It's the one thing absolutely no one wants to see on their new lease: the no-nails-in-the-wall clause. Though it's (thankfully) a rare occurrence, it does pop up occasionally. So what's an art-loving renter to do? To ensure you won't be staring at empty walls for the duration of your tenancy, check out these ideas below.
1. Try to negotiate. If your landlord can provide you with the brand and name of the paint of your walls, you're halfway there. Go out and buy a sample-sized tin, a tube of spackle and a palette knife. Mention that you've done this, and suggest adding a clause to the contract stating that you'll return the walls to their hole-free original state when you leave. Once your landlord sees how on the ball and responsible you are, a few pieces of artwork might not be such a big deal.
2. Use lighter art. Let your inner high schooler out to play, and adorn your walls with posters, polaroids, postcards and other lightweight items. Use adhesive hooks, Blu-tack or masking tape for a clean look, or work with the messy style and use some pretty Japanese washi tapes.
3. Lean artwork against the walls. This shouldn't even be considered a compromise; propped-up artwork is cool and casual, not to mention easy to rotate and change when the mood strikes. Larger pieces work well on the floor, and smaller ones can be placed atop dressers and bookshelves.
4. Look for display-friendly furniture and fixtures. This tip is a continuation of the one above; consider investing in some furniture which gives you more options for leaning displays. I'm a big fan of the popular leaning bookshelves for this, but quirkier options like a vintage ladder or easel work too. If your place has period fixtures, consider leaning lighter items on a dado rail, or using hanging chains to make use of a picture rail.
5. Use decals. Display options aren't just limited to artwork; there's a huge variety of wall decals, stickers, and removable wallpaper out there which are great for renters.
6. Use paint instead. I know, it's unlikely that a landlord who isn't cool with nail holes would want any hue but "apartment beige" on their walls, but you never know. If you can paint your place, choose a color you love and go for it. When the shade is this beautiful, who needs anything else?
Have you ever had to live with blank walls? Share your survival tips below!
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I'd be careful with blu-tac and other similiar adhesives. They tend to stain the wall and can be difficult to take off if you leave it up for years.
A better choice are the Command damage-free hanging hooks. I've tried them out and as long as you keep the load within the range specified, will last for ages. Also you can re-use them.
I think it's a good idea - always test your sticky tape/blu tack/etc in a spot it won't be noticed if it bombs. Leave it on for a week and then see how it behaves.
Other things I've done to liven up the place...
Get those over the door hooks - and hang artwork from them.
I've currently got a noticeboard full of small art hanging on my door as well as a calendar and can change it out as much as I like.
So you can use the Command hooks or you can buy the adhesive strips. As long as you keep the total weight within the limits, you can hang all manner of things. We have gallery wraps, artwork framed in lightweight wood frames, etc. It's a pain, but it gets the job done. Plus, they come off clean when you want to switch it up.
Ask if you can put in picture rails up at the ceiling. You could pitch it as a value-added feature for future tenants.
Yes, I second the first commenters suggestion to avoid sticky tack and tape - not only does it discolor the wall and sometimes leave ornery residue, I've also had it pull chunks of paint right off the wall (by posters that were hung with scotch tape, mind you - I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the landlord used really cheap paint).
It all depends on the landlord - I've lived in some apartments with "no nail holes" clauses in the lease, but were essentially there to ensure that stupid college students didn't destroy the walls and patch them with toothpaste or some stupid garbage like that (I was horrified to hear a story about a friend's friend who patched a hole in the wall that he had made WITH HIS FIST with toothpaste - I imagine that this is the sort of shenanigans that drive landlords to murderous rages). But! If you promise to spackle or patch yourself, with REAL stuff, they're usually much nicer about it.
This is one of those scenarios where I think it's an "ask permission, and if you don't get it...ask forgiveness". Don't put giant screws in the wall or anything, but a few small brads probably won't cost you THAT much if it's really important to you to hang art.
I have a wall made of the most solid concrete known to man.
I bought some beautiful japanese origami paper and made a boat load of origami butterflies, then stuck them on in a pleasing arrangement with masking tape. The tape doesn't mess up the paint at all, though it does come loose from time to time but new tape fixes it up in a jiffy. I thought it might look cheesy but it really turned out well!
Between the Command hooks and leaning things against the wall, I've been able to avoid making holes in most of my walls (and I own the house), but I really posted to say - never patch holes with toothpaste - most toothpaste contains sweetener and it draws ants. You'll never notice a problem, if you don't have ants, but if you do it's h*ll on Earth. If you do this to a landlord good luck getting your deposit back. Besides, for patching, you should only ever use drywall mud (not spackle which shrinks).
in Australia, it is incredibly rare to come across a rental where you can paint the walls / nail things into walls / use sticky tape or blu-tac on walls - with command strips you have to hope they don't notice it during an inspection.
I had one landlady crack it because the forth bedroom in our share-house had a sliding glass door overlooking the hallway and I put up some command hooks to hang a curtain rail. She didn't appreciate that you couldn't call a bedroom a bedroom if it had a glass wall in something marketed as a share house.
Don't use Blu Tack. I bleeds into your photos. Lesson learned in freshman year at college.
Yeah, I have the no nails clause in my lease and it is kind of terrible. Luckily (kind of), the walls are textured, so if you do put a nail in the wall, you can easily cover it back up again without having to repaint the whole wall and without the patch looking any uglier than the rest of the walls. I was glad to finally realize that there is at least one bright side to having ugly textured walls.
For most things, I use adhesive hooks, but they are not suitable for heavy or delicate things because they can definitely fall off. My roommate broke a huge wooden frame and pulled a square inch of paint off our walls in her many attempts to hang art before finally saying screw it and putting nails in the wall. I use them to hang lighter stuff, and generally do it over carpeted areas so that if something DOES fall, it is less likely to break.
Also definitely joining that "wtf, blu tack?" crowd. When I was a kid my siblings and I were poster fiends, and in an attempt to save her walls, my mom gave us all blu tack to hang out posters. Fast forward to us all leaving the nest and the 10 years of posters finally coming down, revealing disgusting, almost irremovable blu tack mess on the wall. Luckily I saw all of it just as I was moving out, so now I'll never make that same mistake. I don't know how blu tack is even still on the market since it's whole purpose for existing was that it doesn't ruin things, and that is exactly what it does, but whatever.