If you’re staying in your Columbus apartment this summer, or perhaps remaining in your Athens rental house to attend summer classes, consider spending some time fixing up your apartment or house. There’s multiple things you can do to give your living space some new and inviting character.
Before taking any steps that will alter physical aspects of your apartment or house, however, check with the landlord or property manager to make sure that whatever you’re doing is OK and won’t violate the lease or result in your deposit being forfeited. In many cases, your improvement may be something that the landlord realizes will make the living space more desirable for future tenants.
If you have apartment or house-mates, you’ll also want to make sure that they’re OK with any improvements or changes you make in common areas such as the living room, kitchen or dining room. Who knows, they might even have some ideas or offer to help.
After figuring out what can and can’t be done, you can start pursuing some ideas around your apartment or house that might give a particular room a new feel or context. Following are just a few of the improvements you can consider:
Ideas for Improving Your Athens or Columbus Rental
• Add some personality to window treatments if you live in an apartment where you have this option. Many apartment complexes dictate homogeneity in how the windows look from the outside, which means they prefer that tenants can’t alter whatever window coverings are standard. Go outside and take good look at the windows in your apartment building. If they all look the same with the same type and color of curtains, shades or drapes, you probably need to move on to some other type of improvement. However, if there’s some diversity, consider adding some of your own personality to the window space – brighter colors, different style, etc. One option is to double up on window treatments by hanging neutral blinds that can be seen from outdoors while providing personality to the inside with bold draperies or blinds.
• Add some color inside, either with your own furniture, paintings or photos, or even the installation of colored light bulbs that provide a subtle tint to the room.
• Address your floors. If carpeting has become dirty or worn, gently ask the landlord whether their replacing the carpeting is an option, either with new carpets or nice tile or wood flooring. If wood flooring is installed, it’s easy for apartment dwellers to put down colorful throw rugs to give a room a new, personal feel, and such an addition takes very little effort. Some landlords would rather a permanent improvement like carpeting not be made, since it requires tacking or nailing into a subfloor. Another possible option is to buy carpeting kits that interlock and aren’t attached to the floor. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, these kits can even be removed and brought to your next residence. Any permanent changes, such as replacing kitchen tiles or other flooring alterations, should be discussed with the landlord. Getting written permission is probably a good idea.
• Add some attractive plants and flowers to the apartment or rental house Few improvements can liven up a room more than a colorful bouquet of flowers or a new exotic plant. The best part, adding your own plants isn’t likely something that will bother your landlord, on the off chance that they find out about them. And finally, certain types of houseplants help clean indoor air. You can research which ones with a quick web search, though spider plants are high on the list.
• Consider new wallpaper. Landlords often prohibit removing or replacing wallpaper. However, wallpaper borders might be a good option as long as the landlord OKs it. Self-adhesive, removable varieties are available that make it simple to alter any design scheme on a whim, or to remove the border before moving out of the apartment or rental house.
• Repaint the apartment. Landlords typically prefer neutral tones because they tend to make it simpler to rent and maintain an apartment, based on the lowest common denominator principle. However, some landlords don’t have a problem with tenants repainting the walls as long as the tenants return the walls to their original colors before moving out. Longer-term tenants likely have a better chance of getting this approval than tenants who are only expected to stay for the school year. If repainting isn’t an option, you can still add life to an otherwise boring wall with wall hangings, paintings, etc.