Facing My Fears In Rental Design
Facing 6 of my Biggest Design Fears in a Rental
I’ve been living in rentals for 10 years now, and I can tell you honestly that the whole time I’ve been scared of losing my security deposit, and therefore didn’t do ANYTHING to upgrade my apartment or make it feel like home. I recently watched a movie called “A Nice Girl Like You” starring Lucy Hale. In it she makes a list of sex-related activities to try when her ex leaves her for porn. Weird premise but honestly an entertaining rom-com. So I’m making my own list.
Not with sexual activities like meeting porn stars or going to a strip club, but with all things rental design that give me the heeby-jeebies but may be worth a shot.
1. Install curtains. With hardware and brackets and everything. Seriously curtains can pull together any space, and definitely cozy it up. I’ve always strayed away from any sort of mounting hardware or drills, and therefore, curtains. Curtains are a design feature that can definitely elevate the room but would require filling screw holes before we move out. My apartment complex doesn’t allow anything that isn’t white on the windows, so something lined in white, or a sheer curtain is going to be necessary if I pull the trigger on this.
2. Adding peel and stick backsplash tiles. I’ve always wanted to try this to attempt to personalize the kitchen a little bit, but have heard some horror stories when trying to peel it off later.
I don’t live in an older apartment, it’s literally brand new, so any damage done is the responsibility of the tenants. That’s me, I’m tenents. I definitely don’t have permission to make any changes. But…. probably need to try this anyway. Consider this photo the before picture.
3. Use wallpaper on a wall. Okay. I still am not sure that I want to attempt this one. I have vivid memories of me in college standing on a stool with a hairdryer trying to remove the “Live, Laugh, Love” stickers I put up. It definitely makes the rental design fear list. I know they make removable wallpaper. I know they do… but omg how scary.
I used to work at Sherwin Williams and was talking about removable wallpaper with a coworker. A customer in the store said, “DON’T DO IT!” She told us her daughter had tried and it was a nightmare to remove. And with 6 months left of the lease…is it really worth it to install and then remove? I guess, I think, maybe it is. Just cuz. SHOWBIZ BABY.
4. Cover the couch. Okay. This is not necessarily renter-specific… but kind of. Have you ever desperately wanted updated furniture but felt like investing in the good stuff while renting is a waste?
After all, what if the next place you live doesn’t have space? Or has too much space? Or a different shape? A different flow, design, layout, EVERYTHING, anything! I feel like that about my couch.
The more I stare at my couch in my apartment, the more I want to cover it up. It’s so dark and makes the living room feel more filled up than it actually is. I can’t help but think that a nice light couch cover would cozy it up. I want to eliminate as much “dingey ness” as possible before the winter months come. Light and airy will be the way to go.
5. Buy a bidet!! Although nobody else in my household would ever admit it, I think that a bidet should be on our list. The amount of toilet paper and dude wipes that my house goes through on a monthly basis is alarming, folks. ALARMING. I’m curious. I’m interested. I also think it’s kind of funny. Some have heated seats!? I have heard great things about the Tushy, but I definitely want to do my research first. I can always pack it up and bring it with when we move right? Is that nasty? I’m not sure of what the bidet rules are. Yet.
6. Mount all the things in the garage that I want to mount. Make it dope! I’ve been blogging from my bedroom office on my big screen and then doing all my content creation, furniture flips, painting, sewing, etc. in the garage. I have several sexy dreams per day thinking about my dream office and how it will all work in a house, if I could ever invest in a showroom space, a warehouse space, etc.
I may not be able to execute that big of a move at the moment, but I can make the most of where I am right now. This garage studio is begging for shelves or something to bring the eyes up.
A pegboard, a corkboard, maybe a neon sign? The space is just sitting around waiting to be utilized and it’s time to commit to the coolest possible workshop space I can.
Okay, that’s it. Six terrifying rental design fears to be faced. Somehow writing this makes me feel that much more confident to do it. Stay tuned on my socials as I cross projects off this list, and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get the details on sources and tutorials for these rental design elements.