Moving into a new apartment can be both exciting and overwhelming. Whether it’s your first home in a new city or a nearby relocation across town, the process of packing and moving can be exhausting and daunting. Once the boxes have been packed, the furniture moved, and the new keys placed in your hand, there is one thing that almost everyone agrees you can look forward to: decorating your new space to make it feel like home.
Apartment dwellers need to be a extra careful when decorating your space to make sure all decor fits within your rental lease terms and keeps the property damage free. Refrain from installing any permanent decor fixtures in order to maximize your security deposit refund.
Here are five easy things you can do to decorate your new apartment, personalize your space, and make it feel like home.
Don’t Ignore the Floors
Whether your new abode is covered in wall-to-wall carpet or newly refinished with the finest hardwood flooring, rugs are a great way to add color, personality, and style to your floor. From a small mat in your doorway or entryway to a full-sized area rug beneath a dining room table, rugs are one of the easiest ways to add instant style to your apartment. An area rug can cover up imperfections in the floor, offer durability in a high-traffic area, and add some comfort beneath your feet.
Available in a seemingly endless array of colors, patterns, fabrics, materials, and textures, area rugs let you express your personal sense of style and create a sense of cozy comfort in any room of the home. If you have an open floor plan or a one-room studio or loft, area rugs can also be used to help segment different spaces within your home.
Focus on Lighting
Different types of lighting can set a mood and create instant ambiance in any space. Small lamps with dimly lit bulbs can create a romantic atmosphere, while overhead lighting can make a small room appear bright and spacious. It’s important to take the size of your apartment into account when choosing lighting fixtures and lamps.
Floor lamps and table lamps can help make your space look bigger and brighter.
If you want your living space to have a warm, cozy feel, consider table lamps that offer downward lighting to illuminate the floors and furniture. If you prefer your space to look bigger and brighter, opt for up-lighting designs such as floor lamps or table lamps with drum shades that shine light up the walls and onto the ceiling. The lighting fixtures you choose, combined with the colors of your walls, will have the biggest impact on how the size of a room is perceived.
Maximize Your Corners
When it comes time to decorate your new apartment, it’s important to pay attention to the little details. Some of the most overlooked spots in any room are its four corners. While you’re likely to position your couch or coffee table centered against the main wall, you can maximize space, especially in a small room, by utilizing the corners of the room. Corner-cut bookshelves, accent tables with decorative elements, and side chairs are a great way to add storage, style, or seating to a bedroom or living room.
Source: Amazon
Look for streamlined designs that can be positioned at an angle, such as a chaise lounge, or opt for petite items, such as a storage ottoman or accent table, that can be placed in a way that offers both function and style. Consider pieces with pops of color or defined textures to really make that corner stand out. No matter what your decorating style is, corner accents can provide valuable space-saving function and add purposeful style to any room.
Come explore these additional tips for making your new apartment feel like home.
Make an Impact with Color
Depending on the room and its intended purpose, the colors you choose to decorate with will undoubtedly have an impact on the mood and atmosphere of your home. Color affects our mood and plays on our senses, so do your research before you decide to paint your bedroom or purchases rugs, curtains, furniture, and accents for your living area.
As a general rule, blue is known to create a calm sense of spirit and serenity, which makes it a great choice for bedrooms, living rooms, and bathrooms alike. Red, on the other hand, tends to raise the energy level in a room, so most decorators will avoid using red in a bedroom or an area that requires a more relaxing feel. Green works in almost any room of the home. It has a calming effect on the eye, making it a much-loved choice for any bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, or home office.
Green has a calming effect on the eye, making it a much-loved choice for any bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, or home office.
Just make sure to get approval from your property manager or landlord before painting any walls at your rental. If you are not allowed to paint, accent rugs, pillows, curtains, and furniture are great ways to make a color splash in your home.
Make Your Apartment Feel Like Home
Minimalist, rustic, contemporary, eclectic, transitional…no matter how you define your taste in décor, the most important thing to keep in mind when decorating your apartment is to find pieces that truly fit your sense of style. Some of us feel at home with sleek, modern furniture, clean lines, and minimalist accents, while others prefer overstuffed pillows, decorative drapes, and vintage-inspired accent pieces.
Whether you like an open, airy space decorated with fresh flower arrangements, or prefer a warm, cozy feel with leather-bound books stacked on floor-to-ceiling shelves, your home should be a reflection of your personal style. Personalize your space with furniture, textiles, and decorative items that have meaning, add function, and capture your personal aesthetic. Decide what statement you want to make, and then have fun creating a home that you’ll want to come home to every single day.
About the Author
Kayla Cubellotti is the Director of Property Management at Chestnut Portland, a quiet community of one, two and three-bedroom townhomes in Scarborough, Maine. Kayla has a BA from Iowa State University in Finance and Supply Chain Management.