Rented Rooms: Improving Your Rented Home
If you cannot currently afford to buy a home, or would rather not deal with the responsibilities that come with owning a property, you may prefer to live in rented accommodation. While it can have a number of benefits, you may also have some rules you need to follow regarding decorating or improving the home. This can vary between landlords.
Before undertaking any work, you may wish to get written permission from your landlord to ensure that you do not breach your tenancy agreement.
Alternatives To Paint
Although some landlords may be more than happy for you to repaint the walls of the home, others may stipulate that it should be left the same colour as when you moved in. While this may put a significant limit on the level of creative freedom you have, that doesn’t mean that the walls have to remain bland.
Rather than painting them to achieve a specific colour or feel, you could instead add some LED colour changing lights around the skirting board or ceiling. This can create the effect of different colours without you needing to touch any paint.
You may be able to use a remote control to change them to suit your needs, making them more flexible than paint should you wish to alter the colours in the future.
Temporary Flooring
As with the walls, you may also not be able to change the flooring within your rented home. If you prefer carpet, but the bedroom floor is made of wood, you may feel somewhat frustrated. Again, while you cannot do anything to permanently change the fixtures, you may be able to find workarounds that suit you.
Laying rugs down in spaces where there is currently no carpet can be a great way of keeping your feet warm without breaking your rental agreement. You may be able to find one that matches the décor you currently have in the room, or even creates a statement.
Making The Most Of Your Garden
Depending on the type of rented property you live in, you may also have a private garden. Outside of maintaining the existing grass and plants, you may not be allowed to alter the existing landscape. A bit of ingenuity can again help you.
You might want to consider using planters and pots to grow flowers or even food of your choosing. One of the main benefits of doing so can be that, should you choose to move to a different home, you can then take all of your greenery with you. If your vegetables were planted directly into the ground, it may be difficult, or even impossible, to uproot these items without killing them.
Improving your rental home may require opting for temporary measures so that you can comply with your contract. Should you want any major changes, these would need to be run past your landlord, and they may need to deal with making those changes.
