Personalize a Home Or Apartment Without Paint Or Other Permanent Techniques
When people think of personalizing their digs they almost unanimously and immediately consider the color of the walls. However it’s common to encounter one of many different limitations when attempting to customize your abode and the inability to paint is one of them. Whether you have an unaccommodating landlord, are lacking in the know how or simply don’t have the time or money, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make your humble living space uniquely your own. There are many non-paint based ways to personalize, both simply and elaborately, and this article touches on five of them for your aspiratory pleasure.
Throw Down a Rug
It may seem entirely too obvious, but I’m convinced there’s genius underlying this suggestion. I was never big into rugs myself because I like both the look and feel of hardwood and tile, and I never really understood the reasoning behind layering carper on top of carpet. Reason there is, however: my most recent apartment, like most typical apartments, is wall-to-wall beige, and also from ceiling to floor. Rugs are easy, inexpensive and infinitely enlivening when you’re surrounded by an all-encompassing sea of blandness.
Decorate Uncommon Niches
I’m a great lover of knick knacks, accessories and generally useless crap. There are so many interesting, creative and original ways to combine, layer and put things to use, it’s unreal. Think narrow strips of walls, corners, on top of cabinets, and other often overlooked locations to liven things up. To me one of the most entertaining and appealing parts of moving into a new place is hitting up all the local yard sales for dirt cheap fixtures, unique pictures and artwork and odd, vintage-y paraphernalia to furnish every conceivable niche and crevice.
Painted Panels
These are also great for adding color and general character to an otherwise austere environment. Larger panels which have been painted a single color are often used to contribute energy to a room, but panels are much smaller and more functional. Stack them neatly or collage them abstractly, the applications are endless and they’re perfect for tying together color schemes throughout the house.
Free Standing Art Contraptions
Perusing websites that document people’s homes, the personal touches of style that they concoct and any number of interesting and creative ways to overcome limitations, I’ve seen all sorts of interesting devices rigged up to display art. Absolutely anything goes, from old easels to elaborate wood-framed grid-like creations in places where painting or otherwise interacting with the wall space is forbidden, how far can you stretch the boundaries of your mind?
Framed Fabric and Paper Scraps
Some of the loveliest colors, patterns and pictures you’ll ever see often occur in materials destined for transience – wrapping and other decorative paper, scraps of discarded fabrics, magazine papers and any number of short-lived mediums. There’s no reason these have to be discarded, however; they can easily be framed or applied in any way you’re clever enough to dream up to add color and liveliness to your living area.
These are five quick, simple suggestions – a mere sampling of all the possibilities that lay in store for your decorative adventures. At their heart designed to provide you with inspiration and stir the latent creativity that’s just waiting to burst forth into a thousand splendid expressions of beauty.