It's cute, and looks much better, but I hope she doesn't actually plan to cook in that kitchen, or she's made herself a few pairs which she can switch out to wash frequently. Those curtains--especially the ones above the stove, would get so dirty in my kitchen.

Very cute. I think the gray would look really nice as a wall color, too. Maybe paint the rest of the kitchen space gray. It would look more cohesive.

IT IS CUTE..looks very 50's in a fun way but I agree with the post who are concerned about how dirty they will get being they are hanging over the store.

You know, I just don't want fabric hanging over a gas stovetop.

@JefferyK - Good point. No flambe in that apartment.

I saw some baskets like that at a dollar store here in South TX, gonna grab em and set em up there. Set em and forget em, well Ill dust em here and there.

I am guessing from her descriptions that she doesn't do a lot of cooking in that kitchen. If that is the case this a cute upgrade for almost no money. When you are working with zero dollars you have to do what you can. When I first moved out I lived the first year on english muffins and peanut butter. No Flambe for me. I am guessing she hasn't tried that either.

The "before" would be fine if the dishes were done/put away and take away the HM bag. Put some removable stickers on the cabinets to liven them up. Fabric and heat/grease don't mix well.

looks super cute. practicality of it is to be decided by the user, guessing she is quite happy.

I had fabric curtains on my kitchen shelves for ages. They don't get dirty that fast, only had to wash them a few times a year just like the tops of shelves and I usually did them at the same time. You can have them washed, dried and hung up again in an hour or two if you have your own washer and dryer, no big deal. In the meantime you wash the horizontal surfaces and back in biz in no time. Probably not the best choice for someone that fries a lot though.

liked the before better. would put away dishes and cookware except the red kettle, get rid of that bag by the stove ,that plate and hang ups on cabinet and over stove. the wood color strips on the cabinets i would paint or cover in black and get a red print rug-like a buffalo check maybe.

we have those cabinet and drawer fronts in our kitchen. i was instantly excited to see how someone would use those materials to change the look, but wasn't what i was expecting at all. sigh...

Sweet! Much better than before!

In my apartment those would just end up being big garlic-scented swags.

I like it! Sure, it's not practical, but that is up to the resident. My kitchen is exactly the same size, except I have open shelves and a microwave above the stove. I love the curtains *below* the sink, but it kind of bothers me that the top one don't fully cover the left cabinet. If I weren't moving soon, I'd remove my bottom cabinets and do the curtains (one cabinet door doesn't close all the way anyways... was like that when I moved in). Love the color scheme too. You are giving me ideas for my next place!!

Its cute. Seems to me that washing those curtains once a month or so would not be that much of an effort so I don't get what all the fuss is about. I would have used red instead of yellow, and that wood trim on the drawers under the sink should be painted out. And some kind of backsplash could be done with stickers or tiles mounted on board that can be taken down, but that's just me. She did a really nice job with not a lot.

Love it! Honestly, how likely is it that your stove is going to spew gigantic flames all the way up to the ceiling? I think it works.

With the curtains added it looks like an old farm kitchen. Is it possible to apply fancy but removable contact paper to cupboards? I was thinking of something like that for my kitchen area.

That's amazing! What a huge difference these little touches made. 300% better!

@Enid ... In my experience, it's best to stay away from 'contact' paper because of the horribly sticky adhesive ... which is almost impossible to remove from any surface, without a ton of elbow grease (if you already have the problem, try cooking oil and a rag to remove the tacky glue that remains after you've stripped the paper surface off .. this works better than anything else I've ever tried !)

Real wallpaper, or even fabric, applied with a water soluble wallpaper paste, is easy to apply to kitchen cabinets and shelves and easy to remove (with soapy water.) I've found that sealing the paper/fabric surface with a few coats of polyurethane sealant (again, use the water based products for easy clean up) will give you a wipeable surface that looks permanent but is relatively easy to remove, when the time comes. (Score the paper and apply soapy water to soften it and it will come off easily.)

I actually like the use of fabric below the sink (though think the fabric choice in the pic above looks a little on the 'stiff' side .. a softer fabric would have hung better) but I think I would have gone for open shelving .. and wallpapered the backs of the shelves .. if the little kitchen above had been mine.

I have these same cabinets and the first thing I did upon moving in was remove the doors. :)

Perhaps a little scotch guard on the curtains could help with kitchen dirt....

It's better than it was but man that light is harsh. Can Audra get a different globe and swap out the old one? She could always stash the old globe in the same place where the sucky doors now sit.
I like the fabric on the bottom but probably would have left the uppers exposed. Maybe a colorful shelf liner, wallpaper, or even the same fabric on the back wall of the cabinets (I've done this with spray adhesive, when you're ready to leave, just peel the fabric off the wall) might have been a better option than the curtains.

Not sure how I feel about the curtains, (Everyones a critic) But I do really like the idea of simply removing the cabinet doors in a rental. It can give the apartment a more airy feel. But your dishes and such always have to be presentable.

I agree with @PI, I too would paint even the brick part grey. Much more cohesive. Other than that, nice yellow tones against the blue of the other wall

Not a fan, sorry. I like hard surfaces in kitchens, even if they are those boring builder cabinets. I had what may be the exact same ones in my old house, and we lived with them 15 years before we upgraded. They are pretty sad, but if in decent condition, they work. Sometimes that's enough.

I applaud the effort, but I'm afraid it doesn't do it for me. Practicality aside, the grey isn't the right shade/tone with that yellow. Certainly, use grey in a kitchen--I love gray in a kitchen full of white and adding pops of colour; have it in my own wee galley kitchen--but the clash of the blue, with a green/grey, with beige and wood tones, with white and black throw rugs... To each his and her own, but I find it too chaotic for my taste.

The only real solution to those kind of cabinets is to apply Contac paper expertly in
black, red, grey or white. That means rolling out the bubbles or piercing them with a pin.

I'm not a fan of this at all. The curtains make it look very messy & cluttered.

I once lived in a rental that had curtains instead of cupboard doors and I hated it -- didn't help that our cat thought the best game in the house was to get INTO the cupboards and attack the curtains from the inside. Ripped kitchen cabinet curtains and a cat in with your clean dishes? No thanks!

I suggesting this: http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/100-half-day-designs-industrial-chic-kitchen-makeover/index.html

not this: http://pdx-princess.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-cleaning-day-around-here.html

Super cute. Those cabinets "before" make me cringe.

And as a landlord, I have to say to those of you who recommend contact paper - that stuff is very damaging and hard to remove. Bad advice. You damage the cabinets and either the renter pays for damage or the landlord gets screwed. Bad advice.

As a landlord, I'd be happy with her solution (assuming she repaints - as I assume she will)

I would take the curtains off the top cabinets and just leave them on the bottom. The kitchen seems darker now.

I think it would look better if you left the fabric off the top cabinets. I've seen a lot of photos on here where there were no cabinet doors and I think that would be good here. Remove the floral paper and line them with a yellow to match I think it would look cool.

The upper curtains on the left are driving me crazy. They're like pants that are too short. Were the curtains store-bought and the thought was to hang them at the same level as the ones above the range hood or were they intentionally made short? Odd looking.

Maybe a good solution would be to make a simple wood frame the size of the original cabinet door and stretch the fabric inside? Hang using the original door hardware. Could be achieved easily with a hand saw and a mitre box (for those who are less mechanically-inclined) and would look infinitely more polished.

You can steam off the contact very carefully.

Boy, some people commenting are such a holes! I think it looks great and I completely sympathize with the need for improving a rental property on a budget. Great job!

I think it's a great way of making it her own! Plus it's nice to see what a very practical no budget project means. That in itself is something to learn from :)

She did make her kitchen into a cute and 'her own' kind of place..fun..very nice difference..I just think the top curtains need to be fuller, and longer on the larger cabinet..but very cute..I had those horrible life sucking cabinets as well..greasy rotten things..

What is the blue to the left in the "after" photo? In the before picture it appears a door is there but in the lower picture it seems like the door has disappeared.

Reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen.

Adorable!! Decorating rentals is tricky...you don't want to spend a fortune, but you want to perk-up some of those dreadful spaces! Nice use of color and originality to create a "connected" and lively space. Great job, Audra!

I think the "after" is definitely a huge improvement, and given that you probably couldn't paint the cabinets much less replace them, this is a very creative way to "remodel!".

As long as you use the fan whenever the stove's on, it seems extremely unlikely that having the cloth WAY up there high above the stove could cause problems. And of course the fan will reduce the amount of curtain-washings you need to do. Not that it seems like washing them would be such a horrendous job! Sheesh.

It looks great, good that she doesn't cook as those curtains would stain real quick and that photoframe as a splash back, not gonna last long I'm afraid. Overall, reall cute but practically not a good idea.

Oh God...

I think I would have left them the way they were aesthetically, and replaced the hinges that made them look uneven, some serious washing for the veneer on those cabinets.

Contact paper is not your grandmothers contact paper. I did my entire kitchen walls in contact paper and when I'm sick of them, they come right off..no sticky residue. Down size, the paper shrunk due to the warmth of the kitchen from cooking so now you can see where the lines meet. Not too concerned; took me all of $11.00 to do the entire kitchen.
Next will be wall paper.

I agree with krgr1428. I love everything about this except the fabric on the top cabinets. That just looks wrong to me. Open shelving looks great and I think it would work well here. I actually love the strawberry contact paper. It's fresh and vintage-y and reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen: practical but aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. I do like the fabric on the bottom cabinets though!

soon we will moving out of our beautiful apartment to a bigger one in LA but i hate the old cabinets and wondered if we were allowed to take them down...guess we can. thanks!

The kitchen was perfectly functional, but now there is a picture frame behind the stove, non-wipeable surfaces that are a potential fire hazard, and no cabinet doors to keep items dust/grease free.
I would put the upper cabinet doors back, and extend the grey to the left hand wall (including the door trim and skirting). Grey and cream is a lovely combination.

Having had my upstairs neighbor set the building on fire last year I'm pretty paranoid about fire hazards. So the curtains and frame by the stove make me uneasy. Hopefully she has a fire extinguisher in there.

The mismatch of the white walls and beige cabinets, countertops and appliances was the major problem in the kitchen. What was the landlord thinking? A complementary coat of paint would have resulted in a better look. Also, the wood trim on the cabinets could have been subjected to a good cleaning and reconditioning. The tiger-striped rug would have worked well with a kitchen of creams, taupes and browns. I don't think the rug goes well with the current gray, white, yellow and red color scheme.

I had done something similar in my old kitchen before we had doors made. The white with light blue gingham things lasted a few years and I only had to wash them a couple of times a year. And we had a horrible stove vent. The only reason we switched to doors was because all the darned critters we had kept rearranging the upper cabinets and helping themselves to whatever was in the lower ones. ;)

so cute! be proud of your kitchy kitchen!!

A few people have suggested contact paper. But to cover ugly green metal cabinets in a kitchen I had a few years ago, I used temporary wallpaper (tempaper) which is easily removable. It worked really well.

Love the look! I imagine they'd be easy enough to take down and wash too. I had a depressing kitchen once and really just didn't put in the effort to cheer it up like this.

I would WAY rather wash curtains once a month than live with those cabinets. (And I can say that because I am a renter with cabinets at least that ugly.) I think she did a great job. Well done, Audra! (PS Do put a fire extinguisher in your kitchen...just in case.) :)

From seeing the comments it looks like most like them but I think they just arn't practical to be in a kitchen, they will get dirty or even set fire! It does provide the kitchen with a 'cosy' feel though.

Two words: Fire Hazard.

Suggestion.do remove the top curtains , cut several nice sqs.and req. saturate the material with spray starch then place them on the backsplash and some behind the glass frame it needs some color ..is that where your going to keep it? now, it just fades into the gray wall.
Keep the top dishes neat, add a few yellow ones for a pop of color to go with the printed design already there. Also, may want to consider.make the bottom curtains fuller..rule of thumb.the material should be 3x the space to be filled. You could also use the material in 3-5 embroidery hoops place them above the table.if you stii have some material ,how do you think it would look under the glass table top. It will hold up with the starch too. I've done all these tricks. Enjoy cooking also in you country charm kitchen. You have the perfect chicken lamp. RAA

Yeah.....I think I like the before better. There seems to be a lot going on with the yellow fabric and the floral print.

Charming,and a nice way to make it your own without spending a fortune.I think all the negativity are from people who probably own their homes,so they look for more long term solutions.Im also thinking shes young,so cooking isnt a huge priority.I myself didnt learn to cook till I was in my early 30s!

I want to know what everybody is cooking in their kitchen that gets everything so filthy that curtains would be impractical! (And really, I want to know---our previous homeowner cooked something that splattered things 5 feet away! I cook all the time and have never had that much mess.)

Audra, I'm so glad you were able to make your rental feel more homey! I love the yellow. (If it had been me, I would have wanted the curtains to have a more tailored look, so I would have cut them to not have any gathers/billowing at all. But that's me---I'm glad you were able to make your kitchen more "you"!)

Where did you get that dish towel? I've been looking for something like that.

Sorry, not a fan. I can't imagine how greasy and dirty those curtains will get over time.

Wow, some of you people are just awful. Yellow and gray go very well together, the curtains are not going to catch fire over the fan--come on! It's a rental, her choices are limited and I know those cupboards, they are terrible (but as rental you cannot do anything about them).Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion, the pictures are being posted on a decorating sight with comments open to everyone, but I hope that those of you who are so critical aren't as critical to the people in your lives because I suspect you'll all die alone. I am sure that during the day, it is bright and cheerful. The lighting does not seem like it would be a friend to any colors. I'd also like to say ask those people who suggested red if they have ever woken up in the morning and gone into a red kitchen before? It is jarring and makes you feel irritable and on edge, although I am guessing from the comments, many of you are living in red homes.

I agree with ACH. Grey and Yellow go great together. I'd like to add that grey, like black or white, is a true, neutral shade that goes with any colour despite everyone's favourite colour combinations. It is a huge improvement aesthetically. I appreciate this a lot as a fellow renter who is tired of my own uninspiring kitchen! Also, I think the brick is fine being white. The grey helps us bring the kitchen together in a cohesive way. It helps us bring all the cabinets and various items together, and separates it from the other parts of the house. Although the rest of the house isn't part of this redo obviously, I'm not into the blue. I'd love to see you redo the rest of the house!

Am I the only one who would be bothered by having to hold the curtain back with one hand while putting dishes away with the other hand? Or getting them out to set the table or whatever? I like to do that kind of thing as efficiently as possible and often that means lifting loads that require two hands.

Yeah, probably just me. But really, that would seriously bug me.

My first apartment shared with my husband had those kind of cabinets in the kitchen. To personalize the space, I purchased some removable/reusable vinyl "stickers" from Target- little birds in shades of blue and pink. I planned out how to stick them to the cabinets, in a way that wasn't overwhelming, and it looked pretty cute. We also had an open cabinet for the microwave, but ours didn't fit. Instead, we stored our small appliances there (blender, Foreman grill, etc.) and I hung a crocheted lace curtain to keep them hidden.

I REALLY like Audra's solution, though. I think her kitchen is cute. How would open shelving above the stove cut down on grease anyway? Instead of the grease getting on her curtains, which she can wash pretty easily, it would get all over her clean dishes. And it doesn't look like she has a dishwasher. I would much rather throw some curtains in the washing machine than hand wash my dishes- especially glasses.

@*SPANKY* it looks like the curtains are hung on a tension rod. That's the same thing I did with my little microwave cabinet. You just push the curtain to one side and it stays- no holding back the fabric to put anything away. :)

This is a great-on-a-budget makeover for a rented space. Love the pop of yellow. Good job!

Oh, I love it....! I had an almost identical kitchen in an apt bult in the 1920s. Same stove and even the same kettle (still have the trusty red kettle)! We weren't allowed to do much, but we made it work! Kudos to you :)
I have a house now with a bigger kitchen, but this really makes me miss that sweet little sweatbox :p

Here's another idea, for the record. These folks had the same style of cabinets -- the 80s melamine with the brown oak (?) handles. They painted the handles red and voila, the cabinets fit right into their country kitchen theme. See story here: http://retrorenovation.com/2012/05/28/greg-and-tammys-red-kitchen-remodel-full-of-retro-charm/

So perhaps a renter with these style cabinets could cover the handle parts only (with some sort of sticky vinyl or temp-paper as mentioned) to try and shift the look.

Cute, but too busy for my taste. Feels cluttered to me. If it was my place, I'd prefer to paint a light neutral scheme in the area, remove everything from the back wall, and use either a portable island or hack some legs onto an EXPEDIT or 2 and use them not just as storage and space dividers but as pseudo counter tops.

I am confident that this represents a fire hazard, if I were your landlord I would be demanding that the doors be replaced immediately and you desist.

The before looks much better if it was clean..

I refrained from making a comment first go round at viewing this because I couldn't think of anything positive to say at all. And the negative comments floating around in my head were a bit overwhelming. But now that I've read prior comments, I see that I'm not alone.
Those upper curtains would drive me nuts.
:)
Hope you enjoy it though.

i admire the effort but can not help but agree wih many of the comments regarding practicality. also, i seem to be the only one to notice that part of the less cluttered look is becuase the dish drain has been removed from the 'after' picture. wtf? so you now never intend to wash dishes again or are you just going to dry them one at a time and put them away directly? i don't understand how making something high maintenance is in any way an upgrade.

I think take the top curtains off. And it is MUCH better than the before.