As a renter, you can often find yourself living in bland and neutral spaces. And thanks to short leases and painting restrictions, it can be quite a challenge to lighten, brighten and color your rooms. If you love color in your home but can’t or don’t want to paint the walls, you do have other options! Today we’re sharing four different ways to make a major color splash without pulling out the paint cans!
Furniture
One of the most effective places to bring in color and/or establish a room’s color palette is on the furniture. Whether it’s a large staple item or an accent piece, colored furniture will pack a lot of punch in a relatively quick and easy fashion.
If you will be renting and living with white walls for a while, consider investing in a colored couch. Since couches are large and tend to be the focal point of a space, a colored one can ground a room and infuse a heavy dose of a single color, all in a way that can move when you do. Use smaller, colorful accent items to balance out a large sofa and bring in even more hues.
In an all-white space, a single piece of furniture done in a bold tone can oftentimes be enough to make an entire room look colorful. Dressers, storage cabinets and bookcases are all worthy contenders for an eye-popping coat of paint.
Artwork
Artwork is perhaps the easiest and most transportable way to color your space. Whether you invest in original art or create your own, hang it or lean it, frame it or display it unframed, colorful art can truly transform a room.
Large artwork will make an impactful statement in a space, setting the tone, color palette and focal point for an entire room. If you don’t want to put a lot of holes in the wall or gather a large art collection, a single bold piece can be just enough.
When grouped together, collections of small photographs and artwork can infuse a blank wall with color and personality. Try to include larger, single-colored items to draw out specific colors across the collection and enhance the overall display.
Textiles
Rugs, bedding, curtains, pillows, table linens, shower curtains and towels can be purchased in a variety of colors and patterns, and they are the perfect take-it-with-you accessories to color up a space!
In an all-white room, bright and bold bedding provides tons of color while linking other decorative elements in the space!
Don’t forget to look down! A bright or patterned rug on the floor is an impactful way to infuse a lot of color with a single purchase.
Floor-length curtain panels occupy a lot of visual space and are the ideal accessory for adding lots of color. Now available in all colors and price ranges, you can surely find something in your palette. Buy or make extra-long panels that can be re-hemmed and hung no matter how many times you move and how different each set of windows is!
If large, colorful curtains are a bit much for your taste, consider adding a length of ribbon or accent fabric along the edges of pre-made panels to carry the room’s color scheme to the windows.
Accessories
Accessories are the key to completing a room and helping all the elements feel cohesive and connected. Even in a neutral space, a variety of accessories in a unified palette can infuse hefty doses of color that can be easily swapped.
A brown bookcase on a white wall is given a whole different look thanks to the addition of simple, colorful accessories. Garlands, picture frames, plants and books are all perfect opportunities to play up color.
An all-white builder-basic bath is made colorful with the simple addition of a bright curtain, colorful towels and eye-popping artwork. On a blank canvas, a few well-selected accessories can be transformative.
A large, clunky desk and white shelf in an all-white office become a chic, turquoise-and-gold workspace thanks to artwork, a desk covering (in the form of wrapping paper under Plexiglas) and a colored stool. Bright accessories become the focal point around larger neutrals, shifting attention away from boring walls.
Most decorators will say the easiest way to transform a space is with a gallon of paint. But when painting is off limits, there are other ways to color up your home. Colorful furniture, artwork, textiles and accessories are all take-it-with-you ways to create a colorful home and help you forget about the (lack of) color on your walls! Need more ideas for infusing color into your home? Check out these tips for getting the courage to use color in your home and these ideas for coloring up your kitchen!