Whether you live in an apartment complex with strict regulations on painting your walls, or if you just plan on moving soon and don’t want to have to put up with the hassle of painting, you can still create visually interesting walls without breaking open a can of paint.
Wall stickers -These can range from a set of smaller stickers that you can arrange in your own patterns on your walls, to over-sized murals made to take up an entire wall by itself. Some are re-usable and some are not, but they will not damage your walls coming off. Wall stickers can range from a small pack for around $20 to $100-200 for very large images. Check out blik for professionally designed wall stickers, or RoomMates for more options, including licensed images.- Wallpaper – Wallpaper doesn’t have to be ugly and out-dated – there are plenty of fun, modern styles to choose from these days. Sherwin-Williams has a line of easy-to-remove wallpaper perfect for renters, with hundreds of cute designs. Wallpaper in general will take at least a few hours to put up if you want it to look even, so be aware that it can be a time-consuming process.
- Artwork - You can buy affordable prints at Art.com or ArtPrints.com (though framing gets expensive quickly), or original paintings by up-and-coming artists on Etsy.com. You can also mix and match similarly-styled paintings and group them together on one wall for a unique but stylish art grouping.
- Wall Quotes: Hanging, inspirational wall quotes can provide an uplifting atmosphere and provide a constant affirmation of something that is important to you. Best of all, you can bring the quotes with you to your next home.
- Cloth - One of my favorite options, you can apply starch to fabric and then press it onto the wall you’d like to cover with starch. Depending on the price of the fabric you use, this can be a very cheap option, and the cloth is completely re-usable after a round in the washing machine. For full directions on applying fabric to your walls, check out this article on Rental Decorating.com.
This post was updated on February 15, 2010.
