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At Liberty Military Housing, we realize the thought of decorating and personalizing your new military home can be daunting and often plays into a family's decision of whether to live on or off base. While it is true that you may not have as much flexibility with a rental home as one you own, from a structural standpoint, there is still a vast amount of flexibility from the perspective of personalization and expressing your family's identity.

To help you understand some of the possibilities for decorating your military home, we teamed up with Marni Rigger, a resident at Naval Complex San Diego, to share her easy tips and tricks for home decorating on a budget. 

"I am a lover of shiplap and color wanted to incorporate it into my home, but that can sometimes be difficult when living in military housing. To minimize the refurbishment before I PCS to our next duty station, I choose to paint only one wall, as painting it back to its original color is required, having only one wall to paint will save time when it's time to be stationed somewhere new. I painted the walls a dark gray, and it really adds a pop against the other white walls in our home." explained Marni.

After Marni had added a pop of color to her space, she enlisted her husband's help to build this beautiful mantle while she got creative with plywood. "I am a big advocate of making things on our own or looking within our military communities to find someone who has an amazing talent and creativity. So I got creative and decided to make some faux shiplap to go about the mantle. I used a piece of plywood and a black sharpie! Yes, a black sharpie and drew it on! A super simple way to have a bit of shiplap and it only took four small nails to hang since the plywood is extremely lightweight. This faux shiplap is a super easy and inexpensive way to add some texture to the wall!" explained Marni. Between Marni and her husband, they were able to create a focal piece that is sure to "wow" any guests they have in their home.

Marni's next project was to redesign the heart of the home, the kitchen! "I needed color as the entire kitchen is white! I know there a lot of military wives who understand how white it can be!" said Marni. Her goal was to change the look and feel on a budget. "I added "faux" brick contact paper to one wall in my kitchen. Again, I love doing the accent walls and features in rooms. Contact paper is another easy and inexpensive way of adding an accent without the stress of refurbishment later. I also painted my pantry door just add a pop of color while sticking to my cozy farmhouse theme. Adding the contact paper and painting the pantry door added some color and a lot of texture!"

Here are a few of Marni's tips on how to incorporate your family's identity into your military space without a lot of work to refurbish before you PCS to your next duty station:

Painting one accent wall in your home is very inexpensive but can change the home's feel and bring life to your military space.

Look within your military community to find someone who has the talent and creativity to help build fantastic removal pieces.

Use contact paper to create an easy-to-remove accent wall without the fuss of painting.

Paint an accent piece, like a pantry door, to add color without the stress of repainting a whole room

-Marni Rigger, Naval Complex San Diego Resident, and Guest Blogger

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