Decorating Tricks Turn Apartment Into Home

Arghhhh. We don’t want you to flip into decorating relapse, but remember your first apartment? All that freedom. All those parties. And, geez, what a dog-ugly place it was.

First apartments, though, can have their decorating moments - and they don’t all have to be bad. Yes, we know that there are traditions to be followed. Plastic crate-and-wood board bookcases come to mind.

But there are steps that you first-apartment types can take to give the space a look that’s fairly pulled together.

One of the big problems in decorating any apartment is that, in many cases, you can’t touch the walls. Forget about painting unless your landlord is particularly understanding, has a lifetime subscription to Metropolitan Home and thinks that browsing design centers is a fun way to kill an afternoon. We have not seen many landlords who qualify.

So what’s a person to do? Color has to be added in furnishings and accessories.

Start with two basic colors for the furnishings, advises Deb Fritz, home decor consultant for Target stores. Then add splashy accent colors with accessories such as dinnerware, glassware, table linens, throw pillows and window treatments.

If the apartment is cramped, make the most of the space by thinking vertical instead of horizontal. Use tall floor plants, lamps or vertical furniture (tall bookcases come to mind) to raise the gaze upward.

Apartments, especially those in large, faceless complexes, tend to be boxy. To eliminate the feel that you live in a Cracker Jack container without the prize, think area and throw rugs.

Carefully placed throw rugs and layered area rugs can create a focal point and draw the eye away from the boxy configuration of a room.

Another fairly foxy game plan is to surprise the eye by placing furniture in unexpected arrangements, Fritz said. Instead of squaring against the wall, which is all too predictable, angle the pieces to change the room’s focal point.

Secondhand furniture is a staple in most first apartments. For a small outlay, you can give those down-and-out pieces a fresh look and coordinate them with your decorating scheme at the same time.

The magic ingredient in this little recipe is fleckstone, textured spray paints and faux-finish paints. They come in lots of colors and textures and can make a knocked-out old coffee table look like it just got off the Neiman Marcus delivery van. Well … OK. Almost.