Sometimes living in a rental home or apartment can leave you feeling as though your home doesn’t reflect your style or who you are. There are many tricks to turning any space into an inviting environment that is a perfect reflection of your individual style. There is no style or combination of styles that can’t be worked into even a new apartment. If you are wanting to create a comfy, shabby chic space, here are some great tips, tricks, and ideas.
Add Shabby Chic Fabrics
There are many areas in your home that you can add fabric. Floral patterns in soft tones of pink, mint, and pale yellow will help transform your space from stark to shabby chic space very quickly. You can add these fabrics in the form of throw pillows, towels, shower curtains, rugs, or window treatments.
This beautiful fabric strip valance is made with a combination of several patterns of fabric in shades of pink, mint, yellow, and white. It is an easy to make, affordable valance and requires very little mounting hardware to install. Many apartments have blinds on the windows and this can be installed over the existing blinds to keep the window treatment functional and pretty! Adding these to the windows in your space will quickly begin to transform the plain apartment to a cozy, inviting, shabby chic home!
Customize Décor
Moving is never cheap. Sometimes moving to a new apartment or rental home means you don’t have a lot of money to spend on new things for your space. Or maybe you aren’t moving but just wish to update your existing space. Giving new life to old décor is great way to update and save money.
Many items can be painted or customized to have a new look. Use old bottles as hanging vases that can be hung from hooks mounted to the wall or from a curtain rod in front of a window.
Add craft paper and fancy cabinet knobs to glass jars or canisters for a touch of shabby chic in the kitchen.
Here, a precious beaded knob in a soft turquoise was added to the top of a very simple canister with just a drop of hot glue. A custom label was made from craft paper to match. The previously simple, or even modern canister is now perfectly shabby chic!
Swap Out
While you normally can’t permanently change most things in a rental home or apartment, you can make temporary changes. One easy place to make a big change is cabinet knobs. If the cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom have plain or modern hardware that doesn’t fit your shabby chic look, hit the thrift stores or flea markets to find fun knobs to swap them out. Obviously this could get expensive if you were purchasing new hardware but if you’re using thrift store finds it can be very affordable and change the look of your space.
If you do this, be sure to place all screws and knobs you remove into a bag and put them in a specific location so that when you are ready to move, the knobs can be swapped back out and no pieces are lost or missing. You don’t even have to replace all knobs. Even swapping the knobs out on cabinets that are most used or those that are focal points can add a nice accent. The cabinets on each side of a window are great candidates for this!
Other swap outs to consider include moving an old wine rack to the bathroom to repurpose it as a towel holder. Roll your towels and display for added color to the space. Use a pretty old door knob for a robe or towel hook. Give an old ladder new life as a bookshelf or to display folded blankets in the living room.
Other Ideas
Paint ordinary wicker baskets white and fill with blankets and pillows in soft tones in the living room. Paint old photo frames white and insert craft paper behind the glass for a dry erase board near your desk or message center. Cover boxes with paper or fabric for storage containers. Instead of expensive artwork, cover box lids with fabric for interesting wall art in any room.
You’ll have a unique space that reflects your personality and style and is perfectly shabby chic in no time!