Would you paint in a rental you'll stay in max 2 years?

[Anonymous]

Would you go through the trouble and effort to paint a huge space we plan on using as the main family room in a rental you only plan on staying in for max 2 years? There's nothing wrong with the walls but I just hate the seafoam green color. I could probably live with it for 2 years but will my quality of life be better with colors I like and want to look at?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you go through the trouble and effort to paint a huge space we plan on using as the main family room in a rental you only plan on staying in for max 2 years? There's nothing wrong with the walls but I just hate the seafoam green color. I could probably live with it for 2 years but will my quality of life be better with colors I like and want to look at?

Seek landlord's permission first or you may end up paying twice for painting.

A huge space will probably cost you $500 in paint alone. Is that an outlay you're willing to make?

[Anonymous]

It might be worth asking the landlords if they are ok with your colors. They might not like the seafoam green either but may be to cheap to repaint.

We have had landlords in the past that allowed us to choose neutral colors to paint and we did not have to paint it back when we moved out.

[Anonymous]

Our landlord agreed to paint for us. We wanted to paint the guest room a different color as it was to be DS' nursery.

[Anonymous]

make sure the landlord agrees to the painting and the color

[Anonymous]

op here - landlord agrees to the paint and will discuss neutral color but is it worth the time and money? (we were planning in painting ourselves. mind you, we have a 8 mo.)

[Anonymous]

I would.

[Anonymous]

So would I. In fact, I have and it was totally worth it.

[Anonymous]

Yes because we are still here 5 years later. We initially thought it was a two year deal then life got complicated and moving became a low priority

[Anonymous]

Absolutely! We painted every room of a rental house that we stayed in for 18 months. It didn't cost us anywhere close to $500 in paint for the whole 3 BR house. I couldn't have lived with the god-awful colors the prior tenants had used for even that short period if time.

[Anonymous]

Nope, not worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

We did. We were there 18 months. Made it feel more homey. Completely worth it.

[Anonymous]

If you can paint yourself and do a good job, go for it. Fresh paint will make a world of difference. I found that when we were renting, the standard apartment eggshell off white color killed me. The place felt so much more like a home and ours when I got to paint.

[Anonymous]

I wish we had. We ended up staying in our rental house for longer than originally intended but never got around to repainting the hideous master bedroom, and it seriously detracted from my enjoyment of that room.

[Anonymous]

First, paint will not cost $500. As this is a rental, the lowest cost paint is what you should use (i.e. Behr at Home Depot). That is maybe $20-$25/can?

And, as a landlord myself, I would absolutely love if tenants painted for me. I am fairly certain that landlord isn't painting themselves b/c they don't want to shell out the money for the paint.

And, painting isn't that hard at all if you do it before you move in. Its when you paint a place you already have full of your stuff that it gets tricky.