6.06.2012

Renter's Plight | COVERING UGLY WALLS

Before we moved into our house, the landlord gave us permission to paint the walls as long as our colors were fairly neutral. I've had a similar option in the other rentals I've lived in, but I've always fought a battle in my head that goes a bit like this,

     Creative Me: "Wow! How fun to personalize my space.
                           I should go grab some paint chips."


     Logical Me: "Are you going to live there long enough to make the paint worthwhile?
                         Remember how much time and money you'll have to invest in this project."

     Creative Me: "I suppose if I might only live there a year
                           or so painting isn't very economical."

I then stare sadly at blank, bare walls and wish for what could never be.

Although this same scenario played out with our current home, I couldn't get over the dark wood paneling on the back side of our cabinets that greets every visitor to our house. We hung some pictures as soon as we moved in, which did quite a bit to hide the ugliness, but it was really still a bit of an eyesore. Since painting or staining the wood wasn't really an option, I searched for some neutral, cute wrapping paper in the post-Christmas clearance bins at Target. To my happy surprise, I found a few rolls of this silvery paper for $2.50 each. I attached the paper with masking tape underneath and I cut off the excess with an Xacto knife.


I think one of the reasons I love this solution so much is because it took about 15 minutes, although a few more minutes probably would have guaranteed a bit of a nicer edge on the paper I cut. Sometimes I just get into a rush and I can't help myself :).


That bottom right picture shows where I cut a bit too fast and ended up paying the price. But you can't tell from a few feet back, so I'm not going to sweat it!

Do you have any great ideas you'd love to share to battle "Renter's Plight?"

3 comments:

  1. Our tip is cloth wall coverings! It brings interest to our walls and you can change out the patterns regularly so you're not bored!

    Also, I've been considering the vinyl sticker things--there are cool designs out there--but we haven't gotten there yet.

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  3. Not a great idea so to speak, more like painting a rental story! We ended up painting a bathroom in the last place we rented (We got permission as long as we painted it back before we left).... Man was that a mistake. The paint they made us paint it back with was very much industrial strength and smelled terrible. Made painting it back miserable! However, that being said I did love the color all the time we had it in there!

    We have also looked into the vinyl sticker things. We used them once and really enjoyed it! Nice and easy and can easily switch it up!

    I love the wrapping paper idea! Your so creative!

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