This summer, we've teamed up with Glidden Paint to help three Apartment Therapy readers get some color into their rental homes! Being a renter means you have to turn to temporary measures to make a space your own. It also means that you have the opportunity to experiment with paint! Glidden Paint knows that renters face special challenges. They want to help people explore how color can update and personalize a space, how it can make even a temporary landing pad feel like it's all yours.

Meet the Renters!

Name: Eliza
Challenge: Trouble deciding on a color

Meet Eliza. Eliza's tastes run to the modern and uncluttered, so when she moved in two years ago, she was inclined to leave her newly painted white walls as they were. She also didn't want to upset her landlord. Now, however, Eliza is looking for a way to enliven her living room without adding clutter — and paint seems like the perfect way to do that. Even her landlord agrees!

The problem is, Eliza is having trouble choosing the right hue for her living room. "I love home decor and design," she says, "but I am often paralyzed when it comes to actually making decisions about my own space." To help Eliza, Glidden sent over Colortopia Team Member Nicole Balch, author of the blog Making it Lovely. Knowing that Eliza was having trouble picking a color, Nicole sent her four different options to test out, two cool blues and two warm yellows. Eliza will paint samples of each and decide which one she prefers. Watch her choose a color and transform her home!


Name: Lisa
Challenge: Make her rental feel like home

Meet Lisa. Lisa has lived in her studio apartment for a few years, but still doesn't feel like it's really hers. Those white walls don't make sense given Lisa's love of vibrant colors: "I feel like my décor is out of step with who I have become," she says. "I want to paint because it is the first step towards turning my apartment into the home I want it to be." Lisa wants to start by painting her foyer some fun shade of pink, which is not only her favorite color, but also her "spirit animal."

Nicole loves pink as much as Lisa does. She's sending Lisa three Glidden Paint pinks to choose from. Watch as Lisa and Nicole use a rich color to change the space and make Lisa's rental feel like home!


Name: Cassandra
Challenge: Replacing someone else's color choice

Meet Cassandra. Cassandra, her husband and their cat live in a charming Victorian house. The walls had been newly painted a dull yellow color when she moved in four years ago, and Cassandra felt overwhelmed by the idea of repainting them all. "It didn't bother me at first," she says, "but now I can't stand the color." Now she's ready to put on a new coat and freshen up the place, making her bedroom more cozy, and a better reflection of her own aesthetic.

Nicole has selected a range of grays for Cassandra to choose from, a cool shade to replace the warm yellow. Nicole thought the gray would be a perfect, calming complement to the vivid teal of Cassandra's bedspread, and the bright red of the curtains, which Cassandra made herself. Watch Cassandra turn her bedroom into a cool retreat!

Planning your own paint project? Enter the Glidden Paint Renters Kit Giveaway!