The Good Sense Guide to Decorating Your First Apartment
These budget-friendly design ideas will help make your first home, even if it's a rental, feel like home
With a few creative design strategies, you can make your first, or any, apartment feel like your own – without blowing through your savings in the process. Take a look at these 12 wallet-friendly ideas to get started, including one thing you can’t have too many of and what to do with a shoebox full of old postcards.
2. Add plants. Then, add more
You really can’t have too many. Houseplants instantly enliven rooms, adding texture, colour and sometimes fragrance, and they fill up bare spots and problem areas. That awkward corner of the living room? How about adding a potted dracaena or fiddleleaf fig (Ficus lyrata) to add height and green to the space. A bookshelf that looks empty and lifeless? Add a philodendron vine to trail down over the shelves.
To keep houseplants inexpensive, choose varieties you likely won’t kill, such as nearly bulletproof mother-in-law’s tongue and philodendron, and ask for cuttings or pups (succulent starts) from friends. Look for plant pots at garage sales or secondhand stores for the best deals.
The house plants to grow to make you a green thumb
You really can’t have too many. Houseplants instantly enliven rooms, adding texture, colour and sometimes fragrance, and they fill up bare spots and problem areas. That awkward corner of the living room? How about adding a potted dracaena or fiddleleaf fig (Ficus lyrata) to add height and green to the space. A bookshelf that looks empty and lifeless? Add a philodendron vine to trail down over the shelves.
To keep houseplants inexpensive, choose varieties you likely won’t kill, such as nearly bulletproof mother-in-law’s tongue and philodendron, and ask for cuttings or pups (succulent starts) from friends. Look for plant pots at garage sales or secondhand stores for the best deals.
The house plants to grow to make you a green thumb
3. Store stuff in crates, baskets, and jars
Gather up your desk or living room’s loose ends – paper, magazines, pens, pencils and electronics cords –and put them in a wooden crate or a couple of baskets. The containers will add texture to the room and minimise clutter. This works just as well in the kitchen with glass jars to hold dry goods and make your space look nice and organised.
Gather up your desk or living room’s loose ends – paper, magazines, pens, pencils and electronics cords –and put them in a wooden crate or a couple of baskets. The containers will add texture to the room and minimise clutter. This works just as well in the kitchen with glass jars to hold dry goods and make your space look nice and organised.
4. Turn a pile of postcards into a gallery wall
If you have postcards or snapshots filling a shoebox and collecting dust, use them to create a gallery wall to remind you of places you’ve been or dream of visiting. To make a collection look cohesive, put them in the same style frame or stick to a theme (such as national parks, beaches or certain colours).
If you have postcards or snapshots filling a shoebox and collecting dust, use them to create a gallery wall to remind you of places you’ve been or dream of visiting. To make a collection look cohesive, put them in the same style frame or stick to a theme (such as national parks, beaches or certain colours).
5. Put your own spin on mass-produced furniture
A fresh coat of paint and new hardware can go a long way in updating Ikea or other inexpensive furniture to fit your style. For example, the owner of this San Francisco apartment transformed an Ikea Rast chest to complement her vintage-inspired bedroom by painting the drawers different shades of rose pink, coral and off-white and swapping the handles for vintage knobs. The result looks more like a great flea market find than something off the shelf.
A fresh coat of paint and new hardware can go a long way in updating Ikea or other inexpensive furniture to fit your style. For example, the owner of this San Francisco apartment transformed an Ikea Rast chest to complement her vintage-inspired bedroom by painting the drawers different shades of rose pink, coral and off-white and swapping the handles for vintage knobs. The result looks more like a great flea market find than something off the shelf.
Here’s the same Ikea chest given an entirely different look. The designer started by painting the cabinet white and the drawer fronts a sunny yellow, then added a white cutout overlay in a geometric pattern to the front of each drawer. New brass handles and a set of wood-and-brass legs take the look of the piece from budget to high-end.
6. Repurpose hand-me-downs
If you’ve inherited furniture from family, friends or a previous tenant, you may end up with more of something than you need (say, mismatched chairs) and not enough of another (like side tables). Get creative with reimagining how each piece can be used. Can that extra stool double as a bedside table or a stand for a light in the living room? How about intentionally mixing seating around your dining table or using a bench against a wall as a bookshelf?
If you’ve inherited furniture from family, friends or a previous tenant, you may end up with more of something than you need (say, mismatched chairs) and not enough of another (like side tables). Get creative with reimagining how each piece can be used. Can that extra stool double as a bedside table or a stand for a light in the living room? How about intentionally mixing seating around your dining table or using a bench against a wall as a bookshelf?
7. Go big with a photograph you love
A framed picture on your nightstand is great, but a wall-size photograph can truly transform the room. Landscape shots, city skylines, tree canopies, fields and beach scenes all work well on a large scale and have a full-immersion effect on the viewer – making one feel right in that scene.
A framed picture on your nightstand is great, but a wall-size photograph can truly transform the room. Landscape shots, city skylines, tree canopies, fields and beach scenes all work well on a large scale and have a full-immersion effect on the viewer – making one feel right in that scene.
8. Work with what you’ve go
Chances are your apartment comes with some existing features you love (lucky enough to have exposed brick walls?) and others that you could do without (those 1980s kitchen cupboards). Embrace the elements that you love and do what you can with your budget and rental agreement to change those that you don’t.
For example, the renters of this colourful San Francisco apartment inherited a bathroom with brown tile walls and a blue tile floor. They couldn’t live with the brown walls, so (with permission from their landlord) they covered the tile with many coats of white paint for a brighter look. Leaving the blue floor tile as is, they used it to set the scheme for the room – painting the vanity knobs, edges of the light fixture and wooden shelving unit blue, and choosing a soap dispenser and towels to match.
Chances are your apartment comes with some existing features you love (lucky enough to have exposed brick walls?) and others that you could do without (those 1980s kitchen cupboards). Embrace the elements that you love and do what you can with your budget and rental agreement to change those that you don’t.
For example, the renters of this colourful San Francisco apartment inherited a bathroom with brown tile walls and a blue tile floor. They couldn’t live with the brown walls, so (with permission from their landlord) they covered the tile with many coats of white paint for a brighter look. Leaving the blue floor tile as is, they used it to set the scheme for the room – painting the vanity knobs, edges of the light fixture and wooden shelving unit blue, and choosing a soap dispenser and towels to match.
Before Photo
9. Splurge on great bedding
For small units and studio apartments, the bed takes up a large footprint in the room. Our advice: Make it count. For example, while the Before shot of the bed of this Chicago studio is functional, it doesn’t add to the room or look like a very inviting spot. With the help of a generous mother who works as an interior designer, the DePaul University senior who lives in this studio was able to transform her 166-square-foot apartment into a much more inviting space.
For small units and studio apartments, the bed takes up a large footprint in the room. Our advice: Make it count. For example, while the Before shot of the bed of this Chicago studio is functional, it doesn’t add to the room or look like a very inviting spot. With the help of a generous mother who works as an interior designer, the DePaul University senior who lives in this studio was able to transform her 166-square-foot apartment into a much more inviting space.
Mom and daughter worked to paint the walls two shades of grey (with the landlord’s permission), install new curtains and lighting and replace the twin with a full-size bed. Piled with pillows, a cushy duvet and cozy throw blankets, the bed really makes the room. One could imagine that for a hardworking student, it would be the ideal spot for taking a quick nap between classes or curling up to read or watch a show at the end of the day.
10. Open up shelving
For an instant kitchen update, remove heavy cupboard doors for an open shelving look. If you’re renting, store the cupboard doors to reattach when you move out.
Go a step further and place light-coloured removable wallpaper at the back of the shelves or strips of Washi tape running along the shelf edges to make the space feel more like your own.
Creative and clever ways to decorate with Washi tape
For an instant kitchen update, remove heavy cupboard doors for an open shelving look. If you’re renting, store the cupboard doors to reattach when you move out.
Go a step further and place light-coloured removable wallpaper at the back of the shelves or strips of Washi tape running along the shelf edges to make the space feel more like your own.
Creative and clever ways to decorate with Washi tape
11. Use shelves as a room divider
Placing a bookshelf to run perpendicular to the wall can be a useful, space-efficient way to create separation between different areas in an open-floor plan apartment. Fill the shelves with books, small potted plants and objects of interest, leaving the bottom shelves to hold larger storage baskets.
Placing a bookshelf to run perpendicular to the wall can be a useful, space-efficient way to create separation between different areas in an open-floor plan apartment. Fill the shelves with books, small potted plants and objects of interest, leaving the bottom shelves to hold larger storage baskets.
12. Hang light, gauzy curtain
If your apartment faces an adjacent building or doesn’t have a great view, semi-transparent curtains can be problem solvers. They allow light to stream into the room even if the curtains are closed, and their billowy forms soften hard edges and make rooms feel more inviting. To create this effect, choose white and off-white curtains in lightweight cotton and gauze materials. These work particularly well to ‘catch’ light in the room, brightening the space.
Create an indoor view with scenic wallcoverings
TELL US
What are your budget-friendly tricks for home decorating? Share your ideas in the Comments.
MORE
World of Design: Discoveries of 10 First-Time Homeowners
Style Your First Kitchen on a Budget
If your apartment faces an adjacent building or doesn’t have a great view, semi-transparent curtains can be problem solvers. They allow light to stream into the room even if the curtains are closed, and their billowy forms soften hard edges and make rooms feel more inviting. To create this effect, choose white and off-white curtains in lightweight cotton and gauze materials. These work particularly well to ‘catch’ light in the room, brightening the space.
Create an indoor view with scenic wallcoverings
TELL US
What are your budget-friendly tricks for home decorating? Share your ideas in the Comments.
MORE
World of Design: Discoveries of 10 First-Time Homeowners
Style Your First Kitchen on a Budget
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Choosing a colour palette and overall style to your space can make a big difference in making an apartment look intentional rather than thrown together.
Start with an art print or piece of furniture that you love, and work from there. For example, this sunny entryway anchored around a yellow bench establishes a playful theme with bright colours, graphic pillows and layered prints. Other areas of the home echo the colours and leaf motif in one of the frames to make the home feel cohesive.
Know your interior style and start decorating