How to jazz your rental home on a shoestring budget

A third of New Zealand households don't own their own place - but that doesn’t mean a rental can’t feel like home.

Dunedin based thrifter, Anna Easton, has a bag of tricks to make a rental warm and inviting without aggravating the landlord or breaking the bank.

Easton, her husband Sean and nine-year-old daughter Frankie have moved seven times in the last five years - she’s got plenty of rental zhuzhing expertise.

Follow and listen to Thrift on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

She has combined her love of op-shopping, her She Hunts Op-Shops Facebook page has 40,000 followers, with a knack for making spaces you may not own feel like home.

Easton begins with making a place feel cosy. Window coverings can be expensive but she's combed op-shops for curtains that are stylish and warm. Sometimes she’ll remove the original curtains and replace them with some more in keeping with her taste – she recently discovered velvet curtains for $5.

Even with good, thermal efficient curtains, condensation can still be a problem, so Easton always leaves her windows open “just a smidge”.

“Even in the evening. I know that that sounds counterproductive, especially if you've got the heaters on. But that ventilation is key for stopping the condensation on the inside of your windows,” she says.

And if she’s going out for the day, she’ll draw the curtains shut so that they can dry with the sun on them.

The hardware to hang curtains can all be found at op-shops too, she says.

“At least 80 percent of all of the curtains that I find already have the hooks on them. They're ready to hang."

But if they're not, Easton keeps a curtain accessory box, everything in it is thrifted and has saved her a heap of money, she says. Hooks and wires which new would easily cost $20 are only a few dollars second hand.

She washes her second-hand curtains in the bathtub, with just "a bit of your normal washing powder, and just smush it around" then hangs them out to dry on a sunny day over a balcony, a trampoline, or even on a concrete driveway.

Easton also has a stock of extra fabric she uses to block drafts. She pins fabric into the frame above the door, so she doesn't mark the wall.

Sometimes she layers blankets or other fabric over the curtains themselves using one of her favourite op-shop tools, “otherwise known as bulldog clips". She uses them to help create impromptu curtains.

“Just really roughly and instantly hang them and then tighten them down. Without leaving a trace. You haven't put any holes in the walls and it's super easy to use.”

Easton has a collection of rugs she uses to protect the carpets in her rentals.

As an art lover, she negotiates with landlords so she can hang things on the wall. She'll take a swatch of the paint colour and when it's time to leave she restores the walls to their former glory with a bit of putty and a test pot of paint.

Easton says "lace is my best friend, it's incredible,” using it for privacy and to make interior partitions within the home.

Strategically placed mirrors help a place feel more light and bright.

“If I've got a bedroom that doesn't get that much sun like my back bedroom ... I'll put a mirror on the other side of the wall so that it catches the reflection of the sun that it does get and bounces it into the hallway or into another room just to bring in more light.”

She’s even hung crystals and a disco ball in properties she’s rented.

“I'm all about light, finding ways to get it bring it in, manipulate it, use it, love it.”