Andy lived in the apartment with nothing but a blow up mattress for 6 months before I moved in with our stuff in January 2012.
Before I moved in, people felt sorry for him, and gave him lots of freebies. I gave most of his freebies away.

I love color, but the rental thing makes it tricky. Trying to decide what to do with this giant white wall was hmm… interesting (rental trick #1)

I used a secret weapon to hang up tons of pictures of friends and family. (rental trick #2)

Then, I maniaced (is that a verb?) lots of stuff we already had on the walls. (wall tour)
Next, I went room by room making to-do lists to make this palce livable and spunky.
It’s been 7 months since I moved in, and here’s what we’re working with now:



Kitchen got organized, but still needs some help:
- counter organization
- door organizer (rental trick #3)
I made some DIY felt art for the living room…
Gave this chair a major makeover:
Went crazy at World Market:
Painted my lamp and moved the baskets:
And here is the “as finished as it’s going to get living room”, before the boxes come out to move back to Texas:
See more pictures of the final Florida living room here.
*Update: We moved out! Here’s a video tour of the final (pseudo finished) product!
There you have it, 11 months of living in the FL rental. Now, we’re back in TX with a nomadic living situation, ha! Do you have any rental tricks?