DIY Design: Tips for Decorating Your Apartment on a Budget

Once you've moved into your apartment, those blank white walls can be intimidating. As a renter, your lease might not let you repaint, put up wallpaper or drill holes in the walls. Add in classes, work, and the student loans looming over your head, and you might feel like you don't have the time, money or energy to fix up your new place at all.

But you do have options. There are simple, frugal, and easy ways to make your new place yours-- and keep your landlord happy, too.

• Buy a blank canvas and a few tubes of acrylic paint and make your own modern art.
  
• You may not be able to put up traditional wallpaper, but how about making your own out of fabric and a little starch? It's cheaper, easier, and one hundred percent removable. This is also a good option if you're allowed to paint or wallpaper but can't afford to or don't have the time.
  
• Another inexpensive (but less removable) wallpaper alternative is to make a dictionary wall out of a secondhand, falling apart dictionary (or book of your choice).
  
• Apply a wall decal or two in lieu of paint, wallpaper, or artwork. Wall decals are removable and stylish. The downside is that they can be expensive, and once removed they cannot be re-used, so it's not a good option if you might relocate over the next few years.
  
• Art prints and postcards make for beautiful and cost-effective decor. Small 9 x 13" prints run around $5 each at museums. Postcards are 50 cents! Vary the sizes (and artists) and stagger them for visual appeal.
  

Art prints, posters and postcards nicely arranged, the day after moving into my first apartment.

• DIY artwork is even cheaper. If you're not artistically inclined, find a friend who is. One of my roommates paints and does quirky ink drawings. Not one of our walls is blank or boring.
  
• Save greeting cards, postcards, and flyers and hang them up. This is a great way to add character to a room, and it won't cost you a cent.