My Dining Room Makeover In Our Rental Home

Considering a dining room makeover? Sharing all my tips for sprucing up your space in a rental home.

When we found out we were moving to Washington, DC for a year, I knew I wanted to focus on a couple areas of the home that would really make it feel like our space even though things are so temporary. One of those areas was a dining room makeover that would make the rental home feel more comfortable. 

Dining Room Makeover In Our Rental Home

I wish I would have taken better photos of our house before our stuff arrived, but it was definitely a clean slate. The walls in our dining room are beige, with original hardwood flooring, featuring two really long walls.

This video will give you a good idea of where I started:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Kait Hanson | CommuniKait (@bykaithanson)

Peel And Stick Wallpaper

I knew for one of the walls, specifically the one that most people will see when they walk in, I wanted to do peel and stick wallpaper.

Photowall has the best wallpaper for renters for a couple reasons. 1. It doesn’t pull off the paint. 2. You enter in the measurements of your wall and they send numbered panels for putting it up. The rubber cement-style adhesive is super simple and the completed look elevates any room easily. I am always a little bit shocked by how much wallpaper changes a space.

My wallpaper print is Cheetah Reveries.

Photowall offered my readers a discount, valid until April 22, 2022. Use “communikait25” at checkout and receive 25% OFF, plus US shipping is free!

Mixed Seating

At our house in Hawaii, we had space for a longer table in our dining room, so I used my EAMES style chairs with a wooden table and two large wingback chairs. It never failed that when we had guests, the mixed seating choices came up, so I wanted to recreate that in this smaller space.

I chose to make our white tulip table our main table (space decision) and add a velvet bench that added some texture to the room. A bonus is that it makes the leaves in my wallpaper pop.

Gallery Wall

I didn’t want to hang much on my wallpaper well, so the adjacent long wall has our gallery of frames that was had in our old home. I added a few to update the feel, but it has some of our most treasured art and memories: Dane’s wedding vows, menus we wanted to remember from special meals, photos we’ve taken while traveling, and art we’ve purchased that means something to us.

Plants

I firmly believe that the best way to make a space feel like yours is to add some life to it. My favorite way to do this is plants. I know a lot of people feely strongly about fake plants, but I’d rather have live ones that I can put in a window and nurture. The pop of green really works with my decor in this space, too.

Rug

I bought a new rug when we got here, because even though I follow a more is more policy, all my super colorful rugs clashed in the room. I love how the neutral, yet textured cow hide rug, adds another dimension to the space.

If you watch the video from when we first moved in, you’ll see that this space was completely transformed into something that really feels like us. If you rent (or have rented), what are your go-to methods for transforming a space to make it your own?