City leaders are planning to plaster boarded-up shop windows with colourful vinyl in a bid to improve Commercial Road.
Schoolchildren and local artists are being asked to come up with designs to brighten up the dismal shopping centre.
A similar scheme, run by London-based firm Smart City Dressing, has been a hit in Plymouth, as pictured.
It is part of a raft of improvements planned for the city centre in the wake of the stalled Northern Quarter redevelopment.
Ruling Lib Dem councillors have agreed to spend £250,000 on interim measures to give the area a much-needed facelift.
And this week they agreed the first batch of detailed plans.
A budget of £25,000 has been set aside for 10 new mature trees in pots, £20,000 will be spent on new benches, new brighter lights will cost £3,000 and flaking iron work will be painted.
City centre manager Barry Walker said: 'We have been careful to make sure the money we are investing will not be wasted, so we have looked at things that can be reused when the city centre is redeveloped.
'The trees are in pots so they can be moved elsewhere and the same with the benches.
'These are just short-term measures.'
As reported in The News, Portsmouth City Council has teamed up with local businesses and Hampshire County Council to bid for £5.8m from the government to create around 900 new short-term jobs for out-of- work youngsters.
If they get the cash, around 100 jobs, which will be offered for 18- to 24-year-olds at minimum wage, could be focussed on the city centre improvements.
Kathy Wadsworth, strategic director for business and regeneration at the city council, said: 'We would employ young people to work in the city centre, improving empty shops and similar things.
'We would be creating jobs that were not there before.
'We do not want the city centre to go downhill.'
PLANS PUT ON HOLDThe Northern Quarter scheme would have seen more than 80 shops, restaurants and cafes transform Commercial Road into a major shopping attraction.
But plans were put on hold last year because developers Centros said the scheme was not economically viable in the recession.
They have gone back to the drawing board to redesign the project, which has been more than 10 years in the making.
Now no redevelopment is expected for at least six years.
In the meantime shoppers and businesses have called on the city council to do something with the ailing city centre.
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