Before and After: An Easy $10 DIY Is Just What This “Renter Beige” Bedroom Needed

published Nov 17, 2023
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Rental Friendly

If the prospect of redecorating an entire room scares you, consider revamping just one wall — Apartment Therapy has tons of DIY accent wall inspiration to get your creative wheels churning, like these 13 Under-$100 projects and these cool one-wall projects from house tours. 

In Shannon Crawford’s (@studioarden_) bedroom, a $10 DIY gave new life to what Shannon calls a “renter beige” corner. “I LOVE color and patterns, and I felt I wanted to showcase my love for both, all while remaining renter-friendly and using what I already had,” Shannon says. 

What she says next, perhaps many renters can relate to: “I can’t go and blow all my money on decor; I’m saving for an astronomically priced house.” Here’s Shannon’s budget-friendly fix for her reading nook.

Small pieces of washi tape FTW. 

Shannon used a roll of black washi tape from Michaels for her project, then relied on her eyeballs and a pair of scissors for the rest. The small pieces were arranged in pairs and spaced as evenly as possible in perpendicular rows to create a dashed pattern with an almost basket weave effect.

“Even though it’s not permanent, I wanted it to be perfect,” Shannon says, adding that the hardest part was working on the highest stretches of the wall. But continuing the pattern all the way to the ceiling helped make the room feel taller. “When you walk into our bedroom now, your eye is drawn up to the patterns and not so much the beige walls,” Shannon says. 

The project sparked ideas for the future.

Her budget-friendly DIY project adds a lot to the space already, but Shannon says her next steps are finding the perfect chair to curl up in to replace the wicker basket, and to maybe extend the pattern all along the back wall for “more of a focal point.”

For now, her reading nook feels like a special zone that works well with the other black and white pattern play happening in the room. For more washi tape project ideas, check out these 10 ways washi tape can enhance your home.