In a couple of weeks we’ll swap one rented house for another, 200 miles away in Devon. The thing is, this second rented house is only going to be our home for around 6 months, while we go through the process of buying somewhere. But that doesn’t mean it needs to feel like a halfway house, or a holiday home. It’s going to be the first place we live in Devon, so it’ll still hold some memories. With that in mind, I’ve been looking at ways to make it feel like a home, rather than a stop gap house, without atually painting any walls or doing any DIY.
As ever, Shopcade has been useful. If you haven’t come across this site yet do take a look. It’s like a cross between Amazon and Pinterest, in that you can easily browse through pretty much any category of shopping product you want (fashion, interiors, gadgets, books etc), but it’s social, meaning you pick up points as people “follow” the lists of wish items you create, which lead to free stuff. Genius really.
Obviously we don’t want to spend a fortune, so I’m keeping any purchases to around the £15 – £25 mark, unless it’s for something I know we’ll want to have for a while (a new bed, for example). So, here are some of the ways I’m planning to make our rented house a home, without knocking anything down or painting any walls.
Wall stickers and prints are a quick and easy way to add colour to a bland magnolia wall, and they also mean you don’t need to hammer hooks into the wall to hand blackboards or signs.
Accessories like letters, fun noticeboards and clips help add your own unique style to a property that’s been decorated with a faceless tenant in mind. And glassware gives you another opportunity to make the most of the light coming in through windows (it’ll reflect off the glass and make pretty patterns on the walls) to stamp your own taste onto a room without painting it.
It goes without saying, cushions, rugs and throws are another staple of choice when it comes to putting a mark on a house and making it feel like your own.
Have you got any other tips to ahare? Now’s the time to tell me – we haven’t actually moved in yet!
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Disclosure: As a Shopcade ambassador, I get sent monthly goodies for flying the flag for the site. For more information please see my disclosure page.
We rented for years whilst trying to build up our deposit and finally achieved our dream 2 years ago. We lived in some grotty places where the rent was cheap and used every trick in the book to make it feel like home. The one thing I’d never advise is wall stickers…..they all say “easy to remove”, they all promise they’ll “leave no marks” but they do. One in particular took all the paper off the wall as it came off…..much panic ensued and I spent hours patching and repainting a wall on moving day!
It’s amazing how quickly a soulless rental can become “home” just by having your stuff around…good luck!
You’re so right about a house being a home once your stuff is in there. It’s incredible how quickly a few books and your own furniture can transform a place isn’t it?!