If Cynthia Colby is going to live someplace long term, she has to feel at home. For her, that’s meant turning her two-bedroom home in Kitchener, Ontario, into a showpiece: The walls are vibrant; the kitchen is repainted, retiled, wallpapered and outfitted with upgraded appliances. The hardwood floor has been uncovered and refinished after years under a dingy grey carpet.

The fact that she’s a renter matters little to her.

“You don’t have to own your place for it to be yours,” said Colby, 54, a multimedia marketer and 14-year resident in her rental home. “This is my living space. I walk into every room and I know it’s mine. The wallpaper, the window dressings — everything is me. I just walk in and relax.”

Though most renters are unlikely to spend their own time and money fixing up a home they don’t own, some lifelong renters have taken the home improvement plunge without taking on a mortgage.

If you’re interested in doing the same type of rental-home improvement, consider these tips from knowledgeable renters.

Think long-term relationship

For all the tenants who fix up their rental homes, a few things seem true: They have long-term commitments to their residence, a long-term and congenial relationship with their landlords and, often, they live in areas where buying a home is out of their reach.

Matthew Hallinan, co-owner and manager of BallyHallinan properties in San Francisco, regularly turns down requests from new tenants who want to repaint walls or tear up carpets. But for longtime, reliable tenants, he often helps pay for the upgrades.

“If it’s a long-term tenant, someone who’s been there a few years, we’ll work with them,” he said. “For anybody who’s going to make it a home, we certainly want to help them do it.”

Since the enhancements can increase the value of the rentals, this approach pays off for the landlord as well.

When Risa Goodman moved into her 500-square-foot, one-bedroom cottage in Santa Barbara, Calif., the rental was charming but crowded. Over the next three years, she undertook a series of home-improvement projects, installing Pergo floors and building floating tables, a platform bed and seating that’s permanently attached to the small home’s walls.

“When you build things and build them well, you’re improving the spaces,” she said. “I’m lucky, though. I have a very amicable landlord. He says he doesn’t know what he’ll do when I move out, but he lets me do it. And if I have to forfeit my security deposit, I will. It’s about making it work now.”

Pay your way

The other key is to expect to foot the home-improvement bill yourself. While Hallinan helps pay for approved upgrades, most tenants said they paid for everything, in exchange for being allowed to customize their rental homes. Colby, for instance, said her landlord has approved every change but hasn’t paid for any.

To make the repairs affordable, she’s called in craftsman friends to retile, refinish and install new light fixtures. She replaced the old stove and fridge with discarded — but more up-to-date — appliances from a friend who was upgrading his kitchen.

“My landlord said, ‘Just do what you want,’” she said. “He was great. He said, ‘We don’t pay for paint,’ but I didn’t care. Every time he’s come over and seen a change, he says, ‘Oh it looks so nice!’”