How to make a rental feel like home

We are gearing up to move into a new temporary rental house right now. Literally, right now. I’m taking a break from packing and moving boxes to write this post. I am in full moving mode over here. We moved to Alaska 2 years ago and we were renting a house that we thought would be our forever home. We had to wait to buy it because the owner still used the shop for work, but once he didn’t need it anymore, we were planning on buying the house from him. It felt nice to know we would never have to move again, because moving is the worst. Moving to a new house or city or state can be exciting and new and fun, so there are parts of moving that are great, but we can all agree (or hopefully we can all agree) that the process of moving is a huge pain.

Anyway, we were in our dream house and thought we would never move again, but then tragedy struck this January and our house burned down. It has been the hardest thing we’ve been through. I’ll probably write more about that soon because there are so many things I’ve learned, but we’ll save that for another post.

We are now moving to a rental house that we will live in during the summer while we build a new house. We are excited about building a house, mostly because it’s so long since we have owned our own home and it will be nice to design it how we want with the colors we want. That being said, we still want our rental to feel like home while we are there even though it will be for 4-5 months. It can be hard to make a rental feel like home, especially if it is a very temporary situation.

 

Here are some easy ways how to make a rental feel more like home:

Vinyl wall decals

Usually in a rental you aren’t allowed to change the colors on the wall and most likely the walls will all be white. To add some interest and to make the space more your own you can find a variety of vinyl wall decals online. These are easy to apply and can be removed with no damage to the wall. In our last house I had these gold wall decal dots for my daughter’s room and they were SO cute. We added them to the wall behind her bed and it changed the look of her room instantly!

House plants

Plants can make a house look lovely and make it feel like home without breaking the bank. I love having a little greenery around my house. House plants can also fit into any style of house or shape of house so when you move they can easily transition to your new space.

Rugs

Rugs are a great way to add a pop of color to a rental or add some interest and design. I actually was not a huge fan of the color of our carpet in our old house so having large area rugs covered a lot of it. It’s also an easy (and beautiful) way to protect the carpet in a rental so you can get your full deposit back when you move. I like this Trellis design rug from Amazon.   I also like this Flatweave cabana stripes rug.

Throw pillows

This is another way to easily add pops of color to a room. There are so many fun designs and colors to choose from with throw pillows. You can go bold or keep it simple and classic, but it can be a fun way to change the look of a room. Pillow covers on Amazon are really cheap, so you won’t break the bank changing the look of your room either! I like these “love” pillows   and these geometric pillows

Minted prints

Minted has gorgeous art that can be printed in different sizes. I love having a large piece of art as a focal point in a room and it’s a great way to add a lot of color to a room with white walls.  The best part is their prints come in so many sizes. You can order the same print small or really big, so you will find the right print for wherever you need it in your house.

Family pictures

I think the best way to make any house feel more like home is to add beautiful pictures of your family and kids to the walls. Surround yourself with prints of your favorite people. I like to add family pictures to a gallery wall and mix it up with interesting pieces like arrows, keys and other cool prints. Surround yourself with the people that make you happiest and you will feel that happiness and love in whatever room you’re in. Note: some rentals don’t allow holes in the walls so you could use Command sticky strips to hang frames on the wall.

Organize your home

Having an organized space that is free of clutter makes me so much more comfortable in my home. If you’re feeling weighed down by stuff it’s probably time to purge things that you don’t use very often. Here is a list of our favorite organizational products. Also check out ideas for organizing your pantry, organizing your garage and organizing under the kitchen sink.

Furniture from CORT

Every house is a little different. When you’re moving into a rental it’s hard to start over and furnish an entire house. You may find that the furniture you already own doesn’t fit into a new rental. CORT Furniture Rental makes it convenient to fill your rental with furniture and they make it stress and hassle free for you by delivering it right to your door. This makes things extra nice if you are in a temporary rental for school or work or with the military. CORT makes it easy to get the look you are going for because you can rent furniture for every room in your new home. It takes a lot of money to get a house looking good right after you move in and with CORT you can have every room set up and ready to go right away. Then when you are finished with the furniture you don’t have to feel guilty for getting rid of it or worry about selling it.

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