How We Made Our Rental Feel Like Home

Tom and I are perennial renters. Over our nearly six years together, we’ve lived in five different apartments. We enjoy the idea that at any moment, we can pack up and head somewhere new. We figure we’ll settle down and buy a place eventually, but for now this works for us. One of the major downsides, however, is the challenge of making a rental feel like home. It’s not economical to buy a ton of decor each time we move, knowing it may not fit the style of our next landing pad. We usually just work with what we have, and acquire one or two new pieces to pull everything together.
Professional decorators we are not, and it definitely shows. But as long as it’s pleasing for us to look at, we’re happy. Our latest apartment has been one of our favorites to decorate so far. We love all the windows and open space we have in the dining and living areas, so we allow the natural light to be the star of the show and added a few small touches that reflect our interests and style.
Modern Map Art offered to send us a print of Washington DC, which we knew would fit in perfectly with our scheme. We love how detailed the map is and can pinpoint all of the different parts of the city where we’ve lived over the years.
DC isn’t just where we live, it’s one of our favorite places on earth. If we ever move out of the area, we’ll be happy to have this reminder of the place where we met and fell in love. We have a burlap coffee sack from Brazil to remind us our time there, and of course some of our favorite wedding photos and a nod to our love of travel.

We need to find something to honor our hometowns in Oklahoma and New Jersey as well, which will be our next project. I’m thinking a couple of throw pillows might be fun.
Modern Map Art provided us with a free DC map print in exchange for an honest review. Be sure to check out Modern Map Art for great prints of your favorite city.