Before & After: An Unbelievably Chic Rental Kitchen Makeover
This kitchen makeover is gorgeous and impressive on its own, but when you factor in that it’s a rental it becomes like, mind blowing. Check out all sorts of magic Eliza, design wizard of note, worked out on her kitchen. She even faked her way into a temporary herringbone wood floor y’all.
From Eliza: After spending two years trying to make the best of my yellowing, perpetually sticky rental kitchen, a change in housemate finally give me the kick in the butt I needed to create a bright, cheerful space that actually looked different once it was cleaned.
I threw some paint on the walls one Friday, then spent the weekend painting the cabinets. Most internet tutorials include a ton of steps to minimize wood grain and brush marks, but I found that just sanding, priming, and painting quickly with a brush produced a totally acceptable finish.
Originally I intended to just paint and call it a day, but then I discovered the world of vinyl plank flooring. I’d never installed any kind of flooring before, but I found some totally okay-looking peel & stick fake wood vinyl planks at Lowes for under $1/square foot and I decided to dive right in!
I cut each of the planks in half and put them down in a herringbone pattern, which was less annoying than I’d anticipated. After a liberal dose of glass cleaner, they adhered perfectly to my existing vinyl tiles. The planks were incredibly easy to cut with a utility knife, and the majority of the floor was down in one quick afternoon session. I also peeled up the ancient vinyl baseboards and replaced them with some basic 4″ pine ones from Home Depot.
I love how bright and open the kitchen feels now! As an added bonus, dirt is actually visible now, which makes it much harder to put off cleaning!
Thank you, Eliza!
Re-edited from a post originally published 10.9.16-NT
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