Using Removable Wallpaper for Your Apartments

If you're ever at a dinner party and the conversation lags, simply turn the subject to tiny apartments and you'll probably usher in a few interesting stories starring the legendary studio. The studio has long held its place between the dorm room and more permanent (albeit rented) residences, and rightfully so - a stylishly decorated studio has all the appeal of a cozy cabin in the woods or swanky city loft, only without the high monthly payments and easily overlooked cobwebs.

Sharing a dorm room might be the gateway to independence, but renting a studio apartment is the best way to sharpen your clever design skills. Once you've signed the contract for your snug little shelter, start your decorating engine with these five ways to make the best of small spaces with removable wallpaper for apartments:

1. Turn that tiny bathroom into a sanctuary of style. Good news - the smaller your bathroom, the less removable wallpaper it'll take to transform into the most cheerful water closet you've ever brushed your teeth in. Cover all the walls with removable wallpaper and complete the look with towels, rugs, and trinkets. For an even better bathroom, replace fluorescent light bulbs with buttery ones that bounce off the colors to give your skin that just-received-an-Oscar look.

2. Shine a serious spotlight on the bookcase in your living room. It's easy to turn a bookshelf into a visible storage space, but it's equally as easy to make use of all those colorful dust jackets and cover art. Use removable wallpaper to cover the backs or bottoms of shelves and play with arranging and displaying your collection of books, photos, and curios. Use plastic or makeshift stands to show off the covers that look cool against your chic wallpaper background.

3. Redesign your bed, starting at the top. Whether you're the proud owner of a bed frame with a headboard or working with a minimal mattress on the floor, adding a removable wallpaper headboard can do wonders to spruce up the wall at the top of your bunk. To create your stick on headboard, measure the width of the top of your mattress and decide how much wallpaper you'll need to make either a full headboard or emphasize the space behind an existing one. Use scissors to shape your wallpaper and position it where it works best to accentuate your bedding.

4. Award your living room with stripes. To design a stare-worthy focal wall, cover the largest or most prevalent wall in your apartment's common area with striped removable wallpaper. If you happen to like the existing paint color and can find a wallpaper pattern to complement it, carefully trim each wallpaper sheet into even strips and apply it in equidistant bands across the wall.

5. Break up that blank space between kitchen cabinets and counters. Choose a patterned removable wallpaper and use a measuring tape and scissors to snip out spaces for electrical sockets to show through. Make decorative use of the blank space behind your toaster and you'll instantly recreate a room to be perfectly suited for entertaining hungry guests.

One of the best things about removable wallpaper is its portability. Once it's time to move out, peel it away from the wall to reveal the landlord's original paint job. Before picking your wallpaper, make sure it won't damage the wall surfaces beneath it - you wouldn't want to spend extra time and money on spackle and touch-up paint. If you've chosen a reusable brand of removable wallpaper, simply save the original backing and reattach it for transporting to your next decorating project.

Apartment & Condo Decorating Ideas

So you are going to be moving into an apartment or condo and aren't sure what to do? Need some great apartment decorating ideas?

No worries - there are some questions you'll need to have answered and a few decision to make, but with the home decorating ideas to follow, you can do it!

First, find out from your landlord if the walls can be painted, and if you need to obtain permission for the colors selected. Then, make sure you can hang artwork, etc. on the walls - most of the time this is not a problem. 

Before you start your apartment decorating, assess what you will be bringing into this residence. Some may have more furniture than will fit, and others may not have any furniture at all. Your goal with furnishings is to have enough in the rooms that you will spend time in, to be comfortable and to express your unique lifestyle. If you don't have much furniture, don't worry about furnishing rooms that you may not use.

It's better to have two or three rooms that are finished and comfortable for you than to spread your furnishings amongst all the rooms, and none of them look complete. Another consideration is to look for furniture designed for smaller spaces.

Wall color can make a huge difference in the overall warmth and effect a room has on its occupants, so painting the walls a color other than 'apartment white' is highly recommended. 

Even if you use an off-white shade such as Bone White or Navajo White (standard off-whites no matter what brand of paint you select), you will create a welcoming atmosphere for you and your family or guests. If you really love color, select something that is bold and colorful for the walls and have fun with it!

Want more ideas? Read on for all the details about apartment and condo decorating. 


Til next time,
Candi