Unique Apartment Decor to Make Your Place Stand Out

By Kaitlin Hurtado on October 1, 2022

When you have a living space to call your own, you likely want to have the entire space decorated just to your taste. With an apartment, you may find it a bit more difficult to personalize a standard rental, from neutral walls to pre-selected flooring, cabinets, and hardware. Fear not – there are still plenty of ways you can decorate your rental to make it your own.

Keep reading for ideas of unique apartment decor to make your place stand out.

Photo: Pexels

An accent wall

Living in a rental unit may leave you with limited options when it comes to renovating the space, but there are still ways you can get around adding new design elements to your apartment without breaking the terms of your lease. Depending on your lease agreement, you may be able to paint the walls whatever color you wish as long as you paint them back to their original color at the end of your lease, or agree to cover the cost of maintenance doing the painting once you move out. If this is the case, you will run into less trouble painting the rooms to match your desired vibe, or painting a mini mural to be the focal point of your living room or bedroom.

If your lease agreement does not grant you the freedom to paint your apartment’s walls as you please, there are still ways you can transform the bland beige walls you were given upon moving in. Luckily, there are plenty of companies that offer renter-friendly removable wallpaper that just requires you to peel and stick the wallpaper wherever you please. Another upside to using removable wallpaper to dress up your apartment is being able to remove it and change it up whenever your designer heart desires, allowing you to keep your apartment fresh and up-to-date with your current tastes.

Adding a backsplash to your kitchen 

If you love to spend hours in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes, you may find yourself disappointed with how boring the kitchen in your apartment is when you move in. From the standard cabinets to the old tile countertops, you may find yourself lacking some inspiration in the kitchen. To give your rental kitchen a much-needed update and make it look like it was freshly renovated, you can add a DIY backsplash.

A DIY backsplash can be a budget-friendly and renter-friendly way to update your kitchen. Similar to wallpaper, you can use peel-and-stick tiles instead of going through the time-consuming process of grout and actual tile to add some character and color to your kitchen.

A DIY neon light sign 

When it comes to transforming a rental apartment, lighting can dramatically transform an apartment. What was once a dreary apartment, can become a cozy and warm living space with the addition of well-placed lighting (lamps, string lights, and wall sconces) throughout the room. If you want to add some light and color to your space, consider making a DIY neon sign.

Neon signs, especially ones designed just to your preferences, can cost a pretty penny. If you are on to take a DIY project, you can make your own with an acrylic panel and neon lights. Your DIY neon sign can reflect your personality, from highlighting a quote from your favorite TV show to having the title of your favorite song or album.

A gallery wall highlighting your hobbies

When it comes to living in an apartment, you may not have the space you want to store all your belongings, and you may not always have the budget you want to spend more on new decor. With that being said, you can focus on your current belongings and see how you can use them to transform your space.

Reflect on your hobbies and the items you have from them and think about how you can use them as decor. If you love to skate, for example, consider hanging your skate decks up as wall art. Each design of each deck can offer something unique and hanging them up can free up storage space. If you don’t have extra to hang up, consider getting blank decks and decorating each one to your liking to incorporate as decor. Host a friends night-in and have your friends help out with decorating blank dates to have a reminder of your friends in your own home.

If you love listening to music and collecting vinyl records, you can use them to double up as decor for a gallery wall. Depending on how extensive your collection is, you can easily switch up which records you have on display, playing around with colors, themes, and so on.

These ideas can be a great starting point for helping you transform your apartment from a standardized rental unit to a living space personalized to your own tastes – good luck!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format