Decorating in a Rental

Vases, center pieces and a table runner I took from my sister's wedding!

Renting, It is such a pain in the butt but I know for many people it is just a reality. In all honestly, the hardest part for me is the fact that I am locked in on what I can or can not do when it comes to decorating and making my place pretty. We are not allowed to paint our plain white walls which is tough for me and after 6+ years of white walls I was done. 

Further, Nayt and I decided it was time to get over the hodge podge of stuff we have gotten from here and there and decided it was time to start coming up with a cohesive feel of our house. So... enter in our comfortable, modern woods theme! Bring on the deer, moose and natural colors! 

We don't have a huge budget for renovations, decorations or starting all over. So we have been frequently second hand stores and exploring stores like ikea. I am also learning that you can score big time on big box store clearance sections. We are also taking advantage of vinyl wall art like my owl above. Inexpensive, makes a statement but doesn't leave a mark!

A big key in my kitchen was getting things off the counter. Thank you Ikea.

What is on the counter is put away in nice glass jars (or the popcorn container!) Both jars were on sale at Target.

I do feel the biggest change we were able to make to our living room is that of the pretty new green wall of material. 

Before. It was pretty meh.

It incredibly easy. All it took was 6 yards of cotton fabric, a paint roller, and a gallon on liquid starch. We also used an industrial staple gun to hold up the top and edges. We first made sure the wall was clean and dry. We then rolled the liquid starch on the wall with the paint roller, carefully pressed the material onto the wall starting at the top, then rolled the starch over the material.  We did it this way because of the size of the area we were covering. Next time however I will just listen to my mom and soak the entire peice and press it carefully to the wall starting at the top. It would be messier but I think it would do better to get all those pesky bubbles out. 

 You can see we had to do it in a few sections and we had to tack down the edges while it dried to keep it in place. We were able to put the furniture (including the pretty new gun cabinet) back while it dried though, so no mess or damage like paint.

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 Adding pictures really made the wall though. We also added candles and our antlers which tied it all together. So pretty!!

Safety first people. Safety first.

 
 It is still a work in progress, but its slowly coming together! However, we are not going to be doing anymore to this house because ... drum roll please... we will be moving because Nayt has a job!!!! God is so incredibly amazing. We are hoping to sign papers on a pretty new place this coming week. So... stay tuned for more decorating updates as we get settled in.