- minute read
Living in rented accommodation can often feel a little impersonal, especially if your hands are tied by a landlord who doesn’t want you making any changes to the currently drab interior. Luckily, there are actually several non-permanent changes you can carry out to make a rented house feel like a home – the majority of which are inexpensive and require little effort on your part.
Below, we’ve provided a quick overview of our top 10 tips for making your rented property feel like a home. While we still recommend reviewing your contract and double-checking with your landlord before doing anything too drastic, our tips are fairly inexpensive and risk-averse.
Continue reading as we go through each of these tips in much greater detail, including links to a handful of our favourite products.
Regardless of whether you’re into family portraits, wall hangings, abstract prints or a different form of personalised wall art, adding some artwork to your walls will instantly transform them from bare and drab to unique and exciting.
While most landlords aren’t going to appreciate you drilling nails into the wall to hang up a canvas, there are plenty of other ways to display your artwork. It could be propped on a table or nightstand, or fit into a bookcase. Double-sided sticky pads will keep lightweight artwork affixed to walls, without leaving any marks.
If you’re looking for something a little different to paint or artwork, then posters are an excellent – and often much cheaper – alternative that can fill up your walls in no time. One of the most popular options for students and young renters is the Mixology poster which lists numerous delicious cocktails and how to make them. If you consider yourself a bit of a movie buff, then the Top 100 Movies poster will allow you to discover some of the very best films out there, each of which can be scratched off after viewing.
Just be careful what you’re using to keep the posters fixed in place. Blu tack can often leave a mark, whereas double-sided sticky pads tend to keep their stick for much longer, without damaging the walls.
Not all rental properties come unfurnished, so be sure of this before you start purchasing any furniture. If it is already furnished, then the simple act of repositioning and moving certain pieces of furniture can still make a real difference, especially if you’re able to create more space in the process.
If it does come unfurnished though, then the sky’s the limit as far as furniture is concerned. We’d recommend you do some planning and get creative! Think about the size of the different spaces in your home and what could fit into each of them.
If you’re on a tight budget or working with limited space, then flat-pack and modular furniture are often the way to go. Flat-pack options are usually pretty cheap and will end up looking great – provided you’ve got the time to build them – while modular furniture allows for smaller pieces that can be placed together if needed. Rather than one huge corner sofa, instead, choose a smaller sofa and armchair combo.
Similarly, several small coffee tables, rather than a single large one, can immediately make a room feel bigger. This also provides the opportunity to get quirky with your choices and bring out more of your personality as a result.
Nobody wants to spend their evenings in a dark and dreary home, so we’d recommend getting some lighting to totally change the feel of your rental property. To quote Aaron Rose: “In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary”.
There’s no shortage of lighting choices to choose from, with LED strips, table lamps, floor lamps, lava lamps and even candles all being viable options. Lights with adjustable brightness are ideal for creating different ambiences as they allow you to customise on the go. The trick is to make your home an inviting place by adding light in rooms where it’s needed most – such as those with limited natural light.
Plants, especially indoor plants, have made a really big comeback over the last few years. Given that they oxygenate rooms, cover-up otherwise unsightly corners and provide some much-needed greenery, you can never bring too many plants into your home! Studies have even found that spending time around plants lowers heart rate while reducing signs of depression.
Plants and flowers can truly bring a space to life, particularly vibrant and colourful choices like the Japanese peace lily or the ti plant. Growing herbs like basil and thyme indoors are also becoming increasingly popular.
If keeping plants alive seems like too much effort, then artificial plants are an alternative that’ll still have the desired effect. There’s no shortage to choose from, with artificial miniature palm trees and succulent plant sets being our personal favourites.
The carpets and flooring found in rented properties often leave an awful lot to be desired. Given that most landlords aren’t going to let you pick out new carpets, the next best option is to invest in some lovely rugs that can be placed in all the rooms you spend the most time relaxing in.
Rugs are ideal for rented homes as they can cover up unappealing flooring, do an excellent job of freshening up an outdated home’s appearance and can be taken with you when leaving. They even provide added insulation by blocking drafts.
Rented accommodation often suffers from a lack of storage, which can lead to plenty of clutter that has no place to go. Storage can be far more than large cupboards and stacks of drawers though, provided you’re willing to get a little creative. The best pieces of storage are those that serve multiple purposes. Chests can often be used as coffee tables, while hollow stools can equally be filled to the brim. You can make cupboards more practical by adding shelf inserts at heights that are convenient to you.
Shoes are often an unruly beast that needlessly fill the hallways of rented properties. Especially in a shared home, investing in some modular shoe storage is an easy way to have all pairs in one place. Modular storage is especially convenient as it can be customised to fit the needs of your individual home.
Having an overarching theme will make all parts of your home feel connected, as opposed to a random collection of rooms with little in common. Our favourite way of doing this is by using colours that work well together. While you (probably) can’t paint the walls of your property, there are plenty of other ways to get colour in, such as through rugs, curtains, picture frames, candles, cushions and other accessories.
Not only will this make each room feel more complete, but picking the right colours will also create a more airy and spacious feel. We’d go with whites and greys, along with the brighter primary colours, but this ultimately comes down to personal preference.
Many designers say that the more accessories you fill your home with, the better! A few carefully placed ornaments give each room a unique feel, while also creating conversation starters. The most interesting accessories and ornaments often aren’t found in conventional shops, so we’d recommend scouring the places most wouldn’t think to go, such as vintage markets or charity shops.
Transforming a rented house into your home doesn’t have to require anything drastic. Sometimes, the small touches are what will transform a room from bland to grand, while also being unique to you (and your housemates).
The absolute best way to make your house or flat feel like a home – without spending a huge sum of money – is to fill it with things that are quintessentially ‘you’. By filling your rental property with photos of family and friends, unique ornaments and other items that evoke memories, your living space will quickly start to feel more personable and personal. It’ll be instantly recognisable as your very own home!
While you can crack on with the majority of changes we’ve suggested in this article, there are some slightly more permanent changes that you should definitely check with your landlord before carrying out. Do some decorating that your landlord isn’t happy with and you could be faced with completely losing your deposit, along with additional charges.
The most common example of this is painting. While some landlords are starting to become a little more receptive to the idea of their tenants giving the walls a much-needed lick of paint, there’s still a good chance that this request will be met with a stern ‘no’.
If painting is a possibility, then we’d recommend picking bright and breezy colours. Not only will this make your home feel more inviting, but it’ll also create a lighter and more open atmosphere. If not, then temporary wallpaper designs, removable decals, canvasses, paintings and posters can all pick up the slack in filling wall space.
Maintaining a good relationship with your landlord – by paying rent on time and keeping your home in a good condition – will help get the answer you’re after.
Already sorted your house but need to set up bills? We can help with this too – we set up and split your utilities for you. Get a free quote for your utilities here.
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