We’re really lucky in that our landlord is happy for us to decorate our house. So although we rent, we’ve painted walls, put up shelves and hung pictures. I know plenty of people on the other hand who’re not even supposed to put blu tack on the walls.

When you’ve got a bland magnolia space how do you make it homely and inject a bit of personality?

1- Rugs

A large rug can cover a huge expanse of floor and make a tremendous difference to a room. Our Hampen rug from Ikea is massive and takes up the entire space between our sofas and covers a multitude of sins. Why landlords put beige carpets in I’ll never know. At just £40 this rug was an absolute steal and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Putting it down made the room feel so much more homely and cosy.

2 – Cushions

What is it with girls and scatter cushions? My husband usually ends up chucking the cushions on the floor but as I write this I’m leaning on about five. I do like a good cushion and you can pick them up for just a few quid in shops such as Primark and Asda. This is one of my favourite cushions, I bought it in Asda for £7 just after we came back from holiday in Scotland. Choose cushions with a colour in common for a coordinated look, or just go mad buying any you like for an eclectic style.

3 – Fairy lights

When I was at uni I put multi coloured fairy lights up for Christmas and never took them down again until I moved out of halls. They were fun and were awesome mood lighting for chilling out watching a film. Lights are definitely making a come back and they are a cheap and easy way to inject some colour into your home. Whether you drape them over your bedstead or hang them on a door frame using a little blu tack or washi tape, they look cute and homely. There are lots of battery operated fairy lights available, particularly in Primark, for not a lot of money at all. Just beware of their battery draining capabilities. We got some colour change lights from Primark and they drain AAs in less than a day.

4 – Washi tape

If you don’t know what washi tape is, you’re missing out. It’s basically colourful and perhaps printed masking tape. You can use it in a multitude of ways and it’s said not to damage walls. This means you can use it to stick photos and prints to walls, pretty up shelf edges, create cool shapes and whatever else your imagination can conjure up.

For all the washi tape ideas, visit Pinterest. There are some pretty awesome things you can do with this unassuming paper tape and the best thing is, you can remove it from the walls and your landlord will never know.

Renting ladies, what have you done to add a splash of colour into your home? Leave a comment below.