It’s Worth it to Improve Spaces You’re Renting

Telling yourself a stage of life is “temporary” leaves you hanging in limbo. You owe it to yourself to make the most out of every situation–renting might feel like a pit stop on the way to a real home, but it is what you make it. Spending a little bit of money to upgrade small fixtures will make you much happier, and it’ll be worth it–adding in your personal tastes make it feel yours. We’ve highlighted some easy ways to upgrade your space.

Blinds

Get some new blinds. Rental blinds are usually not great, and window treatments make all the difference in a room. An accessible option is bamboo blinds. You should have about 2” of blinds on either side of the window

Knobs and Pulls

Paint over the cabinets if necessary and grab some unique knobs and pulls. It has the ability to totally transform your kitchen. Kitchens and bathrooms often age the worst in rentals and will need a pick me up.

Peel and Stick Flooring

Peel and stick flooring can actually look good. All you need is $50-100 dollars and a couple hours to line everything up. It will radically improve your kitchen and bathroom in the space you’re renting.

Hanging temporary wallpaper is an option if you don’t want to paint all the walls before you move. You can do this by creating an accent wall, and leaving the rest of the walls blank to hang art.

If your walls really can’t be helped, use luxe fabric to hide them. This sheer chiffon covers the windows then wraps around the wall to make the space feel cozy without being overpowering.

Making Dinner an Event

Lightswitch Covers

Swap out your light covers. Rental apartments are notorious for having painted over and all together ugly switch covers–upgrading to new ones is a really inexpensive way to make an improvement to your place. Just keep the old switch covers to screw back on when you move out.