Decorate smarter for a stylish apartment

When you live as a renter you know that you and all of your stuff will hit the road sooner or later.  This ultimately means that you need to be flexible with how you arrange your furniture and décor.  It’s not the life of nomad of course, but there certainly is a fine line between investing too much time perfecting the décor of your apartment, and looking like you’re living out of a suitcase your entire lease.

They secret to decorating any apartment with style that has the ability to last you throughout the years, ultimately is to invest in classic bones.

When it comes to furniture you can go two different routes; invest in sturdy, smaller quality pieces, or pick up inexpensive items you don’t necessarily love and wouldn’t be heartbroken over chucking in the dumpster rather than move. I recommend the former, but it’s certainly up to you. In either case it’s a wise decision to buy furniture with multiple pieces so you are able to adjust what you have to fit your new place.

Keep your textiles classic and basic. Rather than picking up those flimsy and quickly fading decorative towels at discount stores, opt for the good stuff.  Plush textiles in white, black, or tan will serve you many more years and save you more money in the long run.  At the moment, mint is the hottest color to decorate a bathroom, but for who knows how long?  This is when you should shop the discount stores for a few inexpensive mint colored accent towels, floor rugs, and a shower curtain to stay trendy and accent your solid basics (I’d go with white).  Then, on your next move or when the next trend catches your eye, simply swap out the mint for the latest and greatest and you’re ready to go!

You may be the type always striving to keep up with current trends, but that can become incredibly expensive.  Invest in a monochromatic fabric scheme for items like the couch, keep the wood stain within the same family, and keep the metallic finishes on knobs, frames, etc. as similar to each other as possible. Do this in all of your rooms. In the next place you may need to swap the desk in your room for the TV stand in the living room. Who knows?

The flat color pallet may be killing you, but this is where your smart decorating skills come into play.  Buy a few throw pillows or drapes in a chevron or an ombré print, which are the current rage. Swap a lampshade to match the color pallet, and maybe pick up a few coordinating knick-knacks and you’re right back to your trendy-self.

Keeping the bones of your furniture and décor classic and simple is the ideal and most cost effective way to have an eye-catching apartment that will last you through many moves. Resist the urge to splurge on trendy items. I promise you’ll regret it!