Accessories - Housewares - Finishing Touches - How to decorate a rented house

I am redoing my room :wall: . How do I decorate walls? :confused: (its a rented house)

so.........you can't paint? can you hammer a nail into the wall?

no, we cant paint. yes we can put nails into the walls thought :)

then hang pictures, posters, shelves, wooden letters, wreaths, fabric, anything you want.

I want to have an ocean theme. but how do i do it with out painting? :confused:

find ocean bedding or fish pillows or iron on fish appliques to plain blue bedding, fish area rugs, etc. then hang pictures of fish, or actual wooden fish on the walls, maybe with a fishing net swagged behind them, and shells caught in the net, too.

okay thanks!

Follow up question - if you COULD paint, how would you paint an "ocean' theme with water droplets and/or fish? I guess the answer is wallpaper or is it with some textured rollers.

i think painting water is actually a lot harder than you'd think. you'd need lots of different shades/colors of blue (or be really good at mixing your own) and a pretty artistic hand. that's why mural artists & faux finishers charge what they do.

for an ocean, use slightly lighter blues at the top & graduate to deeper navy blues at the bottom. blend everything really well and use wavy strokes. it would help to have something to look at & copy, like this (http://www.brylanehome.com/product.aspx?PfId=6864&DeptId=7447&producttypeid=2) comforter, or this (http://www.domestications.com/parent2.asp?product=D13636x) one, or these (http://www.domestications.com/product.asp?product=12447azz&dept%5Fid=4004) fish.

then look for fish wall appliques (stickers) or even wooden carved fish. maybe a fishing net.....

or the simplest way would be to go with a wallpaper mural, like any of these (http://www.decoratetoday.com/products/wallpaper/search_results.asp-asp--si--5?gensearchby=1)

Here is a trick that is used in the military to decorate walls in rental houses. You can apply thin paper to the wall with laundry starch. It will be removable with water when you are ready to move on.

Use tissue paper, decorative napkins, wrapping paper, even light weight fabrics like gingham or how about a sheer fabric or a faux silk for a luxury look.

ps this works on glass too. I used laundry starch to apply some decorative napkins to a window to hide the ugly discolored glass.

Sandra F