A $750 Kitchen Makeover Keeps the 2000s Cabinets But Looks SO Good

Even though you might not live in a rental home forever, that doesn’t mean you have to grin and bear it if you’re not loving the look and feel. There are plenty of smart ways you can update a space in a reversible, temporary way. Renter Sarah Bryant (@sarahlouwho) knows this well. 

After moving into a charming 1901 apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Sarah decided to make some changes to what she guessed was an “early 2000s” kitchen. “I wasn’t a fan of the countertops and bare walls behind the sink. And updating the faucet was necessary to gain more space in the sink to do dishes,” Sarah says. 

When dreaming about how the new space would look, Sarah had clear inspiration in mind: what “a small cottage kitchen would look like if it were located in Morocco.” Knowing she wasn’t able to alter the cabinetry, she instead added some visual intrigue through peel-and-stick tiles on the walls and backsplash. She says she chose “colors and shapes I felt could warm the kitchen up, but also give it a cleaner, [more] updated feel.”

Sarah used white marble-inspired contact paper to change the look of the countertops. She also swapped out the knobs and drawer pulls with fun gold finds, and installed under-cabinet LED lighting, which added so much warmth to the room. There’s also a small citrus stained-glass panel hanging from the ceiling at the entrance of the kitchen, which reminds her of her Florida upbringing. 

To add more storage in the galley-style kitchen, Sarah added a sideboard and a hanging fruit basket from Amazon, open shelving from IKEA, and a Tibetan tiger bath hook from Anthropologie to hang a pan.

Now that it’s finished (for around $750 total!), Sarah loves that the room is “both efficient and beautiful.” If you want to see more of Sarah’s fabulous apartment, visit the full house tour on Apartment Therapy.

This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it here: Before & After: “So Outdated” 2000s Wood Kitchen Cabinets Get a Bold, Bright Makeover — for Under $100!