There’s a particular sadness to a rented flat that still looks like nobody lives there — magnolia walls, the landlord’s curtains, a faint sense that you’re just passing through. But renting doesn’t have to feel temporary. Learning how to make your rented flat feel like home is mostly about working with what you can’t change and going bold on what you can, all without risking your deposit.

I’ve rented six flats over twelve years, and the ones that felt like home had almost nothing to do with how nice they were. They felt like home because they smelled like me, the lighting was warm, and my stuff was on the walls. Here’s how to get there, even with the strictest letting agent.

How to make your rented flat feel like home: start with light

The single fastest transformation in any rental is lighting. Landlord flats almost always have one harsh ceiling light per room — usually a cold white bulb that makes everything feel like an office. Fix it:

  • Swap the bulbs, not the fittings. Warm white (2700K) LED bulbs cost about £2 each and instantly make a room feel cosier. Keep the old bulbs in a drawer and swap them back when you leave.
  • Add lamps at different heights. A floor lamp in the corner, a small lamp on a side table — pools of warm light beat one overhead glare. IKEA, Dunelm, and charity shops are full of them for under £15.
  • Fairy lights aren’t just for students. Draped along a bookshelf or around a mirror, they add warmth for pennies. Get the copper-wire ones with a timer so they come on automatically at dusk.

Lighting changes how a room feels more than any furniture ever will. Do this first, before you spend a penny on anything else.

Walls: the renter’s canvas

“No nails in the walls” is the classic rental restriction, but bare walls are what make a flat feel like a waiting room. The workarounds are excellent now:

  • Command strips and hooks hold real weight (up to 7kg per set) and remove cleanly with a pull tab. Gallery walls, mirrors, even small shelves — all doable.
  • Washi tape frames — arrange prints directly on the wall with decorative tape. Zero damage, and it looks deliberately stylish rather than student-dodgy if you keep the lines clean.
  • A big leaning mirror or art propped on a mantelpiece or dresser needs no fixings at all and makes small rooms feel twice the size.
  • Removable wallpaper on one accent wall. It’s pricier (£30–£50 a roll), but it peels off cleanly and transforms a beige box completely. Just test a corner first and check your tenancy agreement.

Before you drill, stick, or paint anything, know where you stand — your rights as a private renter on gov.uk spell out what landlords can and can’t reasonably refuse, and it’s worth asking permission in writing for anything borderline. Many landlords say yes to small changes if you offer to return things to the original state.

Soft furnishings: the comfort layer

Rental flats tend to be hard — hard floors, minimal curtains, the world’s thinnest sofa. Softness is what makes a place feel lived-in:

  • Rugs define spaces. A big rug under the coffee table instantly zones a living area and muffles the echo that makes rentals feel empty. Rugs on hard floors also keep you on speaking terms with downstairs neighbours.
  • Curtains beat blinds. If the flat came with sad vertical blinds, hang your own curtains on a tension rod inside the window recess — no drilling, and they transform the light and the acoustics.
  • Throws and cushions in your colours. This is the cheapest personality injection there is. Two or three cushions and a throw in colours you actually love make a landlord’s grey sofa look like a choice.
  • Proper bedding. You spend a third of your life in bed — decent bedding in a colour that makes you happy is never wasted money, and it moves with you.

Make it smell like yours

Smell is the most underrated part of feeling at home, and rentals often smell faintly of… nobody. Previous tenants, fresh paint, damp. Reed diffusers, a plug-in, or simmering orange peel and cloves on the hob for an hour — pick a scent and make it yours. Our guide to making your home smell nice without candles has renter-safe options (many tenancies restrict naked flames anyway).

Claim a corner that’s entirely yours

In a small rented flat, it’s easy to feel like you’re living in someone else’s space. Fix it by creating one corner that’s unmistakably yours — a cosy reading corner in your small flat, a proper desk setup, a plant shelf, a record player station. It doesn’t need to be big; it needs to be deliberate. That one corner becomes the emotional anchor of the flat, the bit that makes you exhale when you walk in.

Plants deserve a special mention here. A few houseplants — a monstera, some trailing pothos, herbs on the kitchen sill — make a rental feel alive and cared-for in a way nothing else does. They’re cheap, they move with you, and keeping something alive in a place you’re “only renting” is a quiet declaration that you live here now.

The mindset shift

The biggest barrier isn’t the tenancy agreement — it’s the feeling that it’s not worth investing in a place you might leave. But “might leave in two years” still means two years of your actual life. The lamps, the rugs, the art, the plants — almost all of it moves with you. And a flat that feels like home is one you’ll take better care of, enjoy more, and feel calmer in. That’s worth far more than the cost of some Command strips.

The takeaway

To make your rented flat feel like home: fix the lighting first, get your art on the walls with damage-free fixings, layer in softness with rugs and curtains, give it your scent, and claim one corner that’s entirely yours. Check what your tenancy allows, ask permission in writing for the bigger changes, and remember — nearly everything that makes a place feel like home can move with you to the next one.