How To Fight The Rental Battle of the Beige in Every Room in The House

Between beige walls, brown floor tiles, and oak wood cabinets, most rental apartments have cornered the market on neutral. If your walls are the color of a bandaid, and your landlord has no pity for your palette woes, it’s up to you to take the bull by the horns and deal with it.

One of the easiest ways to combat the lack of vibrant color is with really bold bedding and artwork. You’d never walk away from Jen & Kirstie’s happy, welcoming rental and think it’s boring. If you’re up for it, make more of an investment in a bright, fabulous sofa instead of the oft-recommended neutral.

→ 5 Quick Rental Fixes for the Bedroom

You can even double down on the beige as long as you texture it up at the same time. Megan & Leif’s living room doesn’t try to compete with the wall color, but rides the wave by adding a tan chair of its own. But the room also counters with the large rug, rough hewn table top, and and tons of books that keep things from feeling flat.

→ 6 Ways to Add Texture to a Room Without Spending a Ton of Money

Camouflage beige tile with custom cut decals to make a new pattern from the old one. This bathroom floor was created by Cuckoo4Design using a product available on Amazon. Note: she used the permanent type of vinyl, but there is also a semi-permanent version that’s repositionable.

→ 10 DIY Ways to Rescue a Rental Bathroom

House Nerd’s huge DIY white metal headboard covers a huge portion of her bedroom wall, and the mix of patterns keeps your eye busy elsewhere.

→ Mixing Patterns: 2 Simple Formulas to Get it Right

Thoey & Sutty’s loft walls are painted a color they call “Landlord’s Choice” but they were able to inject some personality into the kitchen by using contact paper triangles. It’s a great solution for plain oak cabinets, which are oh-so-common in a lot of rentals.

→ 6 Clever Ways to Customize Kitchen Cabinets With Contact Paper