Adding colour to your rented home | post by Ollie & Sebs Haus As some of you might know we rent our flat.  We have been very fortunate to rent from a friend and it has helped me to be a little freer when it comes to decorating.  Naturally I am a person that is always in need of some sort of change, whether this is painting or changing furniture around, I just can’t seem to sit still especially when I get a new idea.  I know that when it comes to renting it can be a little daunting and sometimes landlords can be fussy and strict when it comes to decorating and putting your own personal stamp on your space.  This can be a problem, but I think if you approach your landlord and ask for their permission to make some changes with a touch of paint, I canít see why they wouldnít agree.  Unless it was some garish wild colour!

The biggest challenge when renting a home is that you don’t want to spend a small fortune on making changes, especially when it’s not yours. But how do you put your own stamp on your space? Personally I think paint is the easiest and most effective way of changing a room.  This can easily be done in a number of ways.   You really don’t need to go down the road of painting a whole room; you could always just paint one wall and make it the focal point.  Or you could also explore the idea of painting a piece of furniture in your favorite shade or even update your kitchen, by focusing your attention on the kitchen cabinets.

There are so many ways to transform your rental home with just paint:

1. My favorite interior spaces are all white; it really opens up your room and lets all the light in. However recently I have been admiring rooms painted all over, I’m talking doors, skirting, ceilings all the same colour.   This would be great, but to achieve this look in a rental I think could be a little ambitious.  The whole idea of painting it back to a neutral shade would stop me right at the initial idea.  I’m exhausted just thinking about it! You could however consider painting one wall that has a door, painting the wall, door and skirting.  This means less to paint when you leave.

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

2. So your landlord will not let you paint the walls, what do you do?  My solution would be to go to your local hardware store were you could pick up an inexpensive sheet of plywood and paint it your desired colour.  You could place this behind your bed or sofa and it injects that little bit of colour into your room without you even touching the walls.  Or you could even buy some smaller pieces and cut to size, exploring different colours or even gradient in light to dark grey.

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

3. Have your rental kitchen seen better days and looks dated? There are amazing paints nowadays from top brands such as Dulux who can make painting surfaces easy. They also offer the Dulux Visualizer that you can download on iTunes or Google Play. If you are painting a room, this app will help you see what your room will look like in different paint colours helping you make that bold decision. But with a lick of paint to the cabinets, changing the handles and sorting out the inside storage you can easily update a less desirable kitchen that will not upset your landlord or make you dig deep into your pockets.   Painting cabinets takes some patience but it’s not any more challenging than painting a wall and it will be totally worth the final look.

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

4. Don’t want to risk painting a wall? Or you know you will not be staying in the rental for a long period of time?  A great idea would be to paint a piece of furniture and give it a face-lift.   It is amazing how much a small can of paint can go when painting furniture and really you can be as creative as you want.  I really love bringing old pieces of furniture back to life.  What if you have a large storage unit or even wardrobe to paint, it can look like it’s the actual wall you have painted.

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

5.   Use chalkboard paint.  I love this stuff!  It’s amazing!  You don’t need to prime any surface because of its matt chalky finish.   Chalkboard paint is amazing in kids rooms for their little imaginations to draw.  It is also great to be used in a kitchen space, you could paint either a kitchen cupboard or a storage door and use as a shopping/to do list.  Recently I painted our old wardrobe doors in the boys room with paint, it was a statement and it really did revamp the doors.  They had been moved around so much and a little damaged; so much that this was a quick solution.

Adding colour to your rented home | post via Ollie & Sebs Haus

It really is great how much paint can transform your space in a rental and in your home.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Sometimes you only need to do some small changes to add something new to your home and for me paint is the answer most of the time.

Image credits:

Lotta Agaton & Pia Ulin for Residence magazine | Pia Ulin | Fantastic Frank | Annaleenas Hem | Høie of Scandinavia | Nina Holst from Stylizimo kitchen | Hans Ulrich Obrist bedside table for Kinfolk |

Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Thursday, October 15, 2015

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