creating a living piece of art.
If you have a horrible black thumb and kill every plant you touch, buy high-quality fake plants. Nobody is going to inspect them closely, and they provide the exact same aesthetic benefit without needing any water or sunlight.
Final Thoughts on Renting
Living in a rental apartment forces you to be a little bit more creative with your decorating. You can’t just smash a nail into the wall every time you want to hang a picture. But if you use the right adhesive strips, lean your heavy items, and get creative with tape and fabric, you can make the space entirely your own.
Don’t wait until you buy a house to live in a beautiful space. You deserve to come home to an apartment that feels like you, even if you are only going to be there for twelve months. Just remember to use rubbing alcohol before you stick anything to the wall, and your deposit will be perfectly safe.
