Personalizing a Rental Isn’t as Crazy as You Might Think

“You don’t give up a 1,400-square-foot Upper West Side apartment,” said Tobi Wright, “not for a relationship, not for anything.” An advertising art director-turned-interior designer, Ms. Wright was speaking on the phone from the apartment in question, a 12th-floor rental in the West 100s she has occupied on and off since the age of 4.

At 32, after bouncing around different New York City domiciles, she returned to take over the rent-stabilized lease from her mother. That was a generation ago. Today, Ms. Wright, 52, pays about $1,700 a month for the unit, which would be unrecognizable to her preschool self. She has turned the living room into a simulated suburban backyard with AstroTurf flooring, a wood wall and a mural of trees. (She was inspired by a former boyfriend’s house in New Jersey.) Her bedroom, which used to be her artist father’s painting studio, is cerulean blue and chock-full of circles — in the carpet, the dresser, the lampshade. Hell, the lamp.

Ms. Wright’s investment in upgrades was carefully considered, as might be expected from someone who lacks an ownership stake. She spent $20,000 on the living room makeover. “For me that was a lot of money for one room,” she said. “And it had to be just right.” On the one hand, she had the walls skim coated to erase what she described as the “orange peel” effect of decades of accumulated paint jobs; on the other, she cobbled together fish traps found on Etsy to make the light fixture. And though the outcome was transformative, she didn’t make any change so invasive as to alarm the landlord.

“Nothing is permanent,” she said. “The wood wall can be removed easily and nail holes patched. The wallpaper was pre-glued so it just requires moisture to remove.”