Renting can be a drag. I’ve been there, I know. You have to live with things you don’t love but can’t do much about. All white walls, outdated fixtures, or worse. I once rented a house in college where the oven was in the middle of the kitchen. Like just standing there alone. By itself. Like a girl who never gets asked to dance. My sister is renting a house right now and the lighting situation in the kitchen is so terrible, she often uses a flashlight to see what she’s cooking. I’m sure we all have a horror story or two.
Kevin wasn’t so bad off. He actually had a pretty blank slate of a kitchen. It can’t get any blanker than white cabinets with white hardware with white counters and white walls. He figured it couldn’t hurt to improve what he could, so he made just a few small landlord-friendly changes …
… and it made such a difference! He replaced the knobs with modern pulls, using the biggest size he could find for maximum impact. The backsplash is actually a product called SmartTile, a thin adhesive tile which is, as he says, “crazy easy to install and remove, and very cost effective.”
A couple other changes include using a countertop paint to bring some color to the counters, and a very light gray paint on the lower cabinets for a little more visual interest. You should get permission from your landlord before you go painting your counters and cabinets … or you could always ask for forgiveness later …
See more from Kevin on his blog Thou Swell.
And if you have a rental horror story, by all means, let’s hear it!!
8 Comments
Carol Hake
March 8, 2016 at 11:57 AMThese would be awesome anywhere! I have an old camp trailer I’m considering rehabbing. These would be perfect – easy to install and light (weight is an important thing in RV’s).
No scary rental story but I did have a neighbor that called me the wrong name for over 4 years. After the first few “Hi Caroline” and me correcting her “it’s Carol”, and several holiday cards with “Happy Holidays, your neighbor CAROL”, I finally gave up. My sister asked me one day, “did she just call you Caroline?”. “Yep, she sure did”.
Lindsey @ Better After
March 8, 2016 at 1:29 PMHahahaha, that’s hilarious! At least it was kind of close to your name! There was a guy in college that called me Mikayla for two solid years. It went on so long I never knew how to correct him. I just tried to avoid him. I have no idea where he got that, it’s nowhere near Lindsey!
Janet A.
March 8, 2016 at 1:01 PMWhen my husband and I got back from our honeymoon, we arrived at our rental house in Northern Minnesota (sight previously unseen for me). It was -67 degrees (including the wind chill). -45 on the thermometer. My husband had turned the heat down to 40 degrees inside. It only had a huge 3 x 5 heating grate in the middle of the LR floor. The heat had to drift upstairs. It was so cold that I understood why people used to sleep with stocking caps on (which we did). By morning the heat had made it upstairs and was warm. The place also sported brown shingle siding, green and orange linoleum and (my favorite) a massive bubble gum pink terry cloth couch. Oh yeah, and how could I forget? A wringer washer! (It was 1999). I even learned how to use it. I think back on that place with warm memories because we were so thrilled to be together.
Amanda
March 9, 2016 at 9:42 AMI WISH I had the problem of too much white. Our walls are a sort of yellowish cream color but not nearly as nice as what I’d actually call cream. The carpets are beige. It doesn’t look good with anything I like.
I would ask permission to paint but the house is big enough it’s not worth the effort and expense.
Lindsey @ Better After
March 9, 2016 at 11:16 AMUgh, that’s a bummer. I totally get it. Maybe you can pester your landlord to have it painted and he’ll eventually give in!
Gail
March 9, 2016 at 10:45 AMWell…as a landlord I would LOVE to have this guy rent from me! On the upside t is truly nice when folks take pride of ownership of a rental. On the downside that does not mean painting everything black!
Peggy
March 10, 2016 at 12:09 PMLookin’ good! Such great improvements! Did Kevin use contact paper on the dishwasher to make it blend in better? I’ve done that myself! Perfect!
Scarlet
March 14, 2016 at 3:18 AMI feel your pain, Caroline LOL My name begins with an A and while it’s not that unusual, it’s not that common, either. I live in an apt building and have a couple of neighbors who regularly greet me as Audrey or Angela or Ann Marie or any other A name that pops into their heads, despite being corrected every single time they do it. If the 80-something old lady across the hall can remember my name, why can’t these younger people manage it?
I WISH I could do something with my apt. The whole thing is painted ivory – even the woodwork and doors – and it’s FLAT paint besides! Impossible to clean flat paint, but I suppose they get those giant 5 gallon containers cheaper than they could get 5 gallons of satin or semi-gloss. And we’re not allowed to paint! I’d love to use that countertop spray and get a pop of color into the place. The countertops are THE ugliest laminate combo of green, brown, beige, and orange random – when I 1st moved in I scrubbed the orangey spots thinking they were tomato sauce stains! Beige carpet in LR, BR, and, inexplicably, foyer, and grey splatter commercial tile in kitchen and bathroom. Ugh. I have rugs for Africa to cover that nonsense up.