Apartment Living: Wall Decor

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Pst. If you missed the first couple posts of this series, you can find them here and here.

One of the first things people generally do when they buy a house, before they move in even, is paint the walls.  For homeowners, this is an easy first step to begin making your space feel like your own.  Then once they're all moved in, walls get even more love with art and pictures frames hung on them.  

But what about those who rent our homes?  Many apartments or rentals do not allow renters to paint or damage walls in any way, including nail holes.  Because of this, many renters assume there is nothing they can do, so the walls stay naked.  Without the added flair of wall decor, a space feels less loved, less lived in, and less homey.

Fortunately, there are a million other ways to decorate your walls if you are unable to paint and/or puncture your walls.  I've collected my favorite wall decor ideas from around the web, all of which can be used and/or modified to fit the needs of your rented home. 

Gallery Walls

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This is a great option for renters who can't paint their walls, but are allowed to make nail-holes.  Gallery walls are all the rage in blogland, and for good reason.  They can be completely tailored to fit you and your space.  You can customize the size, shape, frames used, contents of frames and more to make the gallery unique to you.

I love Young House Love's gallery wall (shown above) since they literally "wallpapered" their hallway with frames.  This makes a stunning visual impact, and creates tons of interest on an otherwise bare wall.  You could even incorporate mattes of the same color or pattern, so the wall still gives off the impact paint or wallpaper would provide.

DIY Art

While gallery walls are tons of fun, it wouldn't really make sense to plaster every inch of wall space with a picture frame (unless that's your thing).  So what to do with the other walls in your home?  I'm glad you asked...so many things!  Seriously, there are endless option for wall decor beyond adding frames.  I've pulled together some of my favorites to show you and hopefully get your inspirational juices flowing.  Many of these options are also friendly for you no-nail-hole renters.

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Paint a canvas.  It is as simple as that.  Doing a simple search on Pinterest will turn up hundreds, if not thousands of ideas and tutorials waiting for you to take advantage of them.  The canvases shown above were make simply by taping off stripes on a canvas and painting over them.  Easy peesy.

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I made my own painted canvases which you can see here.  Seriously, anyone can make these.  And as an added bonus, most canvases (unless you want a super-duper big one) are light enough to hang with command strips .  No nail holes!

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Another canvas option is covering them with fabric or fancy scrapbook paper.  An easy 15 minute project to add some beautiful personalized art.

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This is another super easy, super cheap and no nails needed project.  Simply cut out a bunch of hearts, or any shape, from any color or style paper and tape them to your walls!  This would make an awesome statement and create tons of interest in a room.

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Make a statement piece of art out of toilet paper rolls.  Yes you heard me right.  You can actually make art from the rolls of cardboard you regularly throw in the trash.  This may be one of my favorite DIY art ideas to date, and I have been itching to make one of my own forever.  There are again loads of pattern and design ideas for toilet paper art out there.  The one shown is au natural, but you could also paint the tubes before assembling them to add some fun color in there.  This is another one that would only need tape to be assembled and hung.

Found Art

If you aren't digging the idea of making every single piece of art for you walls, don't fret.  There are options for you too.  I like to call this option "found art".  These things aren't necessarily meant to be hung on a wall, but they will make a beautiful impact when they are.  Found art can be literally anything you want it to be.  This may include something related to a hobby (guitar picks) or something meaningful (house numbers forming a special date) or something you just find beautiful (a hubcap - shout out to my sister).  Here are a couple ideas to get you started.

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This person hung a variety of pretty plates in their hallway, which gives the space a casual charm.

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Another idea I'm pretty smitten with is hanging an array of ceiling medallions on the wall.  These are obviously meant to be hung on a ceiling, but when grouped together and painted a fun color they totally make unique and original art.

Fabric Accent Wall

Another design fad that has gotten some serious buzz recently is the accent wall.  Pretty much any blogger you find will have at least one accent wall in their home nowadays.  This trend leaves us renters looking on jealously, and wanting to sacrifice our security deposit to get a sweet taste of the accent wall.  Until now.  Let me introduce you to the fabric accent wall!

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This genius concept is to basically wallpaper your wall with fabric.  You can either buy/build a large frame for the fabric, or simply tack it up with tape or nails.  The fabric provides the same stunning impact as a painted accent wall, with the added bonus of being removable.  And with the endless choices in fabric out there, this can be even more customizable than paint can be.

Washi Tape Walls

With the explosion of washi tape out into the world, there is nothing it cannot do.  And now, it can decorate your walls!  With zillions of colors and patterns, there is a washi tape for everyone.

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So as you can see, there are a ton of things you can do you decorate your walls besides painting them, and many don't even require any holes in your walls!  Some I daresay are even more interesting and attention grabbing than just a plain painted wall.

Any of these ideas catch your eye?  I know I'm itching to make some toilet paper art and washi tape a wall.  Have you already used any of these ideas in your home?  If so I'd love to see them, leave a link in the comments so I can check them out!

If you liked this post, you should check out all my other tips for Apartment Living!