Because of the restrictions many renters have on the changes they can make to their apartment, decorating can seem like a real hassle. How can you effectively bring color and vibrancy to a room when you can't even paint the walls?

For Rent has a few suggestions if you're stumped on what direction to take your apartment décor—what will you do to make your space shine with your own personality and taste?

Even if you can't paint the walls (or can, but don't want the responsibility of re-painting them later!), there are a lot of ways to inject color into a space. Try a few of these instead:

• Colorful drapes.
  
  
• Patterned curtains.
  
  
• Throw blankets and pillows in bright accent colors.
  
  
• Area rugs with conversation-piece style patterns.
  
  
• Brightly colored furniture.
  
  
• Second-hand furniture with character.

Choose a color palette of a few colors that complement each other well or neutrals with one bright color in different hues to help your apartment feel cohesive and inviting.

Too much wall space? Especially with white or neutral paint, a large expanse of bare wall can feel stark or cold. Break up the wall space and bring depth to a room by using:

• Framed photographs.
  
  
• Paintings.
  
  
• Framed prints.
  
  
• Regular or geometric shelves
  
  
• Invisible shelves

Breaking up the wall space will give your apartment a warmer, more home-like feel.

Another way to bring warmth into the space is with the right kind of lighting. To try:

• Lamps with dimmer controls.
  
  
• Interesting patterned or colored lamp shades.
  
  
• Colored bulbs

Having a dimmer switch on some of your lights makes it much, much easier to control the way the room feels. Thankfully, you can find many kinds of lamps who have an adjustable feature built in.