7 Ways to Upgrade a Rental Home

Rental Upgrades You Can Get Away With…

If you’ve been a longtime follower, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan when you upgrade a rental home. Just because it’s not your house, doesn’t mean you can’t make it into a home. Now, I know some people are afraid to make any changes to a home. What if you do something and that’s it, your deposit is gone?

Fear not. As a pro when it comes to decorating a rental, I have a few tricks up my sleeve on how to upgrade a rental home. So, if you’re looking to makeover your home this month, here are my top tips on how to upgrade a rental home…

Paint the Walls.

Paint is reversible. Some people are put off by changing the colour of the walls. However, it is reversible and if you’re willing to put in the effort, it’s worth it.

For us, our home was a mixture of clashing colours, and not in a good way. So we painted all the walls white and it makes such a difference to our home. Just be willing to change it back, if you are doing a colour, at the end of your tenancy and you’ll landlord will be perfectly fine with this.

Fancy something a little different, then why not try removable wallpaper. This is so easy to put up and will make such a difference to the space.

Nail Things to the Walls.

Another thing you can do that will make a difference is to hang up artwork. My landlord is very trusting and will let me put nails in the wall, knowing I’ll spackle the holes up at the end of our tenancy. Spackling is so easy to do and again, if you’re willing to put in the time, it will completely transform the room.

Now, if you’re not allowed to put holes in the wall, fear not. In this case, you need to get friendly with Command Strips and Hooks. A renter’s best friend. Whichever method you go for, just make sure that you don’t let it stop you from putting things up on the walls.

Change Your Lighting.

Lighting is another upgrade to a rental home that you can make. Lighting is essential to any interior design, so it’s important to get it right. There are two changes you can make to your lighting. The first is changing out the shade, which anyone can do. This will inject some of your personality into the room.

The second is to completely change the light and re-wire it. This is a little more technical, so unless you’re trained, please always consult with a professional before installing. Again, this is a way to change up the design style and transform the space.

Alternatively, you can think about the other lights in your home. Think wall lights, table and floors. These accent lights will help towards making a change and difference to your home.

Cover Your Counters & Tiles.

I live by this advice. When we first moved into our rental, I hated both our tiles and countertops. This was easily changed thanks to peel & stick tiles and contact paper. I swear by our contact paper, it transformed the kitchen and it’s a joy to cook on.

Same for our peel & stick tiles. They completely made the kitchen more in line with our interior style. Now that it feels more like me, I want to be in the room more, I’m enjoying cooking again. Both of these are temporary and can be removed at the end of the tenancy.

Change Up Your Hardware.

Hardware is another thing you can quickly do this weekend and it will make a change to the home. Turning ours from pine to brass really transformed the home and made such a difference. What’s more, it’s easy to do. As long as you’re going for the same dimensions on handles, you can easily swap everything over in a couple of hours.

The best bit, you can take them with you. As long as you’ve saved the previous ones, swap them back at the end of the tenancy and take your amazing new handles with you to your next home.

Cover Your Flooring.

Now, no flooring in a rental home is amazing. It’s the law of every rental house. Because of this, you have to get crafty and get covering them. For that, I’d suggest investing in a rug. Rugs are a great design tool for any room. They anchor the space, a way to ground your furniture and mark out your space. Rugs will also cover up any undesirable flooring.

With rugs, always go bigger. The bigger the better, personally. There’s nothing worse than a tiny rug that is doing nothing to your space.

Invest in Your Furniture.

Lastly, it’s worth investing in your furniture when it comes to upgrading your rental home. It’s very tempting to just go all flatpack furniutre. However, investing every now and then in some good quality pieces and slowly your home will be transformed.

It’s the perfect way for your design to speak and come through. What’s more, it’s yours, ready to take with you to your next home. Some of my favourite places to get furniture is to go thrift or vintage. Great pieces of furniture at a fraction of the cost. I have so many unique pieces that I’m obsessed with and love incorporating into my home.