It’s Feels Like Home Friday!  If you have already preordered the book and collected the first preorder bonus I announced (the free high-resolution original art download), then you may have snooped around and discovered the second preorder bonus that I’m highlighting today – a bonus chapter!  It’s the Feels Like Home Renter’s Guide.

While there are a lot of ideas in Feels Like Home that can be applied to spaces that are rented, I felt compelled to write a bonus chapter specifically for renters.  Yes, you can rearrange furniture, hang art on the walls, add lots of yummy layers, and textures, but there are limitations when you’re renting.  Having been a renter for many years as an adult, I know from experience and was bursting at the seams to paint a wall when we bought our first little townhouse.

I grew up in rentals, though.  It actually might be one step down from a rental, because I grew up in Army-issue apartments.  My mom didn’t even get to pick the house.  We were assigned to it.  She would open the door and see, for the first time, what she had to work with.  I witnessed her tears of overwhelm and frustration as well as her resourcefulness and determination to make an 800 sq. ft. apartment feel homey and welcoming for our family of four.

The Renter’s Guide shares a lot I learned from my mom and my own experience of living in rented apartments as a young adult.  I’ve included tips, how-tos, and stories as I did in the printed chapters of Feels Like Home, but I also include encouragement for those who are wishing and waiting to live in a house they own.  Or perhaps to those who own a house, but they know it’s only temporary.  It can be hard to embrace a house as a home completely when it isn’t yours or when you know a move is on the horizon.  I felt like it was important to acknowledge that in the Renter’s Guide.

The Renter’s Guide is a digital PDF full chapter download with original photography, fresh ideas, and even a tutorial on installing peel & stick wallpaper…

When my mom did the proofreading for the Renter’s Guide, she asked me where I installed the wallpaper.  Here’s a little behind-the-scenes…

I actually installed it on a large piece of foam core board and then stuck it behind the mirror in my dining room!  Some strategic cropping makes it work.  THIS is the peel-n-stick wallpaper I used.  The pattern is so pretty that I was tempted to find a place to put it in my house!

Anyway, I hope the Feels Like Home Renter’s Guide will be a great resource and encouragement and a nice bonus for those who preorder the book.  You can find instructions on signing up for the preorder bonuses HERE if you need some help.

If you haven’t preordered the book, yet, you can preorder it from any one of these retailers…

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Worthy Publishing | Books-a-Million | Indie Bound

I’m sure many of you have lived in rented spaces in your life (and maybe you do currently.)  What is the best advice you have to share with renters who are trying to make a house feel like home?