A $17 Upgrade Transforms the Entire Vibe of This Renter’s Living Room
ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER
HOME TYPE: Apartment
PROJECT TYPE: Office & Dens
STYLE: Bohemian, Colorful
SKILL LEVEL: DIY
RENTAL FRIENDLY: Yes
Sometimes, the smallest projects make the biggest differences in homes, and that’s definitely true for an approximately 17-square-foot surface like a door. Giving special TLC to the doors in your home can make every room look a little bit better, whether you’re painting them, adding new hardware, or hanging a wreath or clever signage.
Apartment dweller Katie Nielsen (@thingsbykt) was growing tired of looking at one door in particular: The one next to her desk that looks out onto her balcony and across into the neighboring apartment building. “The balcony door, next to my desk in the living room, has a large window that looks out onto the balcony and across the street to a neighboring apartment building,” Katie says.
She added curtains for privacy when she moved in, but she didn’t love it as a permanent fix. “The curtain gave me privacy from neighbors, but it made the space feel small and closed-off when it was shut,” Katie says.
She adds that the space “felt cluttered” when the curtain was open. “The balcony wasn’t always clean, and the balcony’s decor style wasn’t cohesive with the desk and art supply storage area just inside the door,” Katie explains. And because she’s in a rental, Katie had to use “a cheap tension rod,” which resulted in an uneven curtain. “I didn’t want to drill into the wall of my rental,” she says.
A $17 peel-and-stick solution adds color to the whole space.
To solve her issue for good, she had a few things in mind. “I wanted something that would let in diffuse light during the day while still offering privacy, and something that fit better with the apartment’s vintage features and modern industrial decor,” Katie says. That’s where a $17 stained glass peel-and-stick decal from Amazon came in handy — and Katie can totally remove it for the future tenants who might live in the rental someday. Plus, she has a cool tip for anyone working with peel-and-stick.
“It was my first time adding vinyl to a window; I read the product reviews, and some people mentioned wetting the door with Windex instead of water because the alcohol in it makes it evaporate quicker,” Katie says. “I followed what others said to do in the reviews, wetting the window first with Windex and pushing the Windex and air bubbles out with a squeegee as I applied it, and it was surprisingly easy,” she says.
The decal adds color to the whole space.
Katie says her favorite part of the one-day project is the rainbow light that shines in on the opposite wall, and that it was a fairly simple DIY that made the whole area feel “much cleaner and bigger.”
“The whole project was only $17, but it looks a lot more expensive than it was,” Katie says. (And there was zero cutting required, as the decal happened to match the exact size of the door’s window!) Not to mention, Katie has spruced up her balcony outside the door, too, so the view through the stained glass is a great one. “A stained glass accent is a great way to add character to a room,” she concludes.
For more door upgrade ideas, check out this $5 molding project, and this $30 geometric door design.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
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