Styling Tips for Rental Homes
Interior designer Agathe Touguet of AMA Studio Interiors shows us through her apartment, and shares her top tips for transforming a rental property into a place that feels more like home.
Photography Abbie Melle / Interior design + words AMA Studio Interiors
1 LIGHTING
Lighting is so important to me, it’s the most important aspect when it comes to creating a warm atmosphere in your home in the evening. And just because you are renting – it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about the existing lighting. Many rental properties have cold light globes, the first thing you can do is change these for warm globes instead. It will only cost you a few dollars but will completely change the atmosphere of your space and make it a lot more inviting.
You can also change the existing pendants or wall lights in a rental, just make sure you keep them somewhere safe so you can put them back when you leave. I’ve changed all the pendants in our apartment and it made a huge difference. Styling a rental property requires more creativity. In our living room, there was a hook in the ceiling on the right hand side of our sofa, I decided to use this to hang a lantern pendant. You can also hang plug in lights on your walls using adhesive hooks. Floor lamps and table lamps are also perfect to create ambient light and can make a beautiful statement, some lamps are real pieces of art!
2 WINDOW TREATMENTS
Window treatments can make or break a space. This is likely to require your landlord approval but is definitely worth it! Our home had old grey blockout curtains that I absolutely hated. I could have easily replaced them but they were also hung way too low on a rusty rod. I asked our landlord if we could replace the rods and have them installed at an appropriate height and he was happy to let us do it as long as we took care of finding the new rods ourselves. I installed linen sheer curtains in every room and installed the rods as high as possible to give the illusion of larger windows. This has completely transformed our apartment. It does not only provide us with privacy without blocking the sun light, but also adds a lot of texture and softness to our home.
3 FURNITURE
Furniture is very important when it comes to styling a rental property as it is what will give character and personality to your home. Make sure you select pieces that work with the style and size of your home, many people make the mistake of choosing furniture that are either too small or too big for their space, making it look unbalanced.
Rugs will be your best friends, especially if you don’t like the flooring of your property. I wasn’t a huge fan of the very dark floorboards in our apartment, they made the space appear really dark and didn’t suit my aesthetics. I’ve put large rugs in every room and they do not only hide the floors, but also make our apartment a lot more homey and significantly brighter. I often have clients who don’t particularly like their flooring but don’t want to replace it and rugs are always the solution. A beautiful large rug in a natural material will make you forget the carpet or tiles you didn’t like!
4 ART
Together with furniture, art will give personality to your property and make it feel like home. Invest in pieces that you love and hang them with removable adhesive hooks or just put them on the floor or on your fireplace mantle. Just be very careful when you take them down so you don’t damage the paint on your walls! I selected a very large vintage wall art for our dining room and it gives so much character to our apartment.