June 27, 2025 • 5 mins
The House Whisperer Dean Sharp is back on Wake Up Call for another edition of ‘Waking Up with the House Whisperer!’ Today, Dean talks about the best ways to make your rental feel like home.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning to the host of home on KFI.
The house whisper it's Dean Sharp morning, Dean Morning Ean.
So recent reports are showing that a lot more people
are renting now rather than buying, and even people with
a lot of money are choosing to rent rather than buy.
So I thought, maybe, you know, we do a little
home therapy, apartment therapy and find out some ways to
(00:24):
make a rental feel more like a home, knowing that
you can't replace the cabinets to knock down walls exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And a lot of people get discouraged because they think, well,
you know, I'm renting this place, it's an apartment, it's
a house, whatever the case may be. I just can't.
I can't really make it home. And that's so not true.
Home is where you live. You just have to take
a different strategy. Of course, you're not going to be
knocking down wall Please don't not walk down knock on
walls in your rental house. But that doesn't mean that
(00:55):
you can't actually, you know, own the space for yourself.
Things like color coordinating a room is such a simple concept,
but once you've done it once, things like drapes and
carpet or rug areas and throw pillows are all working
(01:15):
off the same color palette. Man, that place becomes yours.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And I've done some of these. You send a list
of all these pictures and ideas and I'm like, oh,
done that. Oh wait, need to do that. And then
you also said, along with colors, like lighting can really
help make your home feel more homey.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, of course. You know. We live in the
age now in the twenty first century, a very very
high tech wireless lighting control right, things like smart lamps
being able to control and to dim things. Let's say
you live in an apartment. You're like, there are no
dimmer switches in my apartment. That doesn't matter. You don't
have to rewire the place. There are smart light dimmer
(01:58):
controls that you can down to the hardware store and
buy take with you whenever you move, plug them in
into an outlet, hook them up to your Wi Fi,
and plug the lamp into that. And all you have
to do is say, hey, I'm gonna avoid seeing the
name of the personal assistance so it doesn't respond to me. Here, Hey,
turn the lamp down to ten percent, and boom, You've
(02:21):
got dimmer control over the lighting in a room and
you have not called an electrician to get that done.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I love that, okay. And then one of the other
things is like, I'm sitting in my apartment, which I
love and I've decorated, but the walls are white. Is
there anything you can do without painting the walls.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
There are lots of things you can do without painting
the walls. There is removable static cling wallpaper these days,
which is fantastic. I mean static cling, not glue. It
doesn't leave a residue when it's done. There are sections
of wallpaper that you can put up. There are things
like magnetic refrigerator panels pulling up drapes, creating drapes for
(03:03):
your windows. And you may think, wait, hey, I'm not
allowed to drill into the walls. They're quick hang no
drill curtain rod brackets out there now, which means that
they can rest right over the top of the window
and hold that curtain rod and you can have your
own drapes, your own curtains, your own aesthetics in the
room without making any permanent damage to walls or changes.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I love this, okay. Then one other one that I
like this idea too, just to personalize it, you're not
making any structural changes, but like just swapping out like
light switch plates or cabinet knobs and poles, you can
always put.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Them back exactly. Cabinet knobs are just screwed onto the
front of the cabinet with a simple bolt from the
backside of the drawer or the door. The same with
the light switch plates. You can customize them to have
your own kind of going on. And again, take it
with you. It's a screwdriver. It's going to take you
(04:00):
two minutes to change these things out. You put the
old ones in a drawer. When you move out, you
just swap them back out again.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I love this, And of course plants always help make
a home feel more homey, so that's a good idea.
And then I love this one, which I just did
it not too long ago. It's update your betting. But
I'm gonna have to do it again because my cat
likes to need and she's destroying my expensive duvet cover.
But yeah, so many great ideas. So just because it's
(04:26):
not your house, it doesn't mean it can't be a home.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Absolutely. You are the thing that makes your place your home,
and finding creative ways of getting you all around, whether
it's your color, whether it's your picture frames, whether it's
your stuff, that is what makes that place you.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You're so wise. If you want to hear more wisdom
from Dean Sharp, you can listen to them tomorrow morning
from six to eight right here on KFI, and or
nine to noon on Sunday. It's home on KFI with
our House whispered Dean Sharp. You can also follow him
at home with Dean Thank you, Dean, Thanks Amy
Let's say good morning to the host of home on KFI.
The house whisper it's Dean Sharp morning, Dean Morning Ean.
So recent reports are showing that a lot more people
are renting now rather than buying, and even people with
a lot of money are choosing to rent rather than buy.
So I thought, maybe, you know, we do a little
home therapy, apartment therapy and find out some ways to
(00:24):
make a rental feel more like a home, knowing that
you can't replace the cabinets to knock down walls exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And a lot of people get discouraged because they think, well,
you know, I'm renting this place, it's an apartment, it's
a house, whatever the case may be. I just can't.
I can't really make it home. And that's so not true.
Home is where you live. You just have to take
a different strategy. Of course, you're not going to be
knocking down wall Please don't not walk down knock on
walls in your rental house. But that doesn't mean that
(00:55):
you can't actually, you know, own the space for yourself.
Things like color coordinating a room is such a simple concept,
but once you've done it once, things like drapes and
carpet or rug areas and throw pillows are all working
(01:15):
off the same color palette. Man, that place becomes yours.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And I've done some of these. You send a list
of all these pictures and ideas and I'm like, oh,
done that. Oh wait, need to do that. And then
you also said, along with colors, like lighting can really
help make your home feel more homey.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, of course. You know. We live in the
age now in the twenty first century, a very very
high tech wireless lighting control right, things like smart lamps
being able to control and to dim things. Let's say
you live in an apartment. You're like, there are no
dimmer switches in my apartment. That doesn't matter. You don't
have to rewire the place. There are smart light dimmer
(01:58):
controls that you can down to the hardware store and
buy take with you whenever you move, plug them in
into an outlet, hook them up to your Wi Fi,
and plug the lamp into that. And all you have
to do is say, hey, I'm gonna avoid seeing the
name of the personal assistance so it doesn't respond to me. Here, Hey,
turn the lamp down to ten percent, and boom, You've
(02:21):
got dimmer control over the lighting in a room and
you have not called an electrician to get that done.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I love that, okay. And then one of the other
things is like, I'm sitting in my apartment, which I
love and I've decorated, but the walls are white. Is
there anything you can do without painting the walls.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
There are lots of things you can do without painting
the walls. There is removable static cling wallpaper these days,
which is fantastic. I mean static cling, not glue. It
doesn't leave a residue when it's done. There are sections
of wallpaper that you can put up. There are things
like magnetic refrigerator panels pulling up drapes, creating drapes for
(03:03):
your windows. And you may think, wait, hey, I'm not
allowed to drill into the walls. They're quick hang no
drill curtain rod brackets out there now, which means that
they can rest right over the top of the window
and hold that curtain rod and you can have your
own drapes, your own curtains, your own aesthetics in the
room without making any permanent damage to walls or changes.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I love this, okay. Then one other one that I
like this idea too, just to personalize it, you're not
making any structural changes, but like just swapping out like
light switch plates or cabinet knobs and poles, you can
always put.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Them back exactly. Cabinet knobs are just screwed onto the
front of the cabinet with a simple bolt from the
backside of the drawer or the door. The same with
the light switch plates. You can customize them to have
your own kind of going on. And again, take it
with you. It's a screwdriver. It's going to take you
(04:00):
two minutes to change these things out. You put the
old ones in a drawer. When you move out, you
just swap them back out again.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I love this, And of course plants always help make
a home feel more homey, so that's a good idea.
And then I love this one, which I just did
it not too long ago. It's update your betting. But
I'm gonna have to do it again because my cat
likes to need and she's destroying my expensive duvet cover.
But yeah, so many great ideas. So just because it's
(04:26):
not your house, it doesn't mean it can't be a home.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Absolutely. You are the thing that makes your place your home,
and finding creative ways of getting you all around, whether
it's your color, whether it's your picture frames, whether it's
your stuff, that is what makes that place you.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You're so wise. If you want to hear more wisdom
from Dean Sharp, you can listen to them tomorrow morning
from six to eight right here on KFI, and or
nine to noon on Sunday. It's home on KFI with
our House whispered Dean Sharp. You can also follow him
at home with Dean Thank you, Dean, Thanks Amy
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