After 2.5 years, I'm finally going to get over my fear of putting things up on my plaster walls and actually decorate my apartment. Better late than never, right?
Things that have stopped me: I rent and want to get my security deposit back when I move out, so I don't want to ruin the walls. The plaster has slight cracks in it already because it's so old. A lot of my posters are framed and heavy, so command strips might not work.
@mrtrimble I've gotten my security deposit in all but one of the 16 apartments I've lived in, and I like getting 2k+ back so I can use it for the deposit at my next place!
@starshaped This is what picture rail molding is for! I am very grateful for all my lovely molding in every room, except the bathroom, but that room was gutted and sheetrocked and tiled so I just put holes in the walls in there. But I still have not put a single hole in my home's plaster walls since 2011.
@anniegreens Yeah, I wish this apartment had that! I rent so I can't really change what's already in here, plus I don't want to wreck the walls so I get my security deposit back.
@starshaped what?! bizarre, I think it is unheard of for a plaster aged home not to have picture rail molding, unless it was purposefully removed and that is a bummer
@anniegreens We didn't have picture rail molding in the house I owned in the 00s either--we ended up covering the plaster walls with drywall to get around the problem in that house.
@starshaped weird! I wonder if there was a "class" thing involved, not that my house is anything fancy, but they used to do this with flooring material too
the "public" rooms in my home have oak hardwood flooring and the non-public rooms (ie bedrooms) have Douglas fir wood flooring
that was a cost thing, and it is a kit house (craftsman) so I know it is original, it runs the length of the house under the walls, and they'd choose to just put the spendy stuff where most people would see it
@anniegreens Yeah, the house I owned in the 00s was built in the 50s and every single house on the street was exactly the same. No hardwood floors at all in that house.
I don't know how old the building I live in now is, but it also doesn't have hardwood floors. So that might be why I've never had picture rail molding!
@starshaped yeah, and it can be kinda hard to find studs through plaster. In our house we've got original plaster walls with drywall over top of them. So that adds a bit more fun to it!
If it helps, if you get a stud finder, it's usually possible to find studs! Between that and checking for studs anywhere between 16-20 inches away between other ones, you can usually find them.
@pseudoramble I kind of don't want to put that much work into it because I'm planning on moving out of here over the summer, so I'm looking more for quick and easy ways to put things on the walls temporarily.
@starshaped Hanging things on plaster is terrifying to me because any time I put a hole in it, it seems like I'm chipping away at the structural integrity of my house. Drywall, on the other hand, feels like its true purpose is a game to see how many holes I can put in it.
@skullvalanche Not for the really heavy things I want to hang up, sadly. I know they make heavy duty ones but I still don't think they will be enough, so I'm going to hang up a bunch of smaller things.
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