Apartments come with a lot of advantages. Being able to make major changes to them are not one of them. If you dislike your outdated appliances, the cheap kitchen setup, or the old flooring, you are generally out of luck. There are some improvements that can be made, though, that will have your apartment looking spiffy in no time.
Here are five ways to improve an apartment:
1) Lighting
I am a huge fan of good lighting. Overhead lighting (especially outdated overhead lighting) almost pains me when I am forced to use/look at it. Alternative lighting can really transform a room.
Instead of overhead lighting, I use various lamps to provide light in a room. In particular, these $19.99 Kroby floor uplight lamps. Throw a couple of them in a room and you have a nice alternative to the ugly overhead lights that most apartments come with. Check out all of Ikea’s floor lamps here.
2) Make use of storage space
As many of you know, the bigger an apartment gets the higher the rent you are going to end up paying. If you can make good use of space in an apartment you can save hundreds a month through having a smaller apartment.
Buy shelves and furniture that take up the least amount of floor space and are tall. Buy a tall chest of drawers so you can maximize the space. For example, buy this, not this.
Another thing that could work is using a garage stall as a storage space. Lots of people at our current apartment never park their cars in their garage stalls and use it as a storage space. This can really help de-clutter your apartment and free up space.
3) Add additional kitchen storage
Kitchens are tricky because there is so many little things to store and organize and often apartments lack the space for everything people have for their kitchen.
The best advice I have is figure out what you use the most and make those things easily accesible. If there is something you only use every once in a while, store it in a place that is not as practical but works for storage, such as on top of a cupboard (again, utilize all your storage space).
Consider buying a small pantry such as this one
4) Paint
Painting can be an excellent way to make your apartment more of a home. If your apartment management allows you to, I would definitely recommend painting. It can be a bit pricey if you paint all the rooms, but it definitely will give your apartment an added touch compared to having all white or off-white walls.
Remember: The apartment will likely make you paint the apartment walls back to the original color before you move out. You also may be fined if you got paint on the baseboards, carpet, ceiling, etc.
5) Cover your walls and floors
If you can’t paint or have old floors that have seen better days, consider using art/photographs to cover the walls and rugs to cover the floors. It’s amazing what a painting or picture can add to a room, and how those ugly floors can be hidden from view with an area rug.
You can find rugs and art all over the place. If you are an online shopper, you can get home decorations for cheap from Amazon
What other tips do you have for improving an apartment?
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Photo by Peter Zoon
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One thing I’ve often done is add shelving in the bathroom. You can get cute floating shelves from Ikea at reasonable prices!
@OutlierModel Good tip!
These are all great tips! We live in a house, but we definitely still need to do some of these things. First up is new carpet in the living room.
@SenseofCents Nice! I can’t stand old carpet. Or at least my allergies can’t…
Shelving is incredibly important! Also, keep it clean and organzied. If you have a messy apartment it feels smaller. By taking a few minutes a day to clean it up, it looks much better and feels bigger.
@bogofdebt Moving my bro into his new apartment inspired this post. It’s been two weeks and i asked him how the apartment was last night and he said good but got messy really quick!
I think with any place that you have lighting is key. It can turn a dark and gloomy space into something much more homey
@OneSmartDollar I’m a nut when it comes to lighting. I can’t stand the nasty pale-yellow overhead lights. If you set up lighting correctly, it can transform a room.
Good adopted methods to improve your apartment. There are also some other ways by which people can clean their floors and make them quite impressive. There are many of such products like treatex wax polish,use of caster cups etc. Along with that there are some natural recipes as well like dish washing detergents which can perfume your apartment.