Looks great! I just hope your landlord does not get upset!

I know! We might lose our security deposit, but decided it would still be worth it!

Besides losing your security deposit, you could get sued. Might want to check with a real estate attorney then come clean with your landlord.

absolutely stunning... love the decor.

I think the final product looks great!

If you are good tenants and pay the rent on time, I doubt he'll care. You are in the minority of renters--way too many couldn't give a crap and completely leave the place a mess and/or trash the place.

Congrats for wanting to make reasonable and logical improvements!! And when you move, you can reverse it---no big deal.

In all my years of renting oodles of apartments, I was too scared to do anything like paint or hang pictures for the most part. So while they all had incredible views of cityscapes, mountains, ocean, or some combination of things, and all but a couple were up with the birds (usually 23 or 25th story; the lowest floor ever was 3), I was always afraid of losing my security deposit. And that was despite the fact that I always left the apartment cleaner than I got it!! (I was so pleased when I finally met my cleaning match in one landlady!!)

Anyway, I wish I had the wherewithal to be like the cop above me in one place. He would paint all of the apartments he rented to a colour he liked, and then fill and repaint to the boring builder beige when he moved out. Apparently he never had a problem. Again, he'd leave the suite in better shape than before.

Happy renting!

Yrs. ago we rented an apt. in house built ca. 1915 that had been divided into duplex. The original K was in front unit. Ours had make-shift K w/o sufficient cabinets. I built one in corner. When we moved out, landlord wanted us to pay him for cost of demo'ing, but his wife disabused him of that. Our DR was former back porch. It had utility boxes, which I boxed in w/ touch-latch door & covered in redwood lathe. Underneath I built narrow sideboard & covered it in redwood lathe in herringbone pattern. Wife liked that, too.

You would not only lose your deposit, you'd be evicted for vandalizing property that didn't belong to you and you'd pay to put it right too. What part of you don't own the house didn't penetrate your brain?

Just to ease all of your worries.... we kept the granite and mantle and will replace when we move out. Not sure what all the uproar is about this. Also our property manager has come by the house on several occasions and thinks the place looks great. The "don't tell our landlord" part of my title was more of a joke.

I have been a landlord myself in the past would count myself lucky to have a tenant who cared about my property as much as I care about this place. Especially given that I'm going to replace the mantle when I move out.

Looks great! Nice use of space and sounds like it would be easy to put back in place! Enjoy your new living space!

Brittany, we have several rental properties, and I love what you did in this case. Good to know you can change it back, if necessary. However, as the owner, I'd keep it with your updates.

Very pretty. Looks like a magazine shot. Can you tell me where you got the Roman shades ?

Such an adorable home! Would love to see pics of the whole house. I've rented before and wallpapered, ripped up the carpet, and painted and always got my deposit back!

It looks great. The layout of the room makes great sense without the fireplace, it's much more open.

Rented to a woman who changed the light fixture, painted over my stencil, painted the ceiling fan blades & pipe on the gas fireplace, papered inside the medicine cabinet, took down the upholstery headboard (it's 6' tall) and was on the verge of painting the bathroom vanity shades.

When asked about what she did, her response was "you should of said something". And she put none of it back when she was asked to leave. Needless to say I was furious! Maybe part of it was I HATED her taste.

Once the place is put back together going to forgo renting and advertising it through Air Bnb instead.

As others have said you do not own it and it doesn't matter how great it looks, you should of asked for permission first.

Just my 2 cents.

I love how bright it looks!

Very beautiful job, hiding the fireplace really makes it a more useful space.

Very nice room, definitely worth it!

Gorgeous decor. Would never guess it was a rental!

I always got permission for changes on the rental contract. Never did any changes to the structure without permission.

Furniture reborn, in order to avoid these problems you need to spelll it out in your rental agreement. Verbal doesn't matter, and you can never assume your renter will take care of your property as you would. Be concise about every little thing and raad review/initial every point with your renters before signing. By doing this, we have won every judgment we have brought befire civil court due to bad renters, as they cannot deny they have done this and have no excuses.

Btw, security deposits are not for covering damages, they are for securing the deposit for the property. When the renter leaves, use this money for cleaning and general replacement of items like light bulbs. If there are damages such as described above, the renter should pay for them separately. Consult your real estate attorney and verify that this is indeed correct.

It is good that the writer of this piece has cleared up the question as to whether she told the landlord. They would have indeed faced a legal situation had their landlord chosen to make this an issue. We too had a renter who proclaimed they planned to remain in our house for many years. I was very impressed with how beautiful the house always looked when I visited for my monthly inspections. Then they missed a payment, then two, then three payments. We tried to contact them but they refused to answer any emails, texts, or calls. We had no choice but to serve them eviction notice. They destroyed a bathroom, removed all, and I mean ALL of the landscaping, and then refused to pay rent for the four months we litigated to have them evicted. Of course we won the entire judgment, but it has taken two years to see return. We spent over $14k repairing and beautifying, and recently sold the house, which we had planned to keep well into retirement for investment. I was devastated, as I did really like this family and wanted to believe they would stay a long time. (We never did find out what happened to the $1000 worth of plantings....) One would think this shouldnt need to be said, but... If you are going to make changes in your rental property, whether painting, structural, or even putting a zillion holes in the walls, make sure you are a model renter and ALWAYS pay your rent. You have no idea how much your actions affect others.

The space looks fantastic!

Looks great!

Looks very nice!

Agree, Looks awesome Designer Brittany!

Better to ask for forgiveness then permission : ) Especially and only when you make such a tasteful improvement!

Looks great!!