Decorating an apartment can be tough.
Depending on its size, you may not have much room to work with. And depending on your lease terms, you may not be able to make any significant changes to space.
With all of those limitations in place, it’s not easy to make your apartment look as stunning as you want it to look.
Don’t give up just yet, though. You still have plenty of options.
Below, we’ll discuss a few simple pieces of decor that can have a huge impact on your apartment. Even if you live in a studio and your lease prevents you from doing any renovations, these decorations will help you create the apartment of your dreams.
Check ’em out:
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Framed Mirrors
Ask any professional interior designer how to transform a room, and they’ll tell you:
Add mirrors.
Mirrors not only look nice on their own, but they also make rooms appear larger. Because a mirror reflects the space across from it, it creates the illusion that the wall behind it recedes further back than it actually does.
This makes mirrors great decorations for any room that feels too small. If you live in a small apartment (especially a studio), wall mirrors are must-have decor.
Framed mirrors are even better because they give you more customization options. You can choose a color and style that complements the rest of your decor and adds to the overall theme.
Plus, framed mirrors are easier to hang than unframed ones. There’s no need for command strips or plastic brackets when you can just hang your mirror on picture wire like a piece of artwork.
Patterned Rugs
Unfortunately, many apartments come with ugly carpets. And your lease probably prevents you from tearing them up to lay down new ones.
That’s okay. You can always throw an area rug down on top of the existing one. This allows you to customize your floors without making any permanent changes to your rental unit.
Like mirrors, area rugs can also make a room appear larger. If your rug is big enough for all the main furniture pieces in a room (i.e., your bed in your bedroom or your sofa and coffee table in your living room), it’ll emphasize the space around the carpet, making the room appear more spacious.
Area rugs are super helpful in one-room apartments, as well. With a few rugs stationed around your place, you can create the feeling of several different rooms.
If you situate your “living room” furniture on one rug and your “dining room” furniture on another, it’ll feel like the living room and dining room are two different spaces!
Throw Blankets
Getting tired of your old couch but don’t have the budget for a new one just yet?
Pick up a fun throw blanket in a quirky pattern or color and toss it over your sofa. It’ll be nice to cozy up with while you watch TV, but it also acts as a sofa cover that draws the eye in.
A good throw blanket can make your couch look completely new!
Remember:
Your sofa is the biggest item in your living room. To anyone not watching TV, it’s the focal point of the room.
Therefore, it’s crucial to make the couch look as nice as possible. And if you want to create a visual impact in the living room, your couch is the best place to start.
Colored Lampshades
As for lampshades age, they start to look kind of sad. They get dusty, dirty, and they start to yellow. And when your lampshades look less-than-stellar, the rest of the room is also going to look that way.
You can give your apartment a major update by swapping out your lampshades with some bold-colored ones.
This technique works especially well if you have several lamps in the same room. For example, if you have one lamp on each end table in your living room, and there’s a standing lamp in the corner, you should try this.
A few pops of color at different heights around the room can give your living room a new personality.
Just make sure that your new shades complement the color scheme in the rest of the room. If your lampshades clash with your walls, curtains, or carpets, it’ll transform the room in a bad way.
New Shower Curtain
Don’t forget about the bathroom! Even if you keep it clean, it’s easy for the bathroom to start looking drab and outdated.
Aside from painting the walls or adding new tile (which may not be possible if you’re a renter), there are a few simple ways to transform your bathroom. One of the easiest is to get a new shower curtain.
The shower curtain is basically an extra wall in your bathroom. And like any other wall in your house, you want it to look nice.
So, take a look around online and see if you can find a new shower curtain you like. Look for one in a color or pattern that matches the rest of your bathroom decor.
You can even find bathroom sets that come with matching shower curtains, bath mats, soap dispensers, and other items. The curtain will add a big swath of color to the room, and the smaller items will add little pops of the same color elsewhere in the space.
It’s such an easy way to update your bathroom!
Conclusion
You don’t need to tear down any walls or even own any power tools to transform your apartment. With a few simple decorations, you can make your place look entirely new.
So, don’t let your lease terms get you down. Head to Target, grab the items we discussed above, and watch the impact they make!
Author Bio:
Lisa Gotte is the Business Manager at Broadstone Barker Cypress. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, she begins and ends each day loving what she does. She finds joy in helping others and makes Broadstone Barker a place everyone loves to call home.
