Kate's Creatively Renovated Rental Kitchen Small Cool Kitchens 2010 - Rent Division

Who cooks here? katemtsui + mmicire
Location: Lowell, MA
Owned or rented? Rented
Kitchen size: 83 square feet

What challenge have you overcome in your kitchen? Our kitchen was renovated a few years ago with plain white cabinets and appliances. Oddly, the builders chose a dark blue laminate counter top. Challenge #1: customizing the kitchen with paint! To make the kitchen feel cozier and like its own space within an open loft, we painted the kitchen a chocolate brown to marry the white cabinets and blue counter top. Continued...

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What challenge have you overcome in your kitchen? Continued...
... It took one who three day weekend and three coats of paint to bring the kitchen to life! To prevent it from feeling too much like a cave, we left the ceiling white and installed under cabinet lighting. Total cost: $120

Challenge #2: not enough cabinet or counter space, and nowhere to eat! Solution: built an island.

The base of the island is two Ikea cabinets (base Akurum cabinets in Applad white; 2x$105). We screwed the two cabinets together and replaced the legs with six casters ($60). The back side is simply 1/8" plywood painted flat white. One cabinet is used for pantry items. The other holds our recycling bins and garbage; we left the drawer fronts off for easy access. The island's surface is our main prep surface (Ikea Numerar in black-brown; $59).

We also lofted a custom stainless steel shelf (interdynesystems.com; $300) with four Ikea Capita brackets ($20). We added two bar stools (Ikea Henriksdal; 2x$80), and this is our eating space. The eating area is complete with two small lights hanging over the island. Total cost: $810

What's the story of your kitchen?
Chocolate loft kitchen with custom built island for meal prep and dining.

What is your favorite meal to cook here?
Lasagna with sauce and cheese filling from scratch!

Go to Small Kitchens contest page and see all entries so far

Comments (11)

Same exact floorplan as my kitchen. Very nice!

Nice job on a small budget! I especially like the open drawer front on the island for dropping in trash and recycling.

Impressive island! I'm a little confused as to how you guys eat on the elevated tray though- maybe I'm just really short or you guys are really tall because it seems like it would be an awkward height.

The dual-level island is a brilliant idea, though I do agree with chiyo25 that the bar side looks uncomfortably high for dining. I'd love to see the rest of the apartment though. I like what little I can see in that last photo.

wow if all of these qualify as small kitchens, I shudder to think in what category the kitchen in my apartment would be.

Nice. Love the island. Are the counters still blue or did you treat them? I'm always amazed when people are allowed to paint their apartments (assuming you got permission from the landlord)--even in the crappiest basement suite rental, I was never allowed to paint or improve anything. Everything always has to be stark white or beige (or white yellowed with age). I wish it was more like Europe where you can paint and decorate as long as you re-paint it (or leave it as is, if the LL approves). *sigh*

@sauveykat The counters are still blue but they feel much less offensive. Our LL has been great, and he lets us paint and hang pictures :)

@onebravegirl We entered the 2009 Small Cool Apartment contest last year and older pictures of the apartment can be found at http://katemtsui.blogspot.com/2009/04/im-apartment-therapys-small-cool-2009.html

@chiyo25 The eating surface is a little high, but I've honestly never noticed because I'm short and I thought it was just me!! That being said, the dual level island is great for entertaining!

@auntcheche Leaving the draw fronts off for the recycling and trash area makes it so easy to cook and clean up. Another option I had thought about was to cut holes in the countertop (like http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2010/01/recycling-bin-solution.html), but I was worried about getting my dirty hands all over the counter, much like opening a cabinet door. Plus, the whole idea was to get more counterspace!!

beautiful! the wall colour almost looks copper in these pictures and its making me want to paint my kitchen copper... really nice job!!

Thanks katemtsui, I barely even notice the blue of the counters so you did a great job of toning them down by your decorations!

The microwave takes up a lot of valuable counter space, and a bit of an eyesore in an otherwise GREAT kitchen...is it really worth it? I have never owned one, does heating up on the stove really take that much longer?