An $800 Makeover Creates a "Cozy Little Cottage Kitchen" in This City Apartment

ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER

HOME TYPE: Apartment

PROJECT TYPE: Kitchen

STYLE: Colorful, Rustic, Scandinavian

SKILL LEVEL: DIY

RENTAL FRIENDLY: Yes

Often, when folks are dealing with small kitchens, they think that bright white colors will do a lot to make the space feel larger and airier. But in truth, there are some studio and small apartment kitchens that go for darker colors and warmer tones that totally work.

Katie Nielsen’s (@thingsbykt) home is a great example. Her kitchen was “dingy and plain,” before, she says. “The walls and cabinets were all white, but because the kitchen was so small and far from natural light sources, it always looked dark.”

Initially, Katie wanted to use white marble peel-and-stick to cover the brown speckled laminate countertops, but ultimately “in such a small, windowless space, they just made it feel colder.”  Here are the warmer additions and textures she added instead, which “makes [her]” feel like [she’s] in a cozy little cottage kitchen instead of an apartment in the city,” she describes.

The kitchen has peel-and-stick countertops, flooring, and an accent wall.

After a failed (and air bubble-filled) attempt with white marble vinyl, Katie landed on a faux concrete vinyl choice. “I took my time reading instructions and reviews and was more careful when applying it,” she says. “The second time, I was able to apply it without any air bubbles or peeling edges, and the concrete matched the apartment’s warm, organic modern style much better.”

Katie also used peel-and-stick brick wall paneling to add some rustic vibes to the kitchen, and she used peel-and-stick floor tiles to cover the old “beige ceramic floor tiles that made the floor look like it was always dirty,” as Katie describes. After adding the stick-on tiles, Katie painted them.

Katie says she wishes she could have painted her cabinets, too, but she can’t as a renter. “Someday, when I’m more confident in my vinyl application skills, I might attempt to change the color of the cabinets with removable vinyl,” she adds.

A (secondhand!) IKEA island adds storage.

The peel-and-stick materials do a lot to add visual interest to the cookie-cutter apartment kitchen, but Katie says the biggest difference maker was the addition of an IKEA STENSTORP island. Katie actually found the island on Facebook Marketplace, and she painted it with Fusion Mineral Paint’s Pressed Fern to match the decor.

Katie also found a large painting that looks almost identical to the same shade of green as her island, and the wood frame is a perfect complement for the butcher block countertop.

Her art choices helped pull the space together. “I bought a couple of matching prints from an artist I found on Instagram and added a couple [of] thrifted pieces, and everything just went together perfectly,” Katie says.

The DIYer had a clever solution for a stuck-on apartment light fixture.

Something that didn’t go quite as perfectly was upgrading the “builder-grade boob-shaped ceiling light” that came with the kitchen. Katie initially bought an IKEA light fixture to swap it with, but then she realized that the boob light was glued on. She had to get a little creative.

“I returned the IKEA light and made a cover for the ceiling light out of a thrifted lampshade, embroidery hoops, bamboo dowels stained with wood stain, parchment paper, and lots of hot glue,” she says. “The result was a rattan-style ceiling lamp that fit with the kitchen’s modern organic decor style and gave off a warmer, more diffused light.”

Katie’s kitchen makeover cost about $800, and she “learned that just because ugly features (such as [her] ceiling light, countertops, and floor tiles), can’t be replaced, doesn’t mean you have to live with them,” she says. “There’s always a renter-friendly way to cover up something you don’t like.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

Further Reading

We Asked 5 Contractors Which Kitchen Reno Trend Homeowners Regret Most, and They Basically All Agreed

We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Pottery Barn — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need

See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room