Six artsy things to do to your rental home
By Morgan Hannah, Life & Style Editor
I’ve been looking at a lot of apartments and suites to move these last couple of months and not finding enough of an upgrade from my current place to bother aside, these places are all so damn boring! The walls are always beige or white and the suites so conformist and unstylish. And what’s worse, a lot of landlords and rental agencies seem to be touchy about painting.
If you’re one of the lucky ones and you’re able to snag a sweet pad with a pretty shade painted onto the walls, good on ya! But if you’re not, and your landlord’s not cool with changing things up, here’s what you can do.
Punny Pillows
This one is non-wall related, but I thought I’d include it anyway because for one, maybe the puns will distract your guests—and even yourself—from those boring, naked walls; and two, who doesn’t like a cute pun pillow? You can throw one on the couch or a couple on your bed. You could even decorate the corners of any space with these. And the best part? There are so many puns! My favourite one now is this: “Why can you never trust an artist?” “Because they are a bit sketchy, a little shady, and will always try to frame you.”
Tapestry/sarong
On my last vacation, I ended up buying a lot of sarongs. I mean, it was hot out and they were all just so beautiful. However, now I find myself with all these sarongs and cold weather fast approaching. Guess I can hang them up over those greasy beige apartment walls! Like a coat of paint but made of cotton and easily removable, sarongs double as flexible, soft, and unique pieces of art that cover up a lot of space. What’s more, when you get tired of your current design, switching up your sarong-art is super easy since it’s only tacked up there!
Poster boards
This one is more of a quick-fix-turned-discovery than anything else. Long story short, I ended up putting a hole in my bathroom door—to be fair, the thing is practically made of two pieces of cardboard and a whole lotta air—and needed a short-term fix solution. So, I bought some white poster board from the dollar store and taped that across the hole on either side of the door, and taped it, and taped it, and taped it again. You really need a lot of tape or the good quality kind for this idea. But once you’ve got that bad boy stuck to the surface of your choice, it acts as a canvas; bringing back those good ol’ childhood memories of drawing on the walls. Only this time you won’t get in trouble.
Scrapbook
I used to be big into scrapbooking. If you’re not familiar with “scrapbooking,” it’s basically making a book, only instead of words, you paste photos, stickers, fancy pieces of paper, and so on in this book. This activity can be a lot of fun if you’re into vision boards or card-making, but it can also be quite expensive. However, if you’re creating a statement piece to liven up your living room, scrapbooking seems more worth the cost! Just pick a spot and slap all your favourite clippings, photos, and pretty scraps of papers and felts to the wall. You can always add to or change your creation later down the road. Bonus, this is a unique way to frame photos and create memories.
Battery-operated string of lights
This one is as simple as it sounds, just acquire a couple of strings of battery-operated lights and put ‘em up! Nowadays, you can get pretty much anything for some string lights: Cacti, footballs, snowflakes, red chili peppers (the fruit, not the band—although, I’m sure somewhere they both must exist), stars, even Edison bulbs! These little guys add light and a cute, artsy flair to any space.
Whiteboard/chalkboard
Admittedly, this idea I found in one of the upper-level units I looked at not too long ago. On the doors to every room, they had chalkboards put up. On these boards, the names of those whose rooms these were, along with an array of fun doodles, graced every entryway in this suite. This idea seems pretty cool. It’s informative, creative, and boosts the appeal of a plain door.
