Are you stuck in an apartment where you’re not allowed to paint the walls? Do you not want to go through the hassle of painting the walls a new color? It can be hard to impart your own style on a room without using paint or nails on the walls. You can decorate your walls with no nails and no paint. Here’s how:
- Tack up fabric. If you can’t use nails, find out if tacks are allowed. If they are, get a large piece of fabric from a craft store, in any color or design you want. Make sure that it is lightweight so that the tacks will hold it to the wall. Then, simply place tacks along the upper edge of the fabric, holding it to the top of the wall. You may need several pieces to cover the entire wall; these can be sewn together into one large panel. Alternatively, you can stretch the fabric over a homemade wooden frame that is the same size as the wall, and then simply place the frame next to the blank wall.
- Use paper tape. There are several different products available for adding stripes to walls. Permacel Paper Tape, which can be found in art supply stores, come in different colors and widths, and will stick to the wall. Use a level to apply the tape evenly in stripes on your wall. When you’re ready to take it down, just peel it off the wall.
- Add posters. Posters and other lightweight paper decorations can be held up with tape or thumbtacks rather than with nails. They are a great way to add color to the walls without hanging a picture with a nail. You can find posters for nearly every imaginable theme. You could even use magazine clippings or printed images to tape together a collage for the wall.
- Use vinyl lettering or graphics. Use vinyl words to put your favorite quotes on the wall. These letters and words can be positioned however you’d like on the wall, and are surprisingly easy to apply. Once you’re done with them, they peel right back off. Besides letters, you can also find companies that produce vinyl graphics shaped like flowers, characters, fish, and nearly anything else you can imagine.
- Use lighting. You can use lighting to give your walls color and depth. Use small spotlights with colored bulbs, pointing the lights upward towards the walls and ceiling.
Decorating your walls with no paint and no nails requires some creativity on your part, but luckily there are many excellent solutions to this common problem. You can create a unique and personalized space by using fabric, tape, vinyl lettering, and lighting to camouflage your plain white walls.
